HUNTINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – A Vermont woman Tuesday received a special invitation to the White House. Beverly Little Thunder, a Lakota elder, is among a small group participating in a Pride Month event.
“I said to my partner, Pam — who was driving — ‘Pam, is this for real?’” said Beverly Little Thunder, recalling when she got the email from the White House. “it’s a chance to get to talk to some of the people who make decisions in the White House about what we see going on in the two-spirit community nationally.”
Two-spirit is a term used by queer Indigenous people, a term Little Thunder and a committee helped coin back in the ‘90s, and is now broadly used. “We came up with the term two-spirit because we felt we were sort of balanced with both the male and female aspects of our communities,” she said.
Her road as a two-spirit person hasn’t always been easy. She was turned away from her community in the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in the Dakotas after coming out. “In 1985, when I did come out, all my fears came true,” she said
Little Thunder has lived in Huntington for 20 years with her wife, Pam, and a group of dogs, cats, and even a pig named Fiona. “Huntington has been the best place I’ve ever lived, and I’ve never lived anywhere in my life as long as I’ve lived here,” she said.
“My wife gets to go to the White House and I could not be prouder,” said Pam.
The White House has not always been a place friendly to Indigenous people, making this invite even more special.
Reporter Katharine Huntley: How will you feel walking into the White House?
Beverly Little Thunder: I think I will feel like my work has just begun.
Little Thunder spends her time advocating for BIPOC and marginalized communities to own and farm land in the Green Mountains.