What Make A Good Wife?

Honorable actions like Walker's with regards to the Native American tribes enhanced not out their reputations but

those of potential others as well.  Men like Bridger and Walker cared for the Native Americans because they were their own people.  They acted as warriors in a way the tribes found honorable.  From 1820 onward, the American westering ideals grew.

With few exceptions these white men took Indian wives, not savagely, but properly in tribal custom.  Native women were one of the greatest attractions and rewards of the West according to these mountain men.  They were fascinated by their beauty, style, liveliness, erotic and domestic behavior.

Courtship rituals were neither long nor elaborate.  Marriage was a natural part of life, usually arranged and only after the groom had made proper payment to the bride's family.  A marrying woman was worth at least 1 horse, in some tribes a dozen, worth $500-$1000.  If you rustled these horses it was a tribal felony for which the bride's father and brothers would hunt you down.  No record exists of any mountain men obtaining a wife by these means.

Next time...What makes a good wife Part 2