316 INDIANS. 



a man to provide for her is so much more secure, so 

 much freer from the chance of hunger or want, that 

 almost every woman greatly prefers even the annoyances 

 of a bad busband to the precarious hazards of widow- 

 hood. 



A grave trouble to the Indians, and one of which I 

 have heard many complaints, is the number of widows 

 and orphans left on their hands by white men. The 

 Indians have this whole matter in their own hands ; they 

 have but to prohibit their women from marrying white 

 men. But this is not at all to their taste. A father can 

 get for his daughter possibly twice as much from a white 

 man as an Indian would pay, arid he sells at the highest 

 price. To prohibit his selling his own property would 

 be regarded as an invasion of his most sacred and vested 

 rights. Having sold and got his price, he feels himself 

 relieved of all responsibility regarding her. She should 

 henceforth be supported by the husband ; and the father 

 regards it as a hardship, an outrage, a real cause of com- 

 plaint to be obliged, even partially, to assist in the support 

 of a woman, his own daughter, sacrificed by his cupidity to 

 a man whom he knew would abandon her sooner or later. 

 When the trapper was an institution of the plains, he did 

 not consider his outfit complete unless he had one or more 

 Indian wives. When he went back to the settlement 

 he left them behind. If he returned to the same country 

 he took them again, but if he changed his locality he got 

 a new supply from the tribe he happened to be nearest to. 

 The forsaken dames could not always secure other 

 husbands ; for, though generally the best looking of the 

 tribe (trappers had taste and money), the women, not 

 being so constantly exposed to danger, were generally 

 very considerably in the excess of the men in numbers. 

 Their fathers would not support them, not being bound to 

 do so either by affection or custom ; so they and their 

 children became a tax on the strength and energy of the 

 tribe. 



