Indian Blood

<p>Finalist for the 2017 Lambda Literary Lammy Award in LGBTQ Studies<br/><br/>The first book to examine the correlation between mixed-race identity and HIV/AIDS among Native American gay men and transgendered people<i> Indian Blood</i> provides an analysis of the emerging and often contested LGBTQ two-spirit identification as it relates to public health and mixed-race identity.<br/><br/>Prior to contact with European settlers most Native American tribes held their two-spirit members in high esteem even considering them spiritually advanced. However after contact - and religious conversion - attitudes changed and social and cultural support networks were ruptured. This discrimination led to a breakdown in traditional values beliefs and practices which in turn pushed many two-spirit members to participate in high-risk behaviors. The result is a disproportionate number of two-spirit members who currently test positive for HIV.<br/><br/>Using surveys focus groups and community discussions to examine the experiences of HIV-positive members of San Francisco's two-spirit community <i>Indian Blood</i> provides an innovative approach to understanding how colonization continues to affect American Indian communities and opens a series of crucial dialogues in the fields of Native American studies public health queer studies and critical mixed-race studies.</p>