Minnesota exhibit uplifts Two-Spirit and LGBTQ+ voices in Indigenous art

USA Today

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Minnesota exhibit uplifts Two-Spirit and LGBTQ+ voices in Indigenous art
Arnold Dahl-Wooley, who grew up in northern Minnesota's small towns and is a member of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, realized as early as kindergarten that he wasn't crushing on girls like other boys his age. When he got older and heard his voice played back on a cassette tape for the first time, he panicked. He didn't want his voice giving away his secret. School history textbooks referred to Indigenous people as 'savages' and discussed them in the past tense. The Catholic Church, which ran mandatory Indian boarding schools into the 1960s to eliminate Indigenous culture and language, considered homosexuality an abomination.
To be Native and Queer invited harm and ostracization, and the likely loss of friends and family. Dahl-Wooley, who's now 54 and an advocate for others who are Indigenous and LGBTQ+, wasn't ready to risk that. 'I changed the way I talked. I made sure I walked right, sat right and did what was typical heterosexual male,' he says. That included dating girls and joining school sports. He graduated from Cass Lake High School, but pretending to be someone else was exhausting, and he felt like he was breaking until he came out to his family at age 19.
'This is who I am, and I'm ready to walk away if you're going to stop loving me,' Dahl-Wooley remembers telling them. 'It was one of the most freeing moments of my life.'
Learning more about Ojibwe heritage at Bemidji State University changed the colonial and Christian narratives he had been taught. Most notable was discovering that long before Europeans arrived, Indigenous nations across North, South America and the Caribbean had roles for people who didn't identify as exclusively male nor female.
The term 'Two-Spirit' (2S) term was decided in 1990 during the Annual Intertribal Native American, First Nations, Gay and Lesbian American Conference in Winnipeg, Canada to cover these historically honored and respected tribal citizens who often served in roles such as healers, medicine people and visionaries.
'The Two-Spirits are people who can see through the eyes of more than gender,' says Dahl-Wooley.Last October, he opened an office in Bemidji, Minnesota for Two-Spirit Advocacy, a grassroots organization that helps other Indigenous 2SLGBTQ+ members to find community resources, make connections and to see their strengths and gifts.
Find your medicine
Artist and activist Penny Kagigebi, who just turned 60, lives in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, about 80 miles from Bemidji and close to the White Earth Reservation where she grew up. It's one of 11 tribal nations in the state. Like most of them, it's in a largely rural area.
Like Dahl-Wooley, she had no community supports or role models for being anything other than a heterotypical female while growing up. She always felt out of step with peers, she says, and then had her first relationship with a woman at age 26.
They were open about their relationship, and Kagigebi faced workplace discrimination. When what became a four-year legal battle took a toll on her health, she found vital support through PFLAG in Fargo, North Dakota, and turned to Native knowledge for healing.
In the 2000s, she learned to make Ojibwe porcupine quillwork and birchbark basketry with elders. She puts her own twist on her baskets and containers with designs that tell of finding your own path, and depicting rainbows of color through quills, beads and ribbon. On one birchbark basket, she depicts her tribe's origin story with blue and red ribbon representing the men and women who came from the stars. In between those, she has other ribbons representing Two-Spirits who also came from the stars.
She's realized the importance of being visible as an 2SLGBTQ+ elder for others who crave role models or someone to talk to. In Native culture, it's important for each person to find and share the gifts they have.
'What is that medicine and superpower each of us has in us?' she asks. For her, it's being able to collaborate with others. She uses her art and workshops to spark meaningful conversations and to connect with people.
Kagigebi curated what may be the first show of its kind in the country. Called 'Queering Indigeneity,' it opens Sept. 18, 2025 at the Minnesota Museum of Art in St. Paul and runs through Aug.16, 2026. The exhibit brings together visual art, videos and other works from 16 Indigenous artists ages 20 to 73 from the Upper Midwest and Manitoba. Each explores identity and shares perspectives as Two Spirit, gender fluid or Native Queer creators.
'We're all meant to be different,' Kagigebi says. 'That's the joy.'
Helping others feel less alone
The connections and support can be vital, especially when processing experiences with homophobia, racism or both. Dahl-Wooley had moved to Oregon after college graduation, worked in a corporate career, fell in love and returned to northern Minnesota about 20 years ago to run his family's fifth-generation Big Winnie Store, RV Park and Campground
At first, the move back was a shock. When they'd lived on the West Coast, medical staffs treated he and his partner, Matthew, like a couple, but when Dahl-Wooley ended up in a Bemidji emergency room, the staff wouldn't acknowledge them as such and weren't going to let Matthew, now his husband, be at his bedside when he was sick.
Dahl-Wooley and Matthew were the first same-sex marriage sanctioned by the Ojibwe nation in 2013. That opened the door for other couples to follow. When he was asked to talk about his experience as a Two-Spirit person at a community center in Cass Lake, Dahl-Wooley was surprised that 30 people showed up. Invitations to talk to other groups followed, and he began speaking to health care organizations, law enforcement groups, schools and colleges, and other organizations to help them better understand and support the 2SLGBTQ+ population.
The Trevor Project's 2023 report on Indigenous 2SLGBTQ+ young people showed that more than half of them seriously considered suicide in the past year. Almost half have also experienced food insecurity and more than a third have experienced homelessness.
'My goal is suicide prevention, anti-bullying, no self-harm and cultural inclusion,' says Dahl-Wooley. He keeps a database of churches, therapists, health care providers and more who are welcoming to the 2SLGBTQ+ community.
He'll schedule Queer Tea events where people can come to have tea, play games, talk and be themselves. They might discuss ways to stay safe or use humor to cope with traumas many have experienced. Additional events might include an art show or gender-affirmative wardrobe clothing drives. He recalled a teen calling him one day, crying with gratitude because he saw Dahl-Wooley and his husband together in the community, laughing and living normal lives, which gave him the ability to see a future for himself. He was also recognized in an Oregon grocery store line by a young man who had needed help and found a video of Dahl-Wooley giving one of his talks online.
'People are paying attention whether you realize it or not,' he says. 'Sometimes just a little difference can save a life.'
Kagigebi and Dahl-Wooley each hope that more visible 2SLGBTQ+ elders and younger 2SLGBTQ+ people such as the artists in the upcoming exhibit will make it easier for others to find their way and to better embrace the unique gifts they bring to the world.
'I want the Two-Spirit population to know how important and powerful they are — just as they are,' Dahl-Wooley says. 'We're sacred. We're honored, and we're respected. A lot of people need to hear that.'
More information
Two Spirit Advocacy
Dahl-Wooley shares his story across the country, works with businesses and organizations to be more welcoming to 2SLGBTQ people and hosts events in Bemidji such as Queer Tea.
Queer Indigeneity
This exhibit opens Sept. 18 at the Minnesota Museum of Art in St. Paul and features 16 Indigenous artists who identify as Two Spirit, queer or gender expansive, including Giiwedin, a young artist and activist who made GLAAD's 20 Under 20 list of changemakers presented in Teen Vogue. The show will run through early 2026.