Let's not leave out the experience of the French explorers Louis Joliet and Jacques Marquette. As they crossed the American continent in the 1670s, they came upon the Illini tribe (for whom Illinois is named). They wrote in their journal that there was a group of Illini men who acted out the social role of women in the tribe and even dressed in women's clothes ... what the tribe called "Ikoneta." Joliet called them "berdache."
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