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.