A fair number of mountain men took Indian, or "country" wives while they were in the West. These relationships lasted from a single season,
to an entire lifetime. Marriages were often to the benefit of both sides. The wife's family got preferred trade arrangements, and the mountain man got
tribal connections. Most Indian wives were tough, travelling with the men during their hunts.

From John Ball, 1832:
Mr. Frapp had an Indian wife who traveled along with him, and the Indians of the party, some of
them, had their wives, these women as good horsemen as the men, always riding astride. One day
we delayed our march, we knew not why, till after a time we heard an outcry for a few minutes
from Frapp’s wife, out to one side in some bushes. And we soon learned the cause of our laying
over, was to give her the opportunity to lay in, give birth to a child in camp and not on our day’s
march. But the very next day, she sat her newborn baby, feet down, into a deep basket that she
hung to the pummel of her saddle, mounted her horse and rode on in the band as usual.

From Irving's Astoria:
Old Dorion was one of those French creoles, descendants of the ancient Canadian
stock, who abound on the western frontier, and amalgamate or cohabit with the savages. He had
sojourned among various tribes, and perhaps left progeny among them all; but his regular, or habitual
wife, was a Sioux squaw. By her he had a hopeful brood of half-breed sons, of whom Pierre
was one.

From Osborne Russell:
On the first of Octr. I again
left the Fort with a Frenchman who had an Indian wife and two children and was going on to
Green river to pass the winter there.

From River of the West:
[Free trappers] generally had an Indian wife and half-breed children.

If the free trapper had a wife, she moved with the camp to which he attached himself, being
furnished with a fine horse, caparisoned in the gayest and costliest manner. Her dress was of the
finest goods the market afforded, and was suitably ornamented with beads, ribbons, fringes, and
feathers. Her rank, too, as a free trapper’s wife, gave her consequence not only in her own eyes,
but in those of her tribe, and protected her from that slavish drudgery to which as the wife of an
Indian hunter or warrior she would have been subject. The only authority which the free trapper
acknowledged was that of his Indian spouse, who generally ruled in the lodge, however her lord
blustered outside.

Trapper's Bride, by A.J. Miller

Good one K.

I'll share a quick one from Vestal's "Joe Meek the Merry Mountain Man".

After the Whitman massacre in Oregon Territory Joe and another man were sent back east to seek federal help. Meek arrived at the capital and was invited to a reception at the white house. Polk was a cousin to Joe. Joe was bathed, barbered up, and set up with a suit of new clothes for the occasion. A woman there, probably admiring the handsome Meek ventured a question:

Are you married? "Yes indeed," answered Meek, with emphasis, "I have a wife and several children. "Oh dear," exclaimed the lady, "I should think your wife would be so afraid of the Indians!" "Afraid of the Indians!" exclaimed Meek in his turn; "Why madam, she is an Indian herself!"

Joe Meek took for his second wife a Nez Perce chief's daughter and renamed her Virginia (after his native state). She was 15 at the time and ended up bearing Joe 11 kids.

Our late association president Bob Gilman discovered that his daughter-in-law is a direct descendant of that union. I think if not for these country marriages a lot of Indian DNA would have been lost entirely because of the high tribal mortality from white man's diseases. The metis kids had a better chance of survival on picking up some immunity from their papas.

I wish there was a photo of Umentucken, the mountain Lamb.

Yes indeed, originally Milton Sublette's "country wife", Joe "inherited her" when Milton went back to the settlements because of health issues. Joe once said that she was the most beautiful Indian woman he ever saw.

From River of the West:

upon the word of Meek himself, no sooner was Milton’s back turned, than his friend so insinuated
himself into the good graces of his Isabel, as Sublette was wont to name the lovely Umentucken,
that she consented to join her fortunes to those of the handsome young trapper without
even the ceremony of serving a notice on her former lord. As their season of bliss only extended
over one brief year, this chapter shall be entirely devoted to recording such facts as have been
imparted to us concerning this free trapper’s wife.
“She was the most beautiful Indian woman I ever saw,” says Meek: “ and when she was mounted
on her dapple gray horse, which cost me three hundred dollars, she made a fine show. She wore
a skirt of beautiful blue broadcloth, and a bodice and leggins of scarlet cloth, of the very finest
make. Her hair was braided and fell over her shoulders, a scarlet silk handkerchief, tied on hood
fashion, covered her head; and the finest embroidered moccasins her feet. She rode like all the
Indian women, astride, and carried on one side of the saddle the tomahawk for war, and on the
other the pipe of peace.
“The name of her horse was “ All Fours.” His accoutrements were as fine as his rider’s. The saddle,
crupper, and bust girths cost one hundred and fifty dollars; the bridle fifty dollars; and the muska-
moots fifty dollars more. All these articles were ornamented with fine cut glass beads, porcupine
quills, and hawk’s bells, that tinkled at every step. Her blankets were of scarlet and blue, and of
the finest quality. Such was the outfit of the trapper’s wife, Umentucken, Tukutey Undenwatsy, the
Lamb of the Mountains.”

At a gathering, Meek shot a Crow warrior who whipped Umentucken, just to display his
power over all women.

So much for the female element in the camp of the Rocky Mountain trapper. Woman, it is said,
has held the apple of discord, from mother Eve to Umentucken, and in consonance with this
theory, Bridger, doubtless, considered the latter as the primal cause of the unfortunate “ row in
camp,” rather than the brutality of the Crow, or the imprudence of Meek.
But Umentucken’s career was nearly run. In the following summer she met her death by a Bannack
arrow; dying like a warrior, although living she was only a woman.

Beautiful, K!