427 



CHAPTEE XLIII. 



SQUAW MEX. 



THIS is the name given by Indians to those men, not of 

 their tribe, who, by purchase of squaws (marriage), have 

 been adopted by or are tolerated in it. They are of 

 two classes. First, men of some means and frequently 

 of ability, w T ho come among the Indians as traders, and 

 who, as a means of gaining their confidence and obtaining 

 their trade, take to their bosoms a wife from each tribe, 

 sometimes from almost each band. These men fre- 

 quently become very wealthy and gain great influence 

 among the Indians, and their red wives (being only 

 property) are no impediment to their having wives and 

 families in the States. As they grow old they sometimes 

 retire from business, return to the States, and not un- 

 frequently are respected and influential members of 

 society. Others pass the winter of their days in their 

 western homes, surrounded in patriarchal style by a' 

 crowd of admiring offspring and dependents. 



Secondly, living with every Indian tribe is a number 

 of outcasts, American, French, Mexican, the lowest 

 refuse, who, spewed out by the society in which they 

 were born, find congenial refuge among these savages. 

 This life is not always a matter of choice, but is some- 

 times forced upon them by a too eager inquiry after 

 their persons by the myrmidons of the law. Not 

 unfrequently they are accompanied on their arrival 

 among the Indians by a number of horses of various 

 brands, sufficient not only to make friends of some of 



