Ozaawindib is remembered in two ways. Firstly, as the agokwe woman who pursued John Tanner and was rejected, secondly, as the leader of multiple expeditions with lakes named after her. Both of these narratives come from colonial forces, and neither is without bias. Without the work of indigenous scholars, two-spirit and otherwise, it is possible the story of Ozaawindib would have been completely erased from history.
The most sensationalized of the stories comes from the account of a man named John Tanner, who wrote a narrative describing his time spent with the Odawa people. The Odawa people, like many other Indigenous cultures, had their own unique relationship to people understood now as Two-Spirit.
Much of that information has since been lost, and one of the most well-known written records of the Odawa people’s relationship to Two-Spirit identities comes from Tanner, who was a white man adopted by an Odawa family. He would go on to write A Narrative of the Captivity and Adventures of John Tanner, describing his experiences. While the book would achieve some success, after three failed marriages, a reputation for violence and suspicion, and being accused of murder, John Tanner would disappear, and a body found some years later in a bog was thought to be his.
His records, while useful at times, are far from perfect and far from unbiased. It has been noted that his work would tend to play into the expectations and curiosity of the assumed white readers, and with Ozaawindib, this is also clear.
Their meeting is described by Tanner, writing:
“Some time in the course of this winter, there came to our lodge one of the sons of the celebrated Ojibbeway chief, called Wesh-ko-bug, (the sweet)... This man was one of those who make themselves women, and are called women by the [Indigenous peoples]. There are several of this sort among most, if not all the [Indigenous]tribes. They are commonly called A-go-kwa, a word which is expressive of their condition. This creature, called Ozaw-wen-dib, (the yellow head), was now near fifty years old, and had lived with many husbands. I do not know whether she had seen me, or only heard of me, but she soon let me know she had come a long distance to see me, and with the hope of living with me.”
It is clear from the introduction and the use of words like “creature” “condition,” and declaring her a man within the text that John Tanner is not coming from a place of neutrality in describing Ozaawindib. This only continues throughout his descriptions of their interactions:
“She often offered herself to me, but not being discouraged with one refusal, she repeated her disgusting advances until I was almost driven from the lodge. Old Net-no-kwa was perfectly well acquainted with her character, and only laughed at the embarrassment and shame which I evinced whenever she addressed me. She seemed rather to countenance and encouraged the Yellow Head in remaining at our lodge.”
Ozaawindib was a warrior who had many husbands, and when her marriage proposal was rejected by John Tanner, she would go on to marry Wenji-Dotaagan, who had two other wives. John Tanner remarked on this event writing:
“The latter was very expert in the various employments of the women, to which all her time was given. At length, despairing of success in her addresses to me, or being too much pinched by hunger, which was commonly felt in our lodge, she disappeared and was absent three or four days. I began to hope I should be no more troubled with her when she came back loaded with dry meat. She stated that she had found the band of Wa-ge-to-tah-gun, and that that chief had sent by her an invitation for us to join him ... [He] had sent the A-go-kwa to say to me, ‘my nephew ... Come to me, and neither you nor my sister shall want any thing it is in my power to give you.’ I was glad enough of this invitation, and started immediately. At the first encampment, as I was doing something by the fire, I heard the A-go-kwa at no great distance in the woods, whistling to call me. Approaching the place, I found she had her eyes on game of some kind, and presently I discovered a moose. I shot him twice in succession... [but]... he escaped. The old woman reproved me severely for this... But before night the next day, we arrived at Wa-ge-tote’s lodge, where we ate as much as we wished. Here, also, I found myself relieved from the persecutions of the A-go-kwa, which had become intolerable. Wa-go-tote, who had two wives, married her. This introduction of a new inmate into the family of Wa-go-tote, occasioned some laughter and produced some ludicrous incidents, but was attended with less uneasiness and quarreling than would have been the bringing in of a new wife of the female sex.”
The second narrative attached to the name Ozaawindib comes from her time leading expeditions, and Alexander Henry’s journal would become another source describing her life. He noted her identity while still using he/him/his pronouns; he wrote:
“This person is a curious compound between a man and a woman. He is a man both as to members and courage, but pretends to be womanish, and dresses as such. His walk and mode of sitting, his manners, occupations, and language are those of a woman. His father, who is a great chief amongst the Saulteurs [Ojibwe], cannot persuade him to act like a man…”
There is evidence that she would change her gender presentation multiple times throughout her life. The accounts surrounding her life are unfortunately not often relayed by particularly reliable sources, so there is no way to be certain if she experienced a change in gender identity or if she was trying to protect herself from colonizers reactions to her gender presentation, though there is evidence that suggests the latter. There are multiple mentions of her father pushing her to present more as a man, though his motives were just as uncertain as hers.
Either way, she was recorded to have worked with multiple expeditions, and she is remembered differently by different pens. While some make little mention of her gender, others make it the focus. Some using the pronouns and descriptors she seemed to have preferred, and others choosing not to. What is clear is that in the clamor of voices trying to describe Ozaawindib and her life, her own is difficult to find.
It is known that she would lead multiple expeditions throughout her life, earning a medal from government agent Henry Rowe Schoolcraft designating her as chief and having Yellow Head Point and Ozawindib Lake named after her. It is not known when she died.
Kai Pyle, a two-spirit writer who has explored Ozaawindib in their own article, wrote of her story:
“Despite two centuries of fragmented and distorted representation, Ozaawindib’s story remains important to Ojibwe people. A full account of her life would place her in an even deeper context as an agokwe, a woman who went to war against the Dakota people of Mni Sota Makoce, the daughter of a prominent leader, a U.S.-designated chief in her own right, a woman who liked to drink socially on occasion and who sometimes got in fights, a good hunter and a swift runner, and above all as an Ojibwe person. To define her story only through the disgust of John Tanner or the exaltations of Henry Rowe Schoolcraft does violence to her and to all the people today that would benefit from hearing her story, especially Two-Spirit Ojibwe people.
[...] The way the full extent of Ozaawindib’s life has been erased through the fragmented documents and the attitudes of white American writers is also important, as it reminds us that queer, trans, and Two-Spirit history often is found in the interstices and margins of established sources and narratives. It is up to us to do the work to find those stories.”
REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING
Disclaimer: some of the sources may contain triggering material
Board, E. (2019, June 13). Ozaawindib, the Ojibwe Trans Woman the US Declared a Chief. The Activist History Review. https://activisthistory.com/2019/06/13/ozaawindib-the-ojibwe-trans-woman-the-us-declared-a-chief/
Hannusch, S. (n.d.). Strong and Resilient Indigenous Women and Two-Spirit people | Imprint. Retrieved August 29, 2021, from http://uwimprint.ca/article/strong-and-resilient-indigenous-women-and-two-spirit-people/
Matt & Andrej Koymasky—Famous GLTB - Yellow Head. (n.d.). Retrieved August 29, 2021, from http://andrejkoymasky.com/liv/fam/bioy1/yellow01.html
Ozaawindib (late 1700s‒?) | MNopedia. (n.d.). Retrieved August 29, 2021, from https://www.mnopedia.org/person/ozaawindib-late-1700s
Ozaawindib—A Brave Two-Spirit. (n.d.-a). DIBAAJIMOWIN. Retrieved August 29, 2021, from http://www.dibaajimowin.com/5/post/2018/10/ozaawindib-a-brave-two-spirit.html
Ozaawindib—A Brave Two-Spirit. (n.d.-b). DIBAAJIMOWIN. Retrieved August 29, 2021, from http://www.dibaajimowin.com/5/post/2018/10/ozaawindib-a-brave-two-spirit.html
University Libraries | The University of Iowa. (n.d.). Retrieved August 29, 2021, from https://www.lib.uiowa.edu/