[Footnote 10:  The manner of courtship among the Ojibwes seemed to Peter Grant not only singular, but rude.  “The lover begins his first addresses by gently pelting his mistress with bits of clay, snowballs, small sticks, or anything he may happen to have in his hand.  If she returns the compliment, he is encouraged to continue the farce, and repeat it for a considerable time, after which more direct proposals of marriage are made by word of mouth.”]

Among the Ojibwe and Huron Indians of the Great Lakes the men sometimes obliged their wives to bring up and nourish young bears instead of their own children, so that the bears might eventually be fattened for eating.  If food was scarce, the women went without before even the male slaves of the tribe were unprovided with food.  Women might never eat in the society of males, not even if these males were slaves or prisoners of war.  If food was very scarce, the husband as likely as not killed and ate a wife; perhaps did this before slaying and eating a valuable dog. (On the other hand, Mackenzie instances the case of a woman among the Slave Indians who, in a winter of great scarcity, managed to kill and devour her husband and several relations.) So terrible was the ill-treatment of the women in some tribes that these wretched beings sometimes committed suicide to end their tortures.  Even in this, however, they were not let off lightly, for the Siou men invented as a tenet of their religion the saying that “Women who hang themselves are the most miserable of all wretches in the other world”.

On the other hand, the kind treatment of children by fathers as well as mothers is an “Indian” trait commented on by writer after writer.  Here is a typical description by Alexander Henry the Elder, concerning the children of the Ojibwe tribe: 

“As soon as the boys begin to run about, they are provided with bows and arrows, and acquire, as it were ‘by instinct’, an astonishing dexterity in shooting birds, squirrels, butterflies, &c.  Hunting in miniature may be justly said to comprise the whole of their education and childish diversion.  Such as excel in this kind of exercise are sure of being particularly distinguished by their parents, and seldom punished for any misbehaviour, but, on the contrary, indulged in every degree of excess and caprice.  I have often seen grown-up boys of this description, when punished for some serious fault, strike their father and spit in his face, calling him ‘bad dog’, or ‘old woman’, and, sometimes, carrying their insolence so far as to threaten to stab or shoot him, and, what is rather singular, these too-indulgent parents seem to encourage such unnatural liberties, and even glory in such conduct from their favourite children.  I heard them boast of having sons who promised at an early age to inherit such bold and independent sentiments....  Children of nine or ten years of age not only enjoy the confidence of the men, but are generally considered as companions and very deliberately join in their conversations.”