Page 94 - Confronting Race Women and Indians on the Frontier, 1815 - 1915

CHAPTER Two

The Trapper's Bride, who noted that bride price existed in all societies.
" I s it alone amid the wild Indians of the American prairies that this
custom prevails?" he asked. "If we look around, we shall find the f a ir
daughters of Europe brought to market not so universally, neither so
openly and avowedly, but still bought and sold as nakedly and as f o ully
as any poor Comanche or Eutaw maiden ever was."17 0
Nor did Europeans analyze why native women became involved
with white men. They f a iled to consider either political or economic
motivations on the part of American Indians. They also ignored the pos­
sible legitimacy of Indian customs that proscribed sexual and marital
behaviors fo r women. Instead, Europeans were quick to justify their own
actions and dismiss those ofIndians. Few voices challenged the assump­
tion that Indian behavior was immoral. Despite good reasons fo r estab­
lishing liaisons with American Indian women, many European men
rejected the practice. Not every one believed that white men helped
advance Indian women or that a chief's daughter was a princess. Rather,
some f e lt that the practice of marrying Indian women was detrimental
to Indians. During the r820s, the Englishman Adam Hodgson expressed
concern that intermarriage between Indians and whites undermined
! !
Native American customs. 7
Most Europeans who opposed Indian-white relationships did so on
the basis of traditional white attitudes of what was acceptable and what
was not.A Hungarian traveler rejected what Americans would later term
miscegenation because he thought Indian women were unattractive. 172
The protagonist of a Hungarian novel refused the offer of an Indian
bride because he believed that these women became dirty and untidy
wives. 173 And the hero of a Polish story fled an impending marriage
with a native woman because he fo und her customs repulsive. As he
watched his bride-to-be presiding at a prenuptial banquet, he was
repulsed. He said that his betrothed "sat there disemboweling the ox"
and "would plunge her round arms into the interior of the beast and
then pull them out, dripping with gore and warm f a t that she would
offer to the whole company." The sight of his beloved eating raw meat
"as if she were eating caramels" moved him to plead to his command­
ing officer fo r a distant mission. 174
Other Europeans were similarly repelled by what they deemed

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