Chumash
When Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo charted the
Pacific coast in 1542 he was trying to find the much vaunted
Northwest Passage. Instead, he found California and was the first
European to meet the inhabitants -- in this case, the Chumash people
of what is now the Santa Barbara County coast. A highly developed
culture, the Chumash built seagoing boats and were the purveyors
of prized trade goods among many of the other tribes of
California. They also accepted homosexuality and cross-dressing
among men, customs the Spanish chronicler Pedro Fages mentions
with distaste in his 1775 manuscript, A Historical, Political
and Natural Description of California.