Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1881-05-11
MISCEG ENA TION.
AS pRAcTIoED BY THE FRoNTIERsMEN
AND INDIAN MAIDS.

From the st. Louis 0lobe.1
Among the Northwestern tribes ol
Indians innocence is as marked among
the girls As their color. The impression
that the red maiden does not entertain
a high standard of morality is On error
for she is taugLtas othergir are, and
grows up with well.developed ideas Of
the responsibilities Of life and firm
resolution to discharge them. Educated
in the faith that she was ordained to
work, she trains herself to undergo
hard labor, and at sixteen years of age
is sturdy and strong, brave against
fatigue and perfect housewife. She
may not possess the New England no.
tions of cleanliness, but she takes not
a little pride in her personal appear
ance, and in the arrangement Of her
lodge she displays some crude ideas of
tastes and certain amount Of neat.
ness. II she marry white man she
makes him q good wife as long as she
lives with him. His home is her sole
comfort and his home her ambition.
She thinks of him and for him, and
makes ii her study to please him and
make him respect and love her, She
recognizes in him one of superior
race, and by his dignity and devotion
endears herself to him and struggles to
make him happy.
Attic agencies on the upper frontier
thousands Of men are employed, and it
is not an exaggeration to say that the
majority OF them have Indian wives,
and live happily. They are not sought
after by the maidens, for the Indian
girls custom is to remain quiet until
the marriage contract is made, and the
marriage portion paid over. The hus.
band must have the dowry, with
which he must invest bis projected
mother.in.law before the ceremony
takes place. The process is little out
of the usual run, and a description may
be Of interest. The aspiring bride
groom must be well-known IN the tribe
before he can hope to win wife. Her
people want to thoroughly understand
him and now il he can support not
only her but also her relatives in the
event of pinch. He must be kind
hearted man, with temper warranted
to keep in any domestic climate, and
he must have a good lodge and at least
half dozen horses. II he be, and
have all these, he can a-wooing go.
Selecting the lady, he makes appica.
ton to her mother, and at council the
price is fixed upon. If the girl be
especially pretty, her mother will de-
mand a gun, two horses, and a lot
of provisions, blankets and cloth. A
gun is valued at $50, a horse at $50,
and he must furnish material to bring
tho amount up to from 500 to $3.50.
Then ho tries TO beat the damo down,
and if he succeeds, he knows there is
some reason for letting the girl 60 if
not, he understands that he Is making
good choice. The courtship is left
entirely to the mother She commune.
Gates the intelligence to tho BRIDE
elect, who dutifully sets upon prepar.
ing the lodge for the nuptials. ReIa-
tives and friends congregate in circle,
pound o drum and have feast, az the
conclusion OF which the man and the
girl stand up. A blanket is thrown
over their heads under which they can
exchange vows of fidelity, after which
the mother blesses them, and the cere-
mony is complete. But it fares badly
for the man who plentilully stocks his
wedding lodge. His wife will give
away everything he give her, and
stores intended to last month will
disappear in an hour. He, if he be
cautious, will gave her barely enough
to eat until he teaches her economy, a
lesson which once thoroughly learned
she never forgets. For some little
time after the wedding the new.made
relatives haunt the happy lodge, de.
manding that they be feasIed and cared
for. Woe unto him who accedes in
the slightest. A firm refusal, well per.
severed in, is all that will save him a
life Of misery.
According TO prairie law it is disrep.
utable in white man to abandon bis
dusky wife until she is too old to work
for him. Then he may send her back
TO the tribe il he so elect. The obi
cation upon the wife Is different. She
may not desert the husband for another
white man, but she may leave him for
an Indian who wants TO marry her,
provided she has no children. If a
squaw wishes TO abandon her husband,
the Indian of her choice must pay
back the price originally paid to her
mother. He may abate no jot or title,
and 1t is in such payment that the
divorce is perfected. She then becomes
a single woman, free to marry, but she
cannot live in the vicinity inhabited by |
her former husband. She must move
away with her new venture. Such
divorces are not infrequent 1t is a
difficult thing for the squaw perfectly
adapt herself to her white husband.
He may be of the kindliest disposition,
but his ways are not her ways and
though she struggles with all her
strength to draw close to him and try
to mako her existence part of bis,
she cannot make him one of her kind.
The birth of children directs her
thonghtsinto new channel and lessons
the chasm between them, but without
them he has but little hope of keeping
her TO himself. Sooner or later she