"No cause for distrust": Gender Plurality in Illinois-French First Contacts.

The article focuses on the relationships between the native-born Illinois and two groups of French visitors -- one amicable and the other less so. The author attributes this to the Illinois' multi-gendered society that recognized more than two genders and held a Two-Spirit -- or iihkweewitaki -- gender normative. The two groups of French men they encountered differed in their gender presentation and norms. The article explores the possibility that the Illinois perceived the Jesuit missionaries as "not men" given their black gowns, behavior and connections to spiritual matters. French colonists enforced a gender binary and often described the iihkweewitaki as hermaphrodites.