“I saw the marriage of the trapper in the open air in the far west,
the bride was a red girl,
Her father and his friends sat near cross-legged and dumbly smoking,
they had moccasins to their feet and large thick blankets
hanging from their shoulders,
On a bank lounged the trapper, he was drest mostly in skins, his
luxuriant beard and curls protected his neck, he held his bride
by the hand,
She had long eyelashes, her head was bare, her coarse straight locks
descended upon her voluptuous limbs and reach’d to her
feet” (p. 37).
I chose this passage because I was curious to know if it was common for trappers of the time to marry Native American women. Upon researching the matter I found that trappers often did because the women could translate between the white men and tribes, help with trapping and curing furs, and ward off raids. The part of the passage that most caught my eye was the line “the other hand held firmly the wrist of the red girl”. This brought to mind images of the white man’s possessive qualities as “his father and his friends sat near by cross legged and dumbly smoking”. In my research I found that while these marriages were not taboo, they were frowned upon. This may explain “dumbly” smoking. It’s as if the father and other men of the tribe wish to say more but do not.