University of Virginia Library

4. CHAPTER IV.

But we will do as the Dahcotahs did—turn from the sadness
and horror of an Indian's death, to the gayety and happiness
of an Indian marriage. The Indians are philosophers,
after all—they knew that they could not go after the Chippeways,
so they made the best of it and smoked. Beloved
Hail was dead, but they could not bring him to life, and
they smoked again: besides, “Walking Wind” was to be
married to “The War Club,” whereupon they smoked
harder than ever.

There are two kinds of marriages among the Dahcotahs,
buying a wife and stealing one. The latter answers to our
runaway matches, and in some respects the former is the
ditto of one conducted as it ought to be among ourselves.
So after all, I suppose, Indian marriages are much like
white people's.

But among the Dahcotahs it is an understood thing that,
when the young people run away, they are to be forgiven
at any time they choose to return, if it should be the next
day, or six months afterwards. This saves a world of
trouble. It prevents the necessity of the father looking
daggers at the son-in-law, and then loving him violently;
the mother is spared the trial of telling her daughter that
she forgives her though she has broken her heart; and,
what is still better, there is not the slightest occasion whatever
for the bride to say she is wretched, for having done
what she certainly would do over again to-morrow, were it
undone.

So that it is easy to understand why the Dahcotahs have
the advantage of us in runaway matches, or as they say in
“stealing a wife;” for it is the same thing, only more
honestly stated.

When a young man is unable to purchase the girl he
loves best, or if her parents are unwilling she should marry
him, if he have gained the heart of the maiden he is safe.
They appoint a time and place to meet; take whatever
will be necessary for their journey; that is, the man takes
his gun and powder and shot, and the girl her knife and
wooden bowl to eat and drink out of; and these she intends
to hide in her blanket. Sometimes they merely go to the
next village to return the next day. But if they fancy a

bridal tour, away they go several hundred miles with the
grass for their pillow, the canopy of heaven for their curtains,
and the bright stars to light and watch over them.
When they return home, the bride goes at once to chopping
wood, and the groom to smoking, without the least
form or parade.

Sometimes a young girl dare not run away; for she has
a miserly father or mother who may not like her lover because
he had not enough to give them for her; and she
knows they will persecute her and perhaps shoot her husband.
But this does not happen often. Just as, once in a
hundred years in a Christian land, if a girl will run away
with a young man, her parents run after her, and in spite
of religion and common sense bring her back, have her divorced,
and then in either case the parties must, as a matter
of course, be very miserable.

But the marriage that we are about to witness, is a
“marriage in high life” among the Dahcotahs, and the
bride is regularly bought, as often occurs with us.

“Walking Wind” is not pretty; even the Dahcotahs, who
are far from being connoisseurs in beauty, do not consider
her pretty. She is, however, tall and well made, and her
feet and hands (as is always the case with the Dahcotah
women) are small. She has a quantity of jet-black hair,
that she braids with a great deal of care. Her eyes are
very black, but small, and her dark complexion is relieved
by more red than is usually seen in the cheeks of the
daughters of her race. Her teeth are very fine, as everybody
knows—for she is always laughing, and her laugh is
perfect music.

Then Walking Wind is, generally speaking, so good tempered.

She was never known to be very angry but once,
when Harpstenah told her she was in love with “The War
Club;” she threw the girl down and tore half the hair out
of her head. What made it seem very strange was, that
she was over head and ears in love with “The War Club”
at that very time; but she did not choose anybody should
know it.

War Club was a flirt—yes, a male coquette—and he
had broken the hearts of half the girls in the band. Besides
being a flirt, he was a fop. He would plait his hair
and put vermilion on his cheeks; and, after seeing that his
leggins were properly arranged, he would put the war eagle
feathers in his head, and folding his blanket round him,
would walk about the village, or attitudinize with all the
airs of a Broadway dandy. War Club was a great warrior
too, for on his blanket was marked the Red Hand, which
showed he had killed his worst enemy—for it was his
father's enemy, and he had hung the scalp up at his
father's grave. Besides, he was a great hunter, which
most of the Dahcotahs are.

No one, then, could for a moment doubt the pretensions of
War Club, or that all the girls of the village should fall in
love with him; and he, like a downright flirt, was naturally
very cold and cruel to the poor creatures who loved
him so much.

Walking Wind, besides possessing many other accomplishments,
such as tanning deer-skin, making mocassins,
&c., was a capital shot. On one occasion, when the young
warriors were shooting at a mark, Walking Wind was pronounced
the best shot among them, and the War Club
was quite subdued. He could bear everything else; but

when Walking Wind beat him shooting—why—the point
was settled; he must fall in love with her, and, as a natural
consequence, marry her.

Walking Wind was not so easily won. She had been
tormented so long herself, that she was in duty bound to
pay back in the same coin. It was a Duncan Gray affair
—only reversed. At last she yielded; her lover gave her
so many trinkets. True, they were brass and tin; but Dahcotah
maidens cannot sigh for pearls and diamonds, for they
never even heard of them; and the philosophy of the thing
is just the same, since everybody is outdone by somebody.
Besides, her lover played the flute all night long near her
father's wigwam, and, not to speak of the pity that she felt
for him, Walking Wind was confident she never could sleep
until that flute stopped playing, which she knew would be
as soon as they were married. For all the world knows
that no husband, either white or copper-colored, ever troubles
himself to pay any attention of that sort to his wife, however
devotedly romantic he may have been before marriage.

Sometimes the Dahcotah lover buys his wife without her
consent; but the War Club was more honorable than that:
he loved Walking Wind, and he wanted her to love him.

When all was settled between the young people, War
Club told his parents that he wanted to marry. The old
people were glad to hear it, for they like their ancient and
honorable names and houses to be kept up, just as well as
lords and dukes do; so they collected everything they
owned for the purpose of buying Walking Wind. Guns
and blankets, powder and shot, knives and trinkets, were in
requisition instead of title-deeds and settlements. So, when

all was ready, War Club put the presents on a horse, and
carried them to the door of Walking Wind's wigwam.

He does not ask for the girl, however, as this would not
be Dahcotah etiquette. He lays the presents on the ground
and has a consultation, or, as the Indians say, a “talk”
with the parents, concluding by asking them to give him
Walking Wind for his wife.

And, what is worthy to be noticed here is, that, after having
gone to so much trouble to ask a question, he never for
a moment waits for an answer, but turns round, horse and
all, and goes back to his wigwam.

The parents then consult for a day or two, although they
from the first moment have made up their minds as to what
they are going to do. In due time the presents are taken
into the wigwam, which signifies to the lover that he is a
happy man. And on the next day Walking Wind is to be
a bride.