Methodology Monday with Oglala Sioux

Is there even such a thing as specializing in "Native American" research as opposed to a specific tribe? This month's discussion article in the NGSQ study groups provokes thought on this point. But mainly it applies standard genealogical reasoning to identifying parents in the largely oral Oglala Sioux culture, which has an elaborate kinship system unfamiliar to other Americans, and which includes name changes during an individual's lifetime. It's by Dawn C. Stricklin: "Namesakes, Name Changes, and Conflicting Evidence: The Search for the Mother of John Little Crow," National Genealogical Society Quarterly 94 (December 2006): 245-58.

Don't expect to get it all on the first reading. Visit your good genealogy library, or pony up for an NGS membership and you can print out a PDF copy.