Native Americans

Psst! Don't refer to them or their stuff as "Indian".

The specific case in my history (the part that I know) is that she married a slave who had been given his "owners'" last name.

I think a lot of it has to do with the person a woman marries because she takes his name. Many Native American's did marry white men with normal names. I can't answer your question with 100% knowledge if that is why or not. Most of my ancestors do not have traditional Native American last names but some have unique first names.

I am about 1/4 Choctaw (Mother's side) and about 1/4 Cherokee (dad's side) and I've done quite a bit of research at the Choctaw Nation in Durant OK. I live in the Dallas area so I am about an hour away. It is very interesting.

I have a relative that was on the Trail of Tears and made it to OK from FL I believe. We've done a lot of research on the rolls and some of my relatives are on both the MS and OK rolls. The genealogy dept at the Choctaw Nation was most helpful to me and they also pointed me to a website called Fold3.com. I went on that and found some handwritten documents which were filed in the late 1800's and it so happens that I have copies of those papers in my possession that have been passed down over the years.

What I found interesting is that when it was time to sign the rolls and get on them, many Native Americans saw this as a punishment and refused to sign the rolls. For that reason, there are many Native American's out there who have all of the required blood lines but are denied a card because they are not on the rolls. For what it is worth, the card is not to get government benefits or handouts, it is simply a card of proof that you are who you are.

As for me physically, I have a few of the health issues that tend to effect Native Americans and I do have most features as well.. Friends call me Pocahontas because of my hair and its structure because it will not curl at all. My daughter has some of the features as well. BUT, my brother has none. It is weird how that works.

Interesting question!

I was born and raised in Arizona so I am very familiar with the tribes in my state. Many Native American children were forced to go to a boarding school in Phoenix in the late 1800's and forced to leave their culture behind, including their name and language. They were forced to cut their hair and convert to Christianity and were given new, Christian names. If you google "Phoenix Indian School" you will find a lot of very interesting albeit it heartbreaking, information. The school was not officially closed until 1990 and is now a historical site. Another factor that comes into play with names is what tribe the person is from. Try breaking down your research into regions to make your research a little easier. Native American tribes in the Pacific Northwest are very different than tribes in the Southwest, for example. It's all so interesting!!

Aboriginal peoples didn't traditionally have surnames, so when the Europeans came over they assigned surnames to the aboriginal people, usually when registering aboriginal births or baptisms. Some used traditional names from their own culture as surnames and others later dropped the European names in favour of traditional names. Here in Canada we have the Metis people, who are a mixture of French and aboriginal and have French names.

It may depend on how early on the tribe was influenced by white European culture. I taught at a Native American school in South Dakota and my high school in Wyoming competed against a Native American school. Almost everyone had more traditional sounding names. Some of my students were direct descendants of many of the Lakota people you read about in history and had the same names. Those who didn't have traditional sounding names were married to non-native people. Some of them also came from families who had older relatives who were sent to boarding schools in the late 1800s-early 1900s. At those times the philosophy was to "take the Indian out of the man." Many of them were forced to take European names and "forget" everything about their Native culture.

Just to add to the reasons already listed, there was also religious conversion. Some people completely voluntarily, willingly converted. Some were forced to convert at gunpoint, or on pain of losing their land (and then, often, had their land taken anyway). A lot of cases were sort of gray areas, in between those two extremes. With conversion, many changed their names.

And, finally, names like Ironshell and White Eagle are English translations of Native American names. It's like, I have family members with the last name Weissberg. If they suddenly started going around with the last name White Mountain, that would be really cool and beautiful, but it would also sort of cut them off from the language of their heritage and history -- not sure if that makes sense.

I have no idea but would assume maybe it was because they married someone with that last name? Good luck on your search. =0)

Female ancestor probably married an anglo male. I agree, the native american bone structure is lovely. I went through this stage when I was a teen. The history of what we did is pretty horrible. The more you learn, the sadder it gets. There was actually a period where the children were forced to go to boarding schools, forbidden to speak their native language, and otherwise abused. I think they were given anglo names as well.

Native Americans are the Indigenous peoples of the United States.
Along the way, they have intermarried... with others who came here from whatever country or culture they were, and hence, their last name, changes. And of their descendants.

Just as with the Native Hawaiians here in Hawaii, who are the Indigenous people of Hawaii. Along the way they have intermarried, hence their last names changes and of their descendants.

Just as with ANYONE from anywhere, European or not... who has intermarried with anyone of a different last name or culture or ethnicity... when they marry their last name changes. Hence, even people within the same family tree, will have different last names. Even if they are all European in origin. No one, and not every single person within a family... will have the exact same last name. Even if you are of the same culture or ethnicity.

And unfortunately, with many of the indigenous peoples around the world, they may have been forced to change their names/last names, and their culture and their cultural ethos and traditions were banned.... to suit the majority culture/people who have dominated and taken over their country.

Where I grew up in rural Wisconsin. The people of NA heritage were largely Ho-Chunk/Winnebago. Some kids in my school had last names like Youngthunder, Funmaker, Redbird, Greengrass, Yellowcloud, Blackdeer, Snake, etc. Some had more ambiguous color names like White or Brown.

You should check out the websites for the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian and for the Heard Museum in Phoenix. I was always told not to say Indian...but then I moved to AZ and was shocked when I heard Native American friends referring to themselves and "their stuff" as Indian, plus a lot of cultural centers and tribal owned and run education centers use the term Indian, so I don't think it is necessarily inappropriate in spite of the grave historical inaccuracy of the term. Maybe it's a more regional thing?? I still don't use the term Indian, mostly out of habit, except in certain contexts like the name of the museum above. "Indian Law" is a common legal term, Indian Law centers are usually called Indian Law centers, not Native American Law centers, I don't really know why.

Some Native Americans here in New Mexico have their regular name and their special Zuni (or whatever people they are from) or Tewa name. I think back in the past people changed their names to western names due to being forced by the Catholic church or schools. Or perhaps some people wanted to make the change. We moved here from Alaska and in many of the villages I worked in, when the church missionaries first came in the early 1900s, they forced people to change to stop being heathens. They took children away from their homes and sent them to "indian schools" and would beat them if they spoke in their own language. They gave them new names and they had the goal of "assimilating" them into western culture. One elder Athabascan man told me that at the school he was sent to (he was crying as he told me) they would hold his head in a bucket with a little ammonia in the bottom if he spoke in his language. The fumes would make him nauseated, throw up and sometimes pass out. Horrible. Now you all know one reason why I am not interested in religion.