BrokenClaw
This blog replaces some of the static web pages which have been on our website since 1998, when we started our first online presence with a free ad-sponsored homepage. At that time the main focus of our website was the accounts of our outdoor adventures: primarily hiking and bicycling on park trails. In October 2000 I decided to make the leap from a webpage user to a website administrator, and so I started my own domain at www.brokenclaw.com.
Over the next few years, my free time became more and more consumed by genealogy research, first with my father’s native American ancestry and then with my mother’s Pennsylvania German ancestry. In November 2005 I switched the actual domain to just BrokenClaw.net, with subdomains for my Native American content and my North Annville content. As the banner at the top of the page says, the focus of the website continues to be shared information and experience.
The articles that I write, and pages that I create, are intended to add useful information to the community of the Internet with a noticeably personal perspective. For example, when I created my Christmas Carols lyrics page in 1998, it was one of only a handful of such pages on the Internet, and it was — perhaps still is — the only one presented in the context of someone who actually sings the songs. My article on the history of Water Works, a tiny village with an unusual name, includes the experiences of me and my family living through the recent history. When I wrote my article about how American Indians acquired English names, I used my own ancestors and relatives as examples.
Broken Claw is the name I use for most of my online activity, as a tribute to my native American ancestry. The name is derived from the traditional naming practices of my paternal grandfather’s legacy, which is the Eagle clan of the Otoe-Missouria tribe of Oklahoma. In the native Chiwere language, this name would likely be rendered as Xra-sa’ge-gi-xu’ge, to signify an eagle’s fractured claw. I use the eagle and eagle feathers on my website to honor my ancestors. Broken Claw is not my real Indian name, because it was not given to me by the clan elder.
My paternal grandmother’s ancestry was the Munsee tribe of Kansas.
I also contribute to the Wikipedia under the name of Broken Claw. The Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia which is the largest reference website on the Internet. The content of the Wikipedia is written and edited collaboratively by its users. That is to say, anyone can add, edit, correct, or improve information throughout the encyclopedia, and all contributions are covered by a Free Documentation License. Most of my contributions are excerpted from articles I had previously published here, for which I can cite references.
In 2007 I registered the domain, CyberToothedTiger.com, just because it seemed like a clever name for a website. So now I use it for this blog.