Shed is a Berdache, a holy man who makes love with other men.

The berdache hugged himself and shivered, though the air was still mild.

According to some accounts, the berdache were passive sexual partners for the other males.

Yet the berdache was valued in the tribal community.

"Father," said the berdache, "I think we need you more to make medicine against fresh misfortune."

The third-gender in the Ojibwe culture takes on the universal term as a berdache or two-spirit.

On many occasions the two tribes would gather their warriors together at the peak of Berdache Mountain.

In Native American culture, the "berdache" tradition permitted the marriage of one man to another, and some tribes recognized a similar right for two women.

European terms used to describe lhamana include berdache, third gender, mixed gender, and man-woman.

One of Chief Sitting Bull's wives, for example, was a man who occupied the role anthropologists have termed berdache.

The berdache rose.

His face was barely visible, webbed and gullied with encroaching age, full of the concern that a berdache need not be ashamed to show.

The Kutenai female berdache.

The term "berdache" is not a Native American word; rather it was a European definition covering a range of third-gender people in different tribes.

Traditionally, Western culture categorized Two-Spirit individuals by using the term berdache (Spanbauer, 1991).

The two-spirits, originally considered hermaphrodites and called "berdache" by the Spanish conquistadors, were men who took feminine duties and behaviours.

North American Indians are one of several groups to recognize a tri-gender system where the term berdache was used to differentiate the intermediate gender role .

The term "berdache" was deemed inappropriate and insulting as time passed and awareness increased, so a new term was coined in 1990, "Two-Spirit."

Hay spent much of his time studying Native American society and culture, in particular the Two-Spirit or berdache and their roles in native societies.

Two Smokes: An aging berdache who helps raise Little Dancer while seeking to glean a new food source in light of the dwindling numbers of buffalo.

Before the late twentieth century, the term berdache was widely used by anthropologists as a generic term to indicate "two-spirit" individuals; however, this term has become considered increasingly outdated and considered offensive.

Males who took on this third role are called berdache (Karankawa: monanguia), and generally took on female roles and activities in daily life, while playing a special role in religious rites.