The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-10-29


 business of the day declared ready; then the bidding began The relatives of the young men squatted in circle of which stood Sassy Calf, ready to con- duct the sale. Previous to this the young men had been allowed an oppor- tunity of taking look at the girl, but were not allowed to talg to her. They made up their minds just how much a wife of that kind was worth to them and notified their relatives how much to bid before dropping out of the game. Bonniecastle told his brother that he wanted the girl and to outbid all of the others.
 The bidding was spirited, but Bonnie castles brother raised every one, and finally was declared the successful pur- chaser. The proceeds of the sale go to the girls relatives and toward defray- ing the expenses of the wdding. The amount finally agreed upon for this girl was five hundred dollars in cash, for the wedding feast; racehorse, known as Heedoo, valued at six hundred and fifty dollars, and fifteen good Indian ponies, valued at seven hundred and fifty dol lars. The horse Hoodoo was to go to Sassy Calf, the matchmaker, and the Indian ponies were to go to the guests at the wedding.
 The date was agreed upon at this time and the arrangements were all made by the men. The bride had no hand in this, and was not even told who was to be her husband. All she knew was that she was going to be married, and that is considered enough for any Indian woman.
 The order for the brides trousseau was given to the Delaware Indians, who live east of the osage reservation, and who are adopts at Indian needle and fancy work. It was the most elaborate ever worn by an osage bride and its cost was nearly fifteen hundred dollars.
 During the time, these preparations were being made the bride was not will ling for the marriage to take place. She feared she was to be married to some blanketed buck, and such a husband did not in the least suit her progressive ideas. Her objections were not taken into consideration by the relatives, and little attention was paid to her; in fact, an Indian bride is of small consequence.
 The day for the wedding arrived, and all the Indians were in attendance at the Indian camp, near Pawhuska. They had arrived several days before the date set and were enjoying season of feasting. Upon the morning of the wedding day all the Indians attired themselves in their gaudiest blankets, put on their best paint and brightest feathers. The bride was taken from her home to the tent of a neighbor. ana there the squaws proceeded to dress her in the wedding finery. This was all done according to the custom of ages, and it required about three hours to complete her toilet. Then the process sion started for the home of the groom to-be, short distance away. During this time the man in the case had not been seen. He was in his tepee, await ing the appearance of the bride.
 In buggy drawn by two Indian po- nies that were led by a couple of the male relatives of the bride she rode, and with her rode the maid of honor. The bridesmaids, four in number, rode on horses, two upon each side of the bug gy. Without delay the procession pro- ceeded to the front of the tepee occu- pied by Bonniecastle. There the bride left the buggy and the four bridesmaids placed her on a blanket, which was wrapped around her, and then four squaws seized the blanket and took it inside, where the young man awaited
 Now, for the first time, the bride saw her future husband. In few moments the two appeared before the tent, sur rounded by the maid of honor and the bridesmaids.
 At this point the wedding came near being declared off, because the groom instead of wearing blanket, war bonnet and paint, as the Indians all expected and as custom demanded, stepped forth from the tepee in a neat fitting suit of broadcloth, white shirt, standing collar, tie, patent leather shoes and derby hat. A loud objection was made to this by the full-bloods, who thought he should have observed all the customs A committee of the head men of the tribe went to him and urged him to don tile pidHhSC dliu ltdLlGIS. Ile lldlly Te- fused. They insisted, and he finally told them plainly that he was going to wear the clothing of the white man He also added that if they did not like his plan they could so to a place hotter than the Osage reservation. A council of the committee was held and, after a heated argument, Bonniecastle won his point, and the ceremony proceeded Here the groom introduced another fea- ture not on the programme, and not ir accordance with the traditional cus- toms, but no objections were made to ii by the Indians. After the argument about the groom's dress was settled, a priest stepped out of the crowd of white people and performed the wedding cere- mony according to the rites of the Cath olic church. The Indian ceremony was then resumed and the races were called Sassy Calf, mounted upon fine horse belonging to the groom, rode about two hundred yards from the crowd and fired a gun. This was the signal for the start of the race for the groom's horse saddle and gun, and the contestants ir this race can only be the male relatives of the groom. As Bonnieoastle had only one male relative, his brother the race was easily won by him. Then the bug gy in which the bride had been taken tc the tepee of her lord, was drawn out about two hundred yards frov the crowd and another gun was fired NTao ,1x IL.