It would be very interesting if someone would explain the marriage and divorce customs of the Indians of the various tribes. I am mainly interested in the tribes in Arkansas and Oklahoma for the years of about 1880 through 1920. Our grandmother, Lilly Gibbs, was said to have told her children that she was of Indian heritage and that she had married first, a white man, a Mr. Brown and that her people were very displeased because she had not chosen to marry the man of their choosing. She was said to have been disowned from her people which were said to have been Cherokee, but could have been another tribe. We have found Lilly Gibbs b. 1902 on the Clark County, Arkansas Federal Census and it lists her with her mother, Roxie, and her step father, Fred Milhey/Milkey/Mulkey. Birth place listed for both Roxie and Lilly was "Arkansas" and for Fred, "Germany. Sometime between 1910 and 1920 Lilly was married to Mr. Brown, he ends up missing in history and she has given birth to a daughter Bertha, 1917 at the foot of the Kiamichi Mtns. in Eastern Oklahoma and is with child #2 from Mr. Brown when she marries a W.M. Hargis (perviously married and has 3 children of his own) in Idabel Oklahoma in Dec. 1918. Child # 2 is born in December 1918 in Oklahoma. Lilly, who is now a Hargis, is not found on the 1920 Federal Census unless we missed her somehwhere with her family. In 1922, Lilly gives birth to a third daugher, Ruth Hargis in Duncan, Stevens County, Oklahoma. 1928 sees Lilly as filing for divorce from Mr. Hargis in Altus, Jackson County, Oklahoma and then she marries a J.W. Kirby (a blind man) in Sept. 1929 and dies of blood poisoning in October 1929. She is buried in Altus, Oklahoma. Can someone please give me information on the customs/consequences of Indians marrying white men ? Does anyone relate to this family? Do the women of the various Indian tribes go by their maiden names or married names on the census rolls? Is it true that the women always carry their mothers last names when enumerated? Needing lots of help. Joanne