Summary: The Trapper's Bride

While touring the Eiteljorg Museum I noticed several themes in which the art by non-native people related to that of the natives. One such theme that I would like to focus on, is the view of marriage and degradation of native women as viewed by both natives and non-natives. Three pieces in particular that I want to focus on are Bartering for a Bride (The Trapper’s Bride) 1845 by Alfred Jacob Miller, Dress 1890 by an unnamed Crow artist, and Retracing the Trace 2011-2015 by Luzene Hill. Artist Alfred Jacob Miller depicts the scene of a tradeoff in his painting, Bartering for a Bride (The Trapper’s Bride). In the foreground viewers see a non-native man kneeling and accepting the hand of a young Native American woman. Behind the young woman are several other natives, presumably her tribe, a horse, and teepees further into the background. To the left of the woman is a native man
The description of this dress called it “basically a wedding dress” (). It is bright red in color, nearly the opposite of what traditional non-native Americans think of when they think of a wedding dress. Adorning the dress are many elk teeth. According to the description, “as a boy grew up he would collect elk teeth and save them for his mothers and sisters to put on a dress for his wife when he married” (). This shows how important marriage was to the native people. A male spent his adolescent years preparing for his bride and the marriage ceremony. Its important to note the role that family plays in this as well. A boy would provide these teeth to his mother and sisters for the production, meaning there was a cooperative way in which families functioned. While this dress is beautiful and fascinating, it certainly is not what non-native Americans or Europeans would find appealing, fashionable, or respectable in the 1800s, hence why Miller found it necessary to paint his bartered bride in a white