The Wives
Plural wives
During most of the 19th
century, Oglala Lakota Sioux were residents of the northern plains. Oglala
Sioux men could choose to be polygamous. They could also decide to have one
wife (most had single wife marriages). Like some other tribes, the husband
had the right to first choice of his wife's sisters, or he could marry all the
sisters.
Oglalas saw this
wife's-sister-as-wife arrangement as good for reducing jealousy in the
household (sisters would 'get along' better); a polygamous marriage also
allowed for the lengthy time between birth and resuming normal married life
(her sisters would fill that time, by companionship with the husband and
helping the new mother with her housework and the newborn).
Like warrior chief, Crazy Horse, a man could have a wife from
outside the tribe. But before the new marriage could take place, the
original wife must give her permission. Also, the new wife must bring or build
a tipi of her own.
(When Crazy Horse's wife, Black Shawl, became an
invalid and their daughter died, he decided to take another wife. He was
given a French trader's daughter as a 'permanent gift.')
Wives among the Lakota
Sioux could be given away by their husbands at any time and for any
reason. It was the 'highest courtesy' to give one's wife away as a
gift. She could be a temporary or permanent gift. In my latest
book, Rescuing the Indian's Bride, this does seem to happen.
Another method for
getting a wife was to capture a woman. The Oglala words for a captive woman/wife
are ta-winu; the words simply for 'my wife/my woman' are ta-wicu. Most of the Plains Indians captured women.
Oglala Sioux believed that women were a
man's property -- period. However, a wife could leave or even abandon her
husband if he was brutal or did not provide for his family. She could
simply leave, taking her property from the marriage. However, if her
husband found her unfaithful, the village elders ruled to cut
off her nose or ear, then cast her out with nothing.
Chief Red Cloud and other Sioux
When an Oglala Sioux
woman married, it was her responsibility to provide their home -- a tipi -- and
she continued to own it and all the household goods.
The husband agreed, when
he married, to provide fresh meat that he hunted; she agreed to cook the meat,
to butcher the game he brought her, prepare the hides and sew their clothes
from the animal skins. In fact, she sewed their tipi.
Their nomadic life
revolved around a Warrior Society culture. The Warrior Society ensured
that the tribe's women were properly cared for, in case their husbands were
killed or injured in battle or hunting. Hunting and war were their
responsibilities. The village elders did not allow men to marry who had not
proven themselves in battle.
By contrast, an
authority in the 1800's wrote these glowing words. "The Indians
generally love their wives and children." The author was director of
a mission in California, Father Megin Catala. I did not find which tribe
he praised, but the Indians near his mission were the Olone tribe.
Another contrast
to the portrait of the Oglala Sioux married life is that of the Iroquois.
In 1900, the Iroquois were
'scrupulously honest and chaste.'
The duties of an
Iroquois wife were cooking the meat or drying it in the sun, preparing the
hides from animals her husband had killed, then sewing the skins into clothing
for the family. (Needles were animal teeth or bones, sometimes pine
needles.) She was responsible for growing the family's food (squash, beans,
etc.) and gathering edible food like berries and roots.
She was expected to
gather wood. This was 'bringing small dry twigs out of the woods.'
He wrote how yearly, the men went to the forest and chopped down trees for the
entire village, then cut firewood at each home.
As far as women's rights,
Iroquois wives had the same standing as their husbands. Her many jobs,
like farming and cooking and skinning animals, were considered 'light', maybe
because of having such high status.
Like the Oglala Sioux,
the Iroquois moved from the Mississippi woodlands when it began to fill with
settlers. Both groups went to the upper plains. The Comanche moved to the
southern plains from the West.
Comanches were fierce, raiding other tribes and capturing adult women and men as slaves.
But they never made children into slaves. Nor did they make the adult men
into permanent slaves. But Comanche traders, who bartered the female
captives, set the harsh manners a Comanche would use toward these women.
To Comanches, behavior
was everything. If a man behaved like a Comanche and spoke Comanche, he
was a member of the tribe. Many male slaves became naturalized Comanches.
However, because they'd become slaves, they did work in the village (Comanche men did not), sometimes helping the
wives.
Wives wore their hair
shorter than their husband; the men took pride in never cutting their hair.
They wore it in two long braids, allowing it to be free during battle. (Though
photos show variations.)
Marriages were arranged
by accepting (using) the bride price, five horses tied
outside the girl's tipi. I could find no facts about a captive woman who became a Comanche citizen, like the men slaves, but the village elders approved of having a Comanche man taking a captive wife.
In a novel, a settler
woman was taken captive, then accepted into the Comanche tribe. In reality,
Cynthia Ann Parker was captured by Comanche when she was nine. She married
within the tribe and had three children. The third child was the last free Comanche
chief, Quanah Parker.
Comanche Chief Quanah Parker and his wives
