Indian Widower

Printer-friendly versionWe often speak of the Indian conntemptuously, but some of their habits would honor in devotion, the heroism of the white man.  Bemo when a white man loses his wife, he sheds a few tears, feels sorry a few days and wears crepe on his hat, a month or so, and all is over.

But when a Seminole looses his companionship, he buries her in front of his wigwam, and a fences up her grave.  He goes to his native mountains to gather wild flowers to plant upon the place of her rest, and watches year after year that no bird, nor beast, nor child shall find footing upon it, to distrub its quiet, or trample upon its flowers.

If he is driven away from his native country, he goes to that grave, digs up the bones that it conceals, wraps them in his blanket, bears them on his back until he find another resting place for himself and his dead.

Portsmouth Times,  13 Sept 1859, page one.