Genre:

Essay

Subjects:

Race, Anthropology, Ethnography, Sex, Extinction

    When the already married narrator finds himself inadvertently married to a 'not uncomely Indian girl' of the Arrapahoe tribe, he protests that 'the white man's custom is different; [...] he is content with a single wife', but the tribe elders, who themselves practise polygamy, tell him 'with irony' that they 'had known many whites [...] who were not averse to adopting the Indian custom in this respect' (903). Describes many aspects of Native American life, while also observing that 'When their stomachs were full, their hearts were glad; and so it will be until the end of time—or rather of the Indian' (901).