Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 95, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 April 1918 — One Man Delegated to Rename Over 15,000 Sioux Indians [ARTICLE]

One Man Delegated to Rename Over 15,000 Sioux Indians

To make the Sioux Indians’ inheritance of land more simple and secure, the United States government commissioned Dr. Charles A. Eastman to rename more than 15.000 with their family names. The task was a hard one, says the San Francisco Argonaut. Where possible Doctor Eastman kept the original Sioux name of some member of a family, as In bestowing the name “Matoska” meaning “White Bear,” on the family of that chief. The hardest task was In finding new names for the absurdities of Indian nomenclature. “Bobtailed Coyote” was a young Indian who has come to prefer himself as “Robert T. Wolf.” After a long struggle with “Rotten Pumpkin,” Doctor Eastman at last recorded the owner of the name on the tribal records under the noncommittal title of Robert Pumpkin.”