"Here is famed historian Francis Parkman on the Illinois Indians, the tribe on whose ruins we have built our own civilization:

The Illinois were “addicted to practices which are sometimes supposed to be the result of a perverted civilization,” Parkman wrote in his seven-volume France and England in North America. “Young men enacting the part of women were frequently to be seen among them.”

The Sieur de Liette, a French explorer who met the Illinois in the late 17th century, wrote that “they have tapering legs which carry their bodies well, with a very haughty step, and as graceful as the best dancer.”

We can only imagine the scene in their tribal council, as they passed the calumet from sage to sage, debating whether to allow young men to act like women.

"Anyone who opposes this is a hypocrite," the most outspoken elder might have shouted. "I know what the rest of you do in the wigwam with widows and other men's wives, under the cover of birchbark. It's about fairness, y'all. That's all."

Sadly, the Illinois had never heard of the Greeks and the Romans, so there was no one to warn them of the consequences of their behavior."

Get the Story:
Pat Quinn: Did Civil Unions Destroy the Illinois Indians? (NBC Chicago 12/3)