A young girl of this band had
received repeated offers of marriage from a Dahcotah, whom she hated
with the same degree of intensity that she loved his rival.
She dared not marry the object of her choice, for she knew it would
subject herself and him to the persecutions of her family. She declared
she never would consent to be the wife of the man whom her parents had
chosen for her, though he was young and brave, and, what is most valued
by the friends of an Indian girl, he was said to be the best hunter of
the tribe.
"Marry him, my daughter," said the mother, "your father is old; he
cannot now hunt deer for you and me, and what shall we do for food?
Chaske will hunt the deer and buffalo, and we shall be comfortable
and happy."
"Yes," said her father, "your mother speaks well. Chaske is a great
warrior too. When your brother died, did he not kill his worst enemy and
hang up his scalp at his grave?"
But Wenona persevered in her refusal. "I do not love him, I will not
marry him," was her constant reply.
But Chaske, trusting to time and her parent's influence, was not
discouraged.
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