 The
Bridesmaid here is Thelma Collins, cousin to Dennis. Niece to Bellzona.
Daughter of William (Bill) & Fannie Collins.
The earth is the sacred one which
Grandfather the Sun impregnates, and the girls are the carriers of the
warriors of the future. The girls of the present had in their bodies the
warriors yet in Spirit land. If like the woman, Sho-mi-Kase, they ran over
the prairie with all sorts of men coyotes and even some of the lazy mangy
camp dogs, which the village had overlooked, then the Little Ones would no
longer "walk in the light of the day," and there would be no
wrinkles of old age, and "no still trailing while old, like the
flight of the pelican," Their medicine would grow weak, and soon the
Caddoans would come back to claim their old home.
So they protected their girls for the
strongest and bravest and handsomest warrior with the fierceness of the
falcon, and when a girl's proud family gave their daughter to him there
was a formal ceremony.
Even though Dennis and Bertha had eloped
and spent time away from the area, Bertha's parents insisted on a formal
wedding and these are snapshots of that wedding.
The Osages by John Joseph Mathews
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