The American Indians: Their History, Condition and Prospects, from Original Notes and ManuscriptsSchoolcraft, Henry Rowe
History
The American Indians: Their History, Condition and Prospects, from Original Notes and Manuscripts
Schoolcraft, Henry Rowe
Indians of North America
Takozid determined from his earliest youth to take a part in the strife
for barbaric glory. He early joined the war parties going into the great
plains. He learned their arts, repeated their songs, and became expert
in all the warrior's arts. He established the reputation of a brave
young man. The next step was to lead a war party himself. He courted
popularity by generosity, self denial, and attention to their religious
rites and ceremonies. These things may be done on a smaller scale, as
effectually among a band of savages, as in the hall or forum. He
succeeded. He raised a war party, conducted it into the plains,
discovered his enemies, approached them slyly, fell upon them, defeated
them, and returned in triumph with their scalps to his village. His deep
and hollow CHE KWAN DUM, or death-cry of victory as he came to the
eminence which overlooked his village, announced all this before he set
foot in his village: and the number of his scalps.
These exploits placed him on the pinnacle of fame. It is a curious fact,
in the lives of our Red men, to observe that war is a stimulus to
poligamy. One of the first things he thought of, as a proper reward for
his bravery, was to take another wife. In this, his friends and
partizans concurred, although he had no cause of dissatisfaction with
his first wife, to whom he had been married but a short time, and who
had borne him a son. Time added confirmation to this plan. It was talked
of, and even debated by the chiefs. It was conceded to be due to his
bravery. All, indeed, appeared to approve of it, but his wife. She heard
of the rumor with alarm, and received the account of its confirmation,
with pain. It could no longer be doubted, for the individual who was to
share, nay, control the lodge with her was named, and the consent of her
parents had been obtained.
Monon, or the Little-Iron-Wood-Tree, as she was called, was a female of
no ordinary firmness of character. She was ardently attached to her
husband, not the less so for his rising fame, jealous of her rights, and
prompted by strong feelings to maintain them. In all these points she
was above the generality of her country women. Like others, however, in
a community where poligamy was common, she might have submitted at
length, to her fate, had not her rival in the affections of Takozid,
appealed to a deeper seated principle, and waked up, in the breast of
the injured wife, the feeling of revenge: a principle reckless enough,
in communities where there are the safeguards of education and
christianity to restrain and regulate it; but horrible in wild and
roving bands of barbarians. Monon's fidelity was slandered. She was a
pure and high minded woman, and the imputation goaded her to the quick.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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