The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-04-04
Naming of Indians.
From the Chicago Record.


The superintendent of the United States
boarding school for Crow Indians in Mon
tana writes in a current magazine on the
naming Of Indians, and points out that
the system now in vogue on many Of the
reservations may yet cause the Indians
great trouble in the inheritance of prop
erty, much inconvenience having already
come to several tribes.
When the Hon. Thomas ]. Morgan was
commissioner of Indian affairs he issued
a circular letter to Indian agents and
school superintendent, instructing them
to be especially careful in the matter of
preserving Indian family names and stat
ing that in his opinion the practice of
adopting sobriquets given to Indians,
Pete" ETC., by which they become gen.
orally known is unfortunate and should
be discontinued. Mr.. Morgan suggested
that the Indian names, whenever suffi-
GENTLY short and euphonious, should be
retained, and deprecated the custom of
literally translating them.
The matter, however, has proved diff
cult to cope with, and 1t is stated that
those responsible have hardly been suf-
ficiently pains-taking in carrying out Mr..
Morgans instructions. On many reserva-
tons individual instead of family names
are the rule; the son of peter CLANS"
will be called Joe Pete" and so on, In
some Oh IL6 SCHOOLS IllIlS-lenluS VI lllS
pupils are known by literal TRANSACTIONS
of Indian sobrquets, resulting in names
such as the following: Irvie Comes-Out-
of-the-Fog, Robert Yellow-Tan, Henry
No-Shin-Bone, Jimmie Shel-on-the- Neck,
Eric ikes-the-Horse, Fanny Plenty
Butterflies, Maggie Broken-Ankle, Lottie
Grand-mother's -Knife, Agnes He-Says,
Jessie Flathead-W oman, Ada Sees-With-
His-Ear, Minnie Nods-at-the-Bear, Ruth
Bear-in-the- Middle, Louise Enemy-Hun-
ter, Bessie Crooked-Arm, etc,
Such Indian names are often very mis-
leading having no connection whatever
with the distinguished characteristics of
those who bear them. They are frequently
given at the time of the child's birth by
the medicine man in attendance. On leav-
ing the tepee he may observe, for instance,
that it is a foggy morning and decree that
the newly arrived infant be known as
mes-Out-of- the-Fog; or he may be con-
fronted with beautiful sunrise, which
inspires him with RED Cloud" or he may
accidentally encounter returning and
victorious warrior and feel called upon to
name the child he has just left Enemy
Hunter" Shoot-as-He-Goes," "Wins-the-
Battle" or Fighting Cloud" regardless
of the fact that the possessor of high
sounding title may turn out to be of a
peaceable or even cowardly disposition.
m some places the Indian names have
Deen utSCdIueu dltOSetnST anu the lnulaHS
fitted out with purely English names, but
this plan has not worked well for the rea-
son that the names selected have been in
many cases those famous In American
history and have made the Indians ridic-
ulous. William Penn, Fitzhugh Lee, Da-
vid b. Hill anrd William Shakespeare are
policemen at the Shoshone agency, Wyo-
ming. Not long ago. in New Mexico,
William Breckenridge arrested John G..
Carlisle for being drunk and disorderly.
The superintendent, who discusses the
question, says that he has seen George
Washington. John Quincy Adams, Frank
lin Pierce, Rip Van Wrinkle. Allen G.
Thurman and Hilary Herbert engaged to-
gether in a game Of Skinny, and on one
occasion was enforced witness to a severe
spanking administered to James G Blaine.