These animals are of great value among the Dahcotahs; their flesh is considered excellent as an article of food, and the women stain their quills to ornament the dresses of the men, their mocassins, and many other articles in use among them.

A young girl of this band had received repeated offers of marriage from a Dahcotah, whom she hated with the same degree of intensity that she loved his rival.
She dared not marry the object of her choice, for she knew it would subject herself and him to the persecutions of her family.

She declared she never would consent to be the wife of the man whom her parents had chosen for her, though he was young and brave, and, what is most valued by the friends of an Indian girl, he was said to be the best hunter of the tribe.
"Marry him, my daughter," said the mother, "your father is old; he cannot now hunt deer for you and me, and what shall we do for food?
Chaske will hunt the deer and buffalo, and we shall be comfortable and happy." "Yes," said her father, "your mother speaks well.

Chaske is a great warrior too.

When your brother died, did he not kill his worst enemy and hang up his scalp at his grave ?" But Wenona persevered in her refusal.