Just a note to explain my appraoch here and question its direction.
Frank De Roin is purpported to have had 14 marriages, his father Joseph purported to have had 6. This information is now apparantly being expressed by Larry Cook, Supt., Indian Cave State Park, Shubert, NE. Transcribed Aug 2006 by Susan K. Suttle-White. Many if not all of these marriages are explained in the text feferred to below.
However, in my opinion, the term "Indian custom" is being not only overused but has been misinformed. Any relationship between and Indian man and woman is not automatically a marriage by Indian custom. Many of these relationships, it can be seen from the text, were only 2-3 months long. In any language this is nothing more than "shacking up". Any marriage, Indian custom or otherwise is a committment, for whatever reasons, different today and inthis culture than it was then, at least in the beginning. It seems to me somewhat insulting to the woman to bear the undeserved title "divorced" and all its trappings, after only a 3 month relationship.
For all we know Frank, who was the son of a purported "chief", was the target of many young ladies on the reservation, a fact which he took full advantage of. The fact that they have all been identified leads me as a curator to list them somehow in a relationship capacity, but when 7 out of 14 last 6 months or less, and 4 of the remaining 7 last less than a year, I hesitate to use the term marriage.
I have chosen therefore, to identify a marriage by "Indian custom" no differently than is the concept of any other marriage, but without parperwork and with the ability to end more simply. To that end, I have chosen, for example, to identify many of these repationships as partners (partnerships), not even fiance, reseving the term marriage for those of 1) a somewht undefined longer duration than a few months and/or 2) having children. In the case of this list for Frank then...
1. Unnamed Pawnee squaw, 1864, Indian divorce after 2-months.
2. Du-che-cum-mee, Winnebago, 1866, 4 months.
3. We-hum-ka, Winnebago, 1867, 4 months.
4. Ka-ka, Winnebago, 1867, 2 months.
5. Ta-pa-ca, Sac, 1868, Marriage lasted 7 years, 3 children; Willie, Carrie, Mary (died 1878).
6. Ma-Qua, Sac, 1875, lived with 5 & 6 at the same time for a period, marriage length unknown.
7. Unnamed Kickapoo squaw, 1880, 1 year.
8. Che-ke-ka, Sac, 1881, 1year.
9. Ka-pa-no-qua, Sac 1883, 1 year.
10. Unnamed Pottawatomie squaw, 1884, 3 months.
11. Mary, unknown tribe, 1885, 3 months.
12. Noon-day, Winnebago, 1886, 2 years old, bore twin girls who died in infancy.
13. Ti-an-ka-ha, Iowa, about 20 years old, with one son Edward.
14. Anna Lacy, believed white, Oct. 1909, separated in the spring of 1910
... it would seem to me to apply the term marriage ONLY to #5, 12 and 13, all others being partners by definition and so indicated in Geni.
Admittedly, being white myself, I have little learned comprehension of Indian custom. My conslusions are of course open to discussion, preferably based on first hand knowledge or otherwise sourced information, and I am open to making changes as the preponderance of opinion suggests. A discussion based on source information can be found here for reference: Joseph De Roin
