By Lee Longhorn

Hensci. Estonko? Lee cvhocefket os.

Didn’t expect to see that anytime soon, did you? Well, it’s back. I was driving in the car with my mom the other day and she asked me a complex question that would require quite a deal of research and memory work on my part. She asked, “What’s your Indian name?” What she was referring to was my Shawnee Indian name. Yes, the Shawnee have Indian names too. If I can be frank for a second, they sound almost like the northern tribal ones and other Indian names. No, they’re not like “Runs with the buffalo” or like the one from Family Guy “Watches you pee”. The Shawnee ones I believe sound like they have something to do with your clan. Don’t hold me to that but just keep that in mind for now.

So, mom asked me that and I spouted off the two names that I had heard and we both got confused. Now, for some of you traditionalists reading, you might be offended by the fact that I don’t know my own name. Well, I know my American one, but that’s besides the point. You see, the only time I really heard my name called was not in ceremonies but after my dad would down a half a bottle of Bourbon. Yes, my father, like so many others, was kind of an alcoholic. I don’t know about currently, but I’m going to venture to say he still has his nightly drink. Anyway, so it was when my dad was nice and drunk when he would say my name and start talking about my Indian name and how I’m suppose to be the “Prince of the tribe.” I’m not evening kidding you. He used to say it to my cousin and I at times. After I moved out, I forgot it. You’ll see me write this and in person, I’ll say it but the situation is always the same, “If you had a gun to my head and asked me, I’d tell you to pull the trigger cause I don’t know.” Pretty extreme but, there’s no point in wasting time.

The Seneca-Cayuga have Indian names and I remember watching their ceremonies as a kid. They recently finished their Green Corn ceremony and that’s when they give out names. I never really wanted one. I don’t see a need for it.

“I’m a man, I’m 40.” –Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State University Head Football Coach, 2007

In 2008, I received my Indian name on my Creek side. I remember that summer, we were talking about age, I just turned 20 that summer, and my mom said, “He’s not a man. He’s still a kid.” If she thought I was a kid, I wonder what she thought of my older brothers. (Of the four of us, I’m the only one who hasn’t gone to jail.) My dad interrupted her with, “He’s been a man since he was 17.” He was referring to when I partook in the ceremonies that the men performed. That summer, after the ceremonial ground leaders saw I was serious about all this, awarded me an Indian name. There was no grand ceremony, just something small that is done at an annual time. After receiving it, I remember feeling a sense of accomplishment. It’s not that I’m ashamed of my Shawnee name, it’s just that I feel that people will say it when they’re not drunk and badgering me.

One name, one person

My late aunt had a Sac & Fox name and I remember feeling a slight interest in the Sac & Fox culture when she passed. I wanted to know her name but dropped it cause it didn’t feel appropriate. We were after all at her funeral. They buried her the Sac & Fox way and it was not different in many ways but they got her where she needed to go. If I were to die, I would only want the name that I remembered to be said at my funeral, Lee.

My Indian name has it’s purposes elsewhere.

Lee Longhorn is an intern reporter at the Muscogee Nation News.