Description and Identity
Thunder Woman—known in Cree as pîyêsiwiskwêw—was a Plains Cree Two-Spirit person remembered for embodying both masculine and feminine roles in the mid-19th century, as described by settler David Mandelbaum's through Chief Fine-Day (kâ-miyokîsihkwêw) in The Plains Cree (1979). Oral accounts describe Thunder Woman as having the outward voice and appearance of a man while living among women and wearing women’s clothing, reflecting Cree understandings of gender as socially structured rather than strictly binary (Pyle, 2018). Much of this description is owed to Kai Pyle, who did a community review for their PhD dissertation and following work in 2021. Kai Pyle is Two-Spirit Métis and Sault Ste. Marie Anishinaabe.
The Cree term ayahkwêw—used historically for individuals taking on women’s social roles while assigned male at birth—appears across 19th-century records and into modern Cree usage (Pyle, 2021), underscoring the continuity of recognized roles that bridge gender.
Life and Oral History
Though little documentary evidence survives, Thunder Woman’s story is preserved through Plains Cree oral tradition. She was related to Chief Fine-Day, who was from what is now known as Sweetgrass First Nation, in present-day Saskatchewan. His recollections, recorded by ethnographers, described Thunder Woman as ayahkwêw and “a very great doctor,” suggesting that her role extended into respected healing and ceremonial spheres—consistent with patterns in Cree and Ojibwe communities where Two-Spirit people maintained both gendered and spiritual responsibilities ). One oral tradition relates how Thunder Woman nursed a leader back to health, resulting in the name “Thunderchild,” now held by multiple Plains Cree First Nations, but likely overlapping with Sweetgrass First Nation (Pyle, 2018; Pyle, 2021; Trans Student Educational Resources).
Role in Cree Culture and Community
Thunder Woman’s identity was embedded in language and protocol. The compound name pîyêsiwiskwêw merges a traditionally male spiritual name (Thunder) with the Cree word for woman, reflecting Indigenous frameworks in which gender diversity is linguistically and socially made legible—not erased (Pyle, 2018).
Two-Spirit individuals historically fulfilled ceremonial, healing, and mediating functions in Cree communities. The documentary record suggests that, rather than being marginalized, such people were often recognized for spiritual capacity and specialized labour roles. Within the community context, Thunder Woman appears to have been respected for her healing abilities and positioned within women’s social spaces (Pyle, 2021).
Settler Misinterpretations and Colonial Impacts
Missionary and anthropological records frequently mischaracterized roles like Thunder Woman’s. For instance, 19th-century Cree dictionaries translated ayahkwêw solely as “castrated male” or “hermaphrodite,” ignoring the cultural role of living as a woman. These mistranslations reduced Cree concepts to European binaries, a pattern well-documented in settler accounts that privileged physiology over social roles and ceremony. Such interpretations reinforced heteropatriarchal colonial norms and contributed to the suppression of Indigenous gender variance (Pyle 2018; Pyle, 2021).
Despite this, oral testimony and linguistic persistence indicate that Cree Two-Spirit roles endured well into the 20th century, even as residential schools, church doctrine, and Indian Agents enforced gender conformity.
Legacy and Reclamation
Today, Thunder Woman is part of a broader movement of Two-Spirit reclamation wherein contemporary Cree scholars and community members draw on ancestral terminology, oral tradition, and linguistic continuity to reconnect with past roles. The Cree term ayahkwêw—once misinterpreted or stigmatized due to colonial influence—is increasingly recognized as evidence of longstanding gender diversity. The example of Thunder Woman illustrates what Pyle describes as trans*temporal kinship—an Indigenous method of relating across generations to reclaim Two-Spirit histories and identities (Pyle, 2018; Pyle, 2021).
Regeneration Notes