"It is not known if those
who warred and hunted on the plains
chanted and hexed in the hills
divined and healed in the mountains
gazed and walked beneath the seas
were Lesbians
It is never known
if any woman was a Lesbian
so who can say that
she who shivering drank
warm blood beneath wind-blown moons
slept tight to a beloved of shininghair
curled as a smile within crescent arms…
nobody knows whether those women
were Lesbians. Nobody
can say what such an event
might mean."
who warred and hunted on the plains
chanted and hexed in the hills
divined and healed in the mountains
gazed and walked beneath the seas
were Lesbians
It is never known
if any woman was a Lesbian
so who can say that
she who shivering drank
warm blood beneath wind-blown moons
slept tight to a beloved of shininghair
curled as a smile within crescent arms…
nobody knows whether those women
were Lesbians. Nobody
can say what such an event
might mean."
— Native American lesbian author Paula Gunn Allen, from her poem “Beloved Women” (1980)
