Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 January 1898 — AN INDIAN BRIDE. [ARTICLE]

AN INDIAN BRIDE.

Ilia F-omantic Engagement of a Sioux Maiden. - .-a Sbe Become* the Wife of an Irlah* man Who Saved Her Father’* Life and Gave Her an Education. t A notable wedding occurred at Bismarck, N. D., on June 24. The bridle was Picture Eyes, the daughter of John Moose, an old warrior, who HUs scalped many a white mau and participated in many a tribal battle. The bridegroom was Thomas Dulaine Cronan, an Irishman by birth. The marriage ceremony was performed first by a Roman Catholic priest, after which the Indians had a genuine old-fashioned wedding feast. The wedding was the culmination of a courtship extending over seven years, which has been attended by unusual incidents. Picture Eyes at the age of 18 was a well-formed, pretty-faced girl who could not speak a word of any but the Sioux language, and had never known the ways and customs of the white man. She lived then in a tepee with her parents. Now she is 25 years of age, educated and refined. Her father, John Moo. e. lives on the Standing Rock reservation. but the bride has been a memher*of Col. Frank Duncan’s family, having been adopted by him several years ago w ith the consent of her parents. It was about ten years ago that Mr. ("rorarNlrst came to this country. He was then about 25 years of age and came out west through the instrumentality of Moreton Frewen, an English financier, who was at that time interested with Marquis de Mores in the cattle raising and exporting business. Cronan was sent to America ps a sort of special agent to look after the interest's of the English capitalists, and his duties brought him*' to the cattle raising regions of Montana and Wyoming once each year. On his third trip he had occasion to stop off at Medora, and it was there that he met the Indian girl. Upon the day of his arrival a Sioux Indian had been thrown into jail fer attempting to set fire to a ranchman's barn and there was a mob of white men gathered about the jail door 'evidently bent upon lynching the Indian. The plucky constable, who was a small man. stood upon the do6r step threatening to shoct the first man that made a move forward, but it was certain that he could not stand the mob off very long, and already a detachment cf the would-be lynchers had begun to batter in the lone window of the building. In the meantime an Indian girl had appeared upon the scene and was darting about making frantic efforts to have sonve one understand the entreaties she was screaming in the Indian tongue. Cronan, noticing the girl, asked who she was, and was told that the man in the jail was her father, and that she wanted the mob to spare his life for her sake. Cronan, moved by the helplessness of the girl, decided to intercede for the fife of the Indian, though he realised that, it was a dangerous move and might cost him his life. Elbowing through the mob, he sprang to the side of the constable and shouted out a plea for the Indian. He persevered in his efforts whenever the din subsided long enough for him to be heard, and in time he was successful. The mob dispersed, leaving the constable in charge of the jail and his prisoner. A few days later the prisoner, who was John Moose, was tried and was acquitted, having proved an alibi. Cronan went buck to England, but returned in six months to Medora, only to find that John Moose and his family had gone to Bismarck. He went to the latter place on his return trip from Wyoming and found the Moose family sungly quartered in a tepee on thebank *of the Great Muddy. lie learned that the girl had already been promised to a young buck named Four Toe, who had given her father a certain quantity of tobacco for her band. Cronan and an interpreter went to the tepee of..the lucky Four Toe and proceeded at once to negotiate for the purchase of the prospective bride. It was an up-hill job at first, but after several trips had been made to the lodge of Four Toe the redskin finally relinquished all his right, title, and interest in and to the Sioux maiden for the consideration of $25 in hand paid and ten pounds of cabbage-leaf tobacco to be delivered on the wedding day. Then the old warrior’s consent was obtained to the proposed marriage and Cronan returned to England, after making arrangements with Col. Frank Duncan for the adoption of the girl and for her education. Picture Eyes attended the Indian school : t Carlisle, Pa., for two years and then was placed in n seminary at St. Paul, where her education was finished. —N. Y. Sun.