Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1881-06-02
INDIAN WIVES.
How the Aborigine Maidens Wed White
MeR-The Price of a Good Wife.


From the st. Louis GlobeDe-mocrat
Among the northwestern tribes of In.
dams innocence is as marked among the
girls as their color. The impression that
the red maiden does not entertain high
standard of morality is an error, for she is
taught as other girls are, and grows up with
well-developed ideas of the responsibilities
eflife, and firm resolution to discharge
them. Educated in the faith that she was
ordaioed to work, she trains herself to un-
dergoing hard labor, and at sixteen years
of age, is sturdy and strong, brave against
fatigue, and q perfect housewife. She
may not possess New England notions of
cleanliness, but she takes not little pride
in her personal appearance, and in the
arrangement of her lodge she displays
some crude ideas of taste and GER
tain amount of neatness.
If she marries a white man she makes
him good wife as long as she lives with
him. His home is her sole comfort and
his comfort her ambition. She thinks of
him and for him, and makes it her study
to please him and make him respect and
love her. She recognizes in him one of a
superior race, and by her dignity and devo-
ton endears herself to him and struggles to
make him happy.
At the 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
husband must have the dowry, with which
he must invest his projected mother in law
before the ceremony takes place.
The process is little out of the usual run
and description may be of interest. The
aspiring bridegroom must be well known
in the tribe before he can hope to win a
wife. Her people want to thoroughly un-
derstand him and know if he can support
not only her but also her relatives in the
event of pinch. He must be kind hearted
man, with a temper warranted to keep in
any domestic climate, and he must have a
good lodge and at least half dozen horses.
If he be, and have all these, he can WOO
ing go. Selecting the lady, he makes ap-
plication to her mother, and at council
the price is fixed upon. If the girl is es-
pecially pretty her mother will demand a
gun, two horses and lot of provisions,
blankets and cloth. A gun is valued at
$40, a horse ct $40, and he mnst furnish
material to bring the amount up to from
800 to $3.50.
Then he tries to beat the dame down,
and if he succeeds he knows there is some
reason for letting the girl go; if not, he
understands that he is making a good
choice. The courtship is left entirely to
the mother. She communicates the intel
hgence to the bride elect, who dutifully sets
upon preparing the lodge for the nuptials.
Relatives and friends conglegate. form a
circle, pound drum and have feast, al
the conclusion of which the man and girl
stand up. A blanket is thrown over theil
heads, under which they exchange vows OF
fidelity, after which the mother blesses
them, and the ceremony is complete. But
it fares badly with the man who plentifully
| stocks his wedding lodge. His wife will
give away every thing he gives her, anG
stores intendedfor month will disappear
| in an hour. He, if he be called cautious
will give her barely enough to eat until ht
teaches economy, a lesson which once
thoroughly learned she never forgets.
For some time after the wedding the new.
| ly made relatives haunt the happy lodge
demanding that they be feasted and caret
for. Woe unto him who accedes in the
slightest. A firm refusal well perseveret
IN is all that will save him life of misery
According to prairie law it is disreputa.
| BILE in white man to abandon his dusky
| wife until she has grown to old to work fol
him. Then he may send her back to hel
| tribe if he SO elect. The obligation upon
| the wife is different. She may not deser
| her husband for another white man, bu
she may leave him for an Indian who wants
to marry her, provided she have no chill
| dren. If squaw desires to abandon he
| husband, the Indian of her choice mus
| pay back the price originally paid to he
mother. He may abate no jot or title, ant
it is in such payment that the divorce ii
perfected.
She then becomes single women, FIRE,
to marry, but she cannot live in the vicini
ty inhabited by her former husband. Sh
must move away with her new venture
| Such divorces are not unfre 3uent. 1t is
difficult thing for the squaw to perfectl,
adapt herselr to her white husband. HI
may be of the kindest disposition, but hi
| ways are not her ways, and though sh,
| struggles with all her strength to draw
closer to him and try to make her existence
| part of his, she cannot make him one o
her kind, and she drifts away from him
! The birth of children directs her thought
| to new channel and lessons the charm
between them, but without them he has bu
| little hope Of keeping her to himself. Soon
| er or later she will find her affinity.
L