A Study of Siouan Cults / Eleventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1889-1890, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1861, pages 351-544

by James Owen Dorsey

BERDACHES.

§ 212. These unfortunate beings, who have been referred to as miⁿquga and miⁿquge in Chapter III (§ 30), are called wiŋkta by the Santee and Yankton Dakota, and wiŋkte by the Teton. They dress as women and act in all respects as women do, though they are really men. The terms for sodomy, wiŋktapi and wiŋktepi, are significant, and go to prove that the berdaches should not be called hermaphrodites. It is probable that the Dakota regard the moon as influencing these people. (See § 353.)