The Frontier, May 1926 — page 79: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

ie. — CET, WL Gr B bal) tt YU? aes A BRIDE TOO MANY By ALANSON SKINNER Author of ‘The American Indian,”’ “Winking Bear Goes to War,” etc. A man should stick to one woman—especially if that woman ts extremely jealous and has a temper of her own—yes, and more especially if prospective spouse number two is as ugly as Roaming Chief’s old widow; so very properly Bright Horns took precautions to avoid further matrimonial entanglement. OU know, partner,” remarked Bright Horns, my Sauk Indian friend, “I had to leave our camp on the Deep Fork in a_ hurry, because the widow of the old Pawnee, Roaming Chief, showed up looking for one of our peo- ple who had got her to release him, when he was a prisoner in her village, by promising to elope with her. Well, as I told you, that Indian was me. As a matter of fact, though, Winking Bear, the name of my no-account cou- sin, was the name that I had given her, and, as it had been too dark for her to see my face, it looked as though my cousin was going to have a hard time to get out of it. I had the news from a young relative in time to pack up and get out of camp, because I did not wish to do anything that might in- terfere with Winking Bear and his ar- rangements. “Well, that old Pawnee woman was something to have bad dreams about! Wah, her face was warty; she had a long red nose, and she was as skinny as a lean jack-rabbit! And fight! Say, partner, I once saw her drive old Roaming Chief all over the prairie, beating him with the flat of a war- club. So, when I left the Yellow Earth village for the Creek country, my medicine told me to keep right on going, and I never stopped until I got clean over to the Spavinaw Hills, in the Cherokee nation! “Not at all did that old horned toad show up at the Deep Fork alone. She fetched them all along, her relations. There were about twenty-five Pawnee watriors, with presents ‘and horses, and they evidently meant to have a big time at the old lady’s wedding to Winking Bear. Now Keokuk, who was our chief at the time, was very friendly toward the Pawnee, and old lady Roaming Chief was a pretty im- portant person among the Skidi band. So, when the word came that she was there, Keokuk called in all his Braves, and they turned out, with their best deerskin clothes and feathers on and their heads newly shaved and painted, and with their war-spears and clubs. “Wah, from what they told me afterward, they made a fine show. And they came and escorted the old skele- ton into the camp. Keokuk feasted them all, and, afterward, when the dancing was over and a whole lot of presents had been given back and forth, she told Keokuk just what she had come there for. Of course, Keo- kuk was pleased, and he sent half a 69 dozen Braves over to Winking Bear’s lodge, where he was eating with his Menomini wife at the time. Winking Bear couldn’t figure out just what the chief wanted him for, but he thought in his heart, since the Pawnee were in camp, that it must have something to do with the horses that he and I had stolen from them a couple of moons before, when I was captured in Roam- ing Chief’s lodge. But there wasn't any way to escape, so he had to go. “When he got over there and went into Keokuk’s big bark house, he saw the big crowd of Pawnee all gathered together and that homely old widow who was the main one, sitting beside Keokuk in the guest place, at the back of the lodge, smoking a long pipe like aman. She was so hard to look at that my cousin felt his stomach completely turn over. “‘Hau, Pawnee woman, here is your bridegroom!’ the chief spoke. “Really, it is in my heart almost to be sorry for Winking Bear when I think of it! That old fence lizard jumped up from her place, and before poor Winking Bear could even draw breath, she threw her arms around him and gave him a kiss, a wet kiss, right on his° mouth, and her whiskers scratched him like so many quills from a porcupine! CORNICE LOOO® COM <S