Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 241

Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 241

This report is available at http://www.s-gabriel.org/241

Some of the Academy's early reports contain errors that we haven't yet corrected. Please use it with caution.

Greetings,

Here's the advice we can offer you on choosing a Native American persona.

There's ample evidence of contact between Americans and Europeans in the later part of our period, especially in Central and South America. Given that, there's no reason you can't have a native American persona if you want.

Your first step should be to narrow down the culture which you'd like to work with. "American" is a very broad sweep, and you should decide whether your persona will be Iroquois, Carib, Aztec, Inca, or one of the many other American cultures.

You should also determine whether you want your persona to be an American living within their own culture, or an American who has travelled to Europe. If you're the latter, you won't have any problem finding a name--all the Native Americans we know of who entered European culture also adopted European names. Native Americans who converted to Christianity and remained in America also took Christian names, although it's not clear how widely these names were used (As an example, "The Conquest of New Spain," written by a Spanish soldier, records the baptismal names of Mexican converts but generally uses their original names.)

Margaret Makafee, Solveig Throndarsdottir, Tangwystl verch Morgant Glasvryn, Rouland Carre, and Arval D'Espas Nord all contributed to this letter.

We hope that your research goes well. If you're interested in a persona of a northern Native American who's still in America, you may be interested in buckskinner groups which would have more information about those cultures. If we can be of further assistance, we would be more than happy to help you.

In service,
Alan Fairfax
Academy of S. Gabriel