and she probably thinks the same
of you. She does not know that you care for her. She feels that she
is different in some way, and most likely if you smile upon her she
will not know it, for she is too modest even to look at you; but
speak to her in a pleasant tone and offer to shake hands with her and
notice her baby, and she begins to think that _you_ are a woman. In
her no trace of dignity nor Pocahontas beauty are discernible, but
she is untidy in person and attire, her movements are decidedly
lackadaisical. An uninteresting object, indeed, to one who does not
care to help her. But _we_ believe that she has a woman's heart; and
more than that--she has a soul.

Her aspirations for herself are limited, but she wants her child to
grow up in the white people's way. Yet how small her conception of
how this is to be accomplished!

She is a heathen--hemmed in on every side by fear and superstition.
Her gods are gods of fear. She believes in witchcraft, is afraid of a
world full of evil spirits. Under a pagan religion her place is next
to the mere animals. She goes with her husband to the hunt, not as a
companion, but as the drudge, the human pack-horse; she prepares the
food, and her husband devours it regardless of her needs; he may
boast of his "old woman" as being "nina mimi heca" (swift or good to
work) for that is the only accomplishment required in his selfish,
egotistical mind. "The Indian woman comes into the world under a
species of protest--every Indian parent desiring to have boys, rather
than girls, hence she grows up into a condition of servitude." "In
the Indian nation to purchase a wife is the honorable way, all other
ways are dishonorable, and the man having bought his wife, although
the custom of the country does not allow him to dispose of her to
another, yet he may put her away, or leave her, at his pleasure. He
may also whip her and beat her, for she is his money." I never shall
forget one poor woman who came to me soon after we went to the Indian
country. She showed me her back covered with the marks where her
husband had beaten her.

Now I have given you a brief description of the Indian woman _as we
find her_. What can be done for her? What would _you_ do for her?
There is only one thing. _Help her to become a Christian._ This is
not to be accomplished in a hurry, for she is in bondage to her
husband--to her religion. But faith and prayer, together with a
genuine interest in the Indian home, can