Indian Tribes of the Upper Missouri: Edited with Notes and Biographical SketchDenig, Edwin Thompson
History
Indian Tribes of the Upper Missouri: Edited with Notes and Biographical Sketch
Denig, Edwin Thompson
Assiniboine Indians; Indians of North America -- Missouri River Valley
Usually, however, it is done about the time first mentioned and this
ceremony is the same whether the child be male or female. Some medicine
man generally makes the name, and sends word to the parents that on
a certain day he will bestow it on the child. When the time has come
a dog is killed and cooked or some other good dish is provided, and
invitations are sent to some 20 or 30 of their friends and relatives
to attend. When they are assembled the priest makes known to them
the object of the meeting in a suitable speech to the supernatural
powers, but principally to the tutelaries of departed grandfathers and
grandmothers, invoking them to take the child under their protection,
concluding with the name of the child distinctly spoken in a loud voice
so that all can hear it. The feast is then divided, small portions
thrown away for the dead and the rest eaten. A horse in the meantime
is tied outside as a present to the medicine man for his services. He
leads the horse around the camp, singing in a loud voice the child’s
name and those of its parents. If the child be a male this name is
borne until he kills or strikes his first enemy on their own (the
enemy’s) land. On his return after accomplishing this, he blackens
his face and that of his relatives as a token of his triumph. Some
one of the medicine men who are always on the lookout for advantage
blackens himself and gives a new name to the warrior by crying it out
loudly through the camp, stating the change of name has been given in
consequence of his great bravery in killing his enemies.
A horse is again given the priest and the second name is attached. This
name lasts until by repeated successes at war he becomes entitled to
the name of his father, if the parent be dead; if living, that of his
grandfather is bestowed, during a ceremony of the same kind as has been
related. But this name is never given without sufficient merit on the
part of the warrior. It is the highest honor that could be bestowed,
is never afterwards changed, and he ranks immediately as a councillor
and brave. The foregoing will account for both the plurality of names
among them and the manner in which the original family name and line of
descent is preserved.
The names of females are not often changed, though some have two, one
affixed at the first ceremony and the other originating in some marked
feature, or personal appearance unusual among them, such as fair hair,
gray eyes, etc., and sometimes from any deformity, as lameness, loss of
an eye, teeth, etc. Generally, however, they have but one. The names
given to children are not taken from the incidents of dreams or deemed
sacred, but are the manufacture of the priest according to his fancy.
He endeavors to make one to please the parents in order to secure
the gift of the horse. This name is told them secretly by him and if
acceptable is adopted; if not, they suggest another in its place to him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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