The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-10-29
AN INDIAN WEDDING.
THE BRIDEGROOM 4 MEMBER
 OF THE osAGE TRIBE.
Dressed Psis-faes FashIon for the csr- smoHy-some Romantic Features of ths Match.

Last Thursday, on the osage reserva- tion, occurred the most elaborate we'd ding in the history of the osage Indians. This wedding is thought by the other Indians to be about the last of it's kind that will ever be celebrated by this tribe. This conclusion is due to the in- roads civilization is making upon 1ndi- an customs, and is also largely due to the fact that nearly all of the younger members of the tribe are entering schools, and the influence of these schools makes them drop their native habits and customs. This wedding even was not letter perfect, according to all the rites of the red man, and at one time it looked as though the ceremony would be declared off, because the groom refused to attire himself in blan- ket and red paint.
 The contracting parties were Arthur Bonniecastle, a full-blood Osage, and Angie Penn. The bride has a small strain of white hood in her veins, her father being mixed blood, but her mother was full-blodd Osage squaw. @tAN S"O- oAS V1 l1IC hA5AACI " pG OL lA1C red race-much higher, in fact, than is often found-and every full-blood 1ndi- an on the reservation believes they are the two best young people of the tribe. Because of their general popularity, ev- cry Indian attended the wedding, no in- vitations to an affair of this kind being necessary for the Indian. Nearly three hundred white people, residents of the reservation and nearby towns, were invited and were in attendance.
 The story of the romance that leads up to this wedding is a pretty one. When Arthur Bonniecast1e was eight years old his parents both died, leaving him without relatives upon whom he could call, so he was packed off to the Osage mission in Kansas, more to get him out of the way than to secure for him an education. Here he started his education, and in a few years was sent to the Carlisle Institute, where he grad uated with high honors.
 When the first call for volunteers in the last war was made, he at once en- listed and saw service in Cuba. He went to China with his regiment, and was the second man over the walls of Pekin. For this service he wears a medal, presented to him by the United States government, and of which he is very proud. After the trouble in China was over he was transferred to the Philippines, with his regiment, and served there until nine months ago, when he was honorably discharged, and left the service as first sergeant of his company. Six months ago he returned to the reservation, the home of his young boyhood. To him all the man ners and customs of his people were new, and it required some little time again to acquire the Osage language, although he speaks English, French and Spanish like native. #
 Z He is the ideal type of the Indian, tall, straight as an arrow, and is absolutely honest. He has picked up no bad habits in his travels to different parts of the world, and his associations and experi- ences have given him a wide and cor rect knowledge of things outside of the ordinary. In his six months residence on the reservation he has become well acquainted with the people and has as- sumed the management of his farm and business interests, which, during his ab- sence, had been in the hands of his brother and the government agent. The Indians, and especially the full-bloods, admire the young man very much, while the whites upon the reservation look upon him as the brightest full-blood of the tribe. It seems fitting, indeed, that h e,l,0 fa1 s,, ty Angie Penn, who is his equal in eve ry way. 2a@ $
 She is regarded as the most progress sive Indian woman in the Osage coun- try, and her people admire her, one and all. She is loved by all the white peo- pie who know her. Her beauty is known from one end of the reservation to the other. There is not more beau tifu1 Indian woman in the country than she. She is seventeen years old, while her husband is twenty-four. Her en- tire life has been spent on the Osage reservation. She was educated at the agency school, and possesses as good an education as any white girl who gradu- ates from a high school,
 After the manner and customs of the full-bloods, the girl has always been kept with her mother, except when in school; the Osage women never allow ing their daughters out of their sight after they reach the age of twelve years
 When Bonniecastle came to the reser- vation he was heart and fancy free. One day while at the agency at Paw huska, he saw the girl, and it was a case of love at first sight with him. He told his brother about her and informed him that he was going to call upon her. This was one of the manners he had learned while in the white mans coun- try, but 1t doesn't go on the Osage res- ervation. The brother was familiar with all of the Indian customs, and told the lover that would never do. Henry Bonniecastle, the brother, then ex- plained the proper method and told him that, in order to secure the woman of his choice he must buy her, and also that he would probably have to bid at an auction sale, against any other elig- ible young men on the reservation who chanced to want the young woman. To this plan the lover objected, and elassed the procedure as being equal to pur- chasing steers.
 Nevertheless, this is the custom; and after some argument against it be learned that without going through this form he would, in all probability, never