a'yai-kik-ahsi

Blackfoot

Etymology

Literally "acts like a woman".

Noun

a'yai-kik-ahsi (obsolete orthography)

1. male-bodied person who does not conform to gender norms, especially but not exclusively one who would now be termed a "two-spirit"

See also

• awau-katsik-saki (female-bodied, lit. "warrior woman")
• ninauh-oskiti-pahpyaki (female-bodied, lit. "manly-hearted woman")
• two-spirit

References

• Hugh A. Dempsey, The Venegful Wife and Other Blackfoot Stories: […] [White Backfat] was known throughout the tribe as an A'yai-kik-ahsi, a man who "acts like a woman". […] Anthropologists have applied the term berdache to women as well as men, although the Blackfoot made a distinction by calling a female berdache a "warrior woman", awau-katsik-saki, or a "manly-hearted woman", ninauh-oskiti-pahpyaki. As was the case with men, there were wide variations within these terms. They could apply to a woman who dressed as a man, went to war, and took female mates but were equally applicable to a woman who simply henpecked her husband.