Page 96 - Confronting Race Women and Indians on the Frontier, 1815 - 1915

CHAPTER Two

mates. 182The practice of arranged marriages also provided the raw mate­
rial f o r hundreds of nineteenth-century fictionalized stories oflove that
was sometimes fu lfilled but more often thwarted. The Indian maiden
who committed suicide rather than marry a man she did not love
became a standard in European literature. 183 Although such deaths
shocked and thrilled European readers, it f a iled to reflect the reality of
Indian custom, which was marked by considerable deliberation and usu­
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ally the consent of the young people involved. During the 8 79s, a Polish
analyst who looked into the situation explained that women's lack of
choice was not as absolute as it f Irst appeared. According to him, Indian
women had recourse against fo rced matches. A man who took a wife
against her will, he said, was "brewing a whole pot of trouble," f o r "the
maiden will sulk, bite, throw herself on you with a knife, hide away,
malinger, and after a fe w days will flee back to her f a ther, or at worst,
with some other lover."184
Europeans also fo und it very curious that women who appeared to
them to be sexually f r ee before marriage were expected to be chaste
afterward. 1 8s One eighteenth-century author explained in a dismissive
way that "liberal to profusion of their charms before marriage, "they are
chastity itself after." 186 If wives violated standards of matrimonial fidelity,
they were often harshly punished, even by physical disfigurement such
as having an ear or nose cut of[ 187 Some travelers were wise enough to
see that a woman's sexual liaisons were not judged immoral when
approved beforehand by a husband, f a ther, or brother, but it still remained
incomprehensible to them how this could be so.188 Had Indians known
about European society, where sexual affairs were kept secret and
infidelity could lead to death, they might have been equally puzzled.
Europeans also f o und it strange that women of many Indian tribes
left their homes during menstrual periods, bore babies alone, or could
discipline f e male children but never male. 189 They agreed, however, that
motherhood conferred a certain amount of respect and status on
women 19 0 and that native mothers were caring and affectionate toward
their children. 191 In return, children, even males, listened to their moth­
ers. "A crime considered frightful and unheard of among the Indians is
that of a son rebellious to his mother," Chateaubriand wrote in 182T
"When she grows old, he fe eds her."192

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