It has been remarked by some writers that the aboriginal inhabitants of America are deficient in passion for the fair sex.  This is by no means the case with the Crees; on the contrary their practice of seducing each other’s wives proves the most fertile source of their quarrels.  When the guilty pair are detected the woman generally receives a severe beating, but the husband is for the most part afraid to reproach the male culprit until they get drunk together at the fort; then the remembrance of the offence is revived, a struggle ensues and the affair is terminated by the loss of a few handfuls of hair.  Some husbands however feel more deeply the injury done to their honour and seek revenge even in their sober moments.  In such cases it is not uncommon for the offended party to walk with great gravity up to the other and, deliberately seizing his gun or some other article of value, to break it before his face.  The adulterer looks on in silence, afraid to make any attempt to save his property.  In this respect indeed the Indian character seems to differ from the European that an Indian, instead of letting his anger increase with that of his antagonist, assumes the utmost coolness lest he should push him to extremities.

Although adultery is sometimes punished amongst the Crees in the manner above described yet it is no crime provided the husband receives a valuable consideration for his wife’s prostitution.  Neither is chastity considered as a virtue in a female before marriage, that is before she becomes the exclusive property of one hunter.

The Cree women are not in general treated harshly by their husbands and possess considerable influence over them.  They often eat and even get drunk in consort with the men; a considerable portion of the labour however falls to the lot of the wife.  She makes the hut, cooks, dresses the skins, and for the most part carries the heaviest load:  but when she is unable to perform her task the husband does not consider it beneath his dignity to assist her.  In illustration of this remark I may quote the case of an Indian who visited the fort in winter.  This poor man’s wife had lost her feet by the frost and he was compelled not only to hunt and do all the menial offices himself but in winter to drag his wife with their stock of furniture from one encampment to another.  In the performance of this duty as he could not keep pace with the rest of the tribe in their movements he more than once nearly perished of hunger.

These Indians however, capable as they are of behaving thus kindly, affect in their discourse to despise the softer sex and on solemn occasions will not suffer them to eat before them or even come into their presence.  In this they are countenanced by the white residents, most of whom have Indian or half-breed wives but seem afraid of treating them with the tenderness or attention due to every female lest they should themselves be despised by the Indians.  At least this is the only reason they assign for their neglect of those whom they make partners of their beds and mothers of their children.