The Life of a Trapper Wife

Indian wives were common among mountain men, not only to help him in the rigorous life, but also because very few white women wanted mountain man's lifestyle.  Indian wives could cost as much as 2 horses, 6 pounds of beads, or if the chief's daughter, $2000 worth of furs. 

The match was prestigious for the squaw.  She rose high in the tribe's esteem, receiving gifts of jewelry, bangles, cloth, ribbon, and equally important - modern utensils.  In exchange, she made her man's clothes and tepee, cooked, gathered firewood and cheered during months of rugged isolation her husband's morale.

Her dress was fine doeskin with half sleeves decorated with tassels, a fringe of bells and a wide belt of ornamental beads in geometric design.  An elk skin shawl was painted with symbolic patterns.  Beaded moccasins and knee length leggings covered her feet and legs.  In her "chest box" she carried her hair pomade, a porcupine hairbrush, sewing sinew, needles, quills, feathers, fleece, elk teeth and beads of Italian glass. 

Her duties includes pounding cherries - pits and all for pernmican, a stew made from buffalo hump and fats which she cooked in her Indian pot.  An Indian "pot" was a buffalo stomach held up pouch-like on four poles, filled with water, boiled with hot stones in it for three days before used, eaten and replaced with another.

The squaw's specialty was buffalo. Roasted on fireside skewer or stewed with sage, prairie turnips, wild peas and onions.  In strips, she smoked it for jerky.  Dried, pulverized, mixed with melted fat and ground berries for cakes.  Stuffed, boiled marrow, along with meats and herbs into the intestines made sausage.  With bones, milkweed buds, rose hips, prickly pear cactus,  it made soup.  The tongue was especially favored.

For variety she cooked beaver tail, venison, rabbit, quail, plums, nuts and sweet thistle which tasted like honey. Quite a talent with nothing more than and open campfire and eating what nature provided!

Next time...Mountain Man's Home
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Today in Pioneer History:  On April 11, French Foreign Minister Charles Maurice de Talleyrand makes an offer to sell all of Louisiana Territory to the United States in one of the great surprises in diplomatic history .