John Steckley

Rescuing Colonized Names of the Wyandot

Introduction

Rescuing colonized names of the wyandot . Explore the colonization of Wyandot names, an Iroquoian-speaking Indigenous people. This article analyzes how settler names and inaccurate records obscured their traditional naming system.

Abstract

This article deals with names of the Wyandot, an Iroquoian-speaking, Indigenous people of the period surrounding the War of 1812. The people have a naming tradition that includes clan possession and the passage of important names over generations. This tradition was “colonized” by a combination of English settler names, nicknames that “sound Indian,” and inaccurate recordings of the names in their original Wyandot, so that the names are difficult to translate and difficult to relate to holders of the names in other times. In this article seven such names are analyzed.

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