Re: Question regarding Native American Marriages
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In reply to:
Question regarding Native American Marriages
linda hopper 12/09/08
The use of last names was taken up by natives, almost as soon as they came in contact with the whites.
Whenever a transaction was entered into.. the settlers requried the natives to use a surname. This got very interesting with the likes of the Choctaw and Chickasaw.
for instance the Choctaw's used the ending Tubb and Tubbee in their names.. it was appended and I don't know what it meant, but it was not gender specific. Thus a Choctaw called (for example: Na mah un tubb would have his name recorded as Nahmanun Tubb.Sometimes they would engage in playful games, by taking up nonsense names, much like the Dutch did after the Napoleonic conquest, when forced to take up surnames they resorted to extreme silliness to the extent that there is Dutch name that means "urinate"
Moving west there is the case of Cynthia Ann Parker, who captured by Commanches at age 9, almost lost her English, was married to a Commanche chief and bore a sun who became known as Quanah Parker.. A famous warrior that came to terms with the whites and eventually led his people to a reservation in Oklahoma.
So the answer would be that by the mid 19th Century, a white woman would follow the custom of her people and take surname of her husband, however the surname of her husband was in all likelihood English, Scots or anglicized.