Two-Spirit Shaman of the Ozarks
- by Brian Eckberg
Two-Spirit Columnist
Two-Spirit Nation
Near the village of Ponca, AR., is a mountaintop sanctuary open to all people who seek healing. Its matriarch is a Two-Spirit woman of Mexican and Coahuilteca descent, whose story is now told in the 2024 autobiography Águila: The Vision, Life, Death, and Rebirth of a Two-Spirit Shaman in the Ozark Mountains.
Even if you’ve not heard of María Cristina Moroles, the sustainable community she’s built on this otherwise empty section of wilderness has become a place of learning and healing for many Indigenous and Latinx people.
Moroles’ journey there began at age 22, in 1976, following recurring visions and intuition, she says pulled her to the Ozarks. “When I got here, I knew that this was the mountain, and I was led to it,” she told the Smithsonian Institute’s Folklife publication.
Moroles grew up in Dallas, TX., where her parents worked for agricultural companies that exploited their laborers and exposed them to toxic pesticides. Meanwhile, she ended her formal schooling in the 7th grade after encounters with poverty, racism and sexual violence. She was in search of healing.
Initially, Moroles (whose ceremonial name is Águila) and her daughter were squatting on land near the Ponca lesbian land collective called Sassafras. Over time, she negotiated the deed to 120 acres, now known as Santuario Arco Iris, to women of color.
In 2000, an additional 400 acres were placed under the stewardship of the 501c(3) non-profit Arco Iris Earth Care Project (AIECP). Moroles’ work is a triumph over her early traumas, a deeply spiritual journey to find this special land and an ongoing commitment to healing and empowering other women and children of color.
Being a healer and shaman are two of the ancient and revered roles of traditional Two-Spirit people. Moroles studied with many Indigenous leaders, such as Mvskoke (Muscogee) medicine man Phillip Deere, Two-Spirit activist Marsha Gomez and Onondaga chief Louis Farmer. Over time, she became an herbalist, healer, medicine woman, ceremonial lodge keeper and Sun Dancer. To the Indigenous and Latinx people in the region, she has provided a safe place for people to be restored. And this wisdom began with learning from her parents.
“When you are taught from the beginning the original ways of eating off the land…and taking care of everything you have, you are actually taught respect for yourself, others, and Mother Earth in all her abundance.” Growing up at home, Moroles ate traditional foods but also learned to forage and hunt from the land. Today, she gathers plants for medicines in the Arkansas wilderness, remembering the Ozark visions that brought her to the land. “There is a spiritual destiny of Indigenous people to return to the Ozarks.”
The Ozark Mountains were sacred ancestral lands for the Osage, Caddo and Quapaw. The Trail Of Tears passed through Northern Arkansas in the 1830s and forced Cherokee, Delaware and Shawnee into the region. “Thousands of Indigenous people walked in a death march to the twice-stolen land of Oklahoma through the hills that we live in here,” says Moroles. Is it any wonder that those ancestors call out to return?
In April of 2022, Cherokee chief Chuck Hoskin, Jr. signed the region’s first agreement between a tribal nation and the National Park Service, finally allowing Medicine Keepers like Moroles to have access to culturally significant plants in Buffalo National River Park, where AIECP is located. National parks have strict laws preventing the removal of rocks and plants from a protected area, which makes these new tribal victories all the more important for the gathering of sage, hickory, bloodroot, cane and other precious plants. That spiritual destiny she speaks of is growing and becoming possible for many Native people.
Today, AIECP hosts workshops and courses on environmental education. Every spring, people walk the boundary of the land in a blessing ceremony, asking Mother Earth for protection and to preserve Indigenous traditions. Twice in 2024, they hosted “Out In The Woods,” a queer and BIPOC (black, Indigenous & People of Color) community camping excursion. Arco Iris Earth Care Project (“arco iris” means “rainbow” in Spanish) began as a sanctuary for women and children of color, but today is open to anyone.
You can learn more about the fascinating life and work of Two-Spirit elder María Cristina Moroles by purchasing her autobiography on Amazon. There’s a lot more info on the Arco Iris Earth Care Project (AIECP) on their Facebook page.