Polygamy is not uncommon among them; and the husband occasionally finds
it necessary to administer a little wholesome castigation to his more
quarrelsome or refractory squaws. But many are satisfied with one wife.
The care of the tent and the whole drudgery of the family devolve on the
women. They gather fuel, cook the provisions, and repair every article
of dress; cultivate the ground, where any is cultivated; carry the
baggage on a journey; and pitch the tent when they halt. In these and
similar employments, their lordly fathers, husbands, and brothers, think
it degrading to assist them, and unworthy of warriors to engage in such
employments.
Mr. Catlin, whose long residence among the Indians, and careful
observation of their habits, entitle his opinion to great respect,
regards the assignment of drudgery to the women as no more than an
equitable distribution of the labour necessary to the support of the
household. He considers the toils of war and the chase, which are almost
incessant, and are solely performed by the men, as a complete offset
to the domestic and agricultural cares of the women. On the whole he
thinks that the condition of the Indian women is as comfortable as it
is possible to render it by any arrangement which would not completely
change their mode of life. To withdraw the men from the chase and
confine them to the culture of the ground, would render the Indians an
agricultural and not a hunting people. Still the condition of the Indian
woman is a miserable and degraded one,—a condition of incessant labour
and care.
In none of the tribes do the women experience much tenderness; but among
the Sioux they are so harshly treated, that they occasionally destroy
their female infants, alleging that it is better for them to be put
to death than to live as miserably as they themselves have done. Even
suicide is not uncommon among them, although they believe it offensive to
the Father of Life.