The True Narrative of the Five Years' Suffering and Perilous Adventures by Miss Barber, Wife of "Squatting Bear," a Celebrated Sioux Chief

"Created quite a sensation in the Eastern States by her marriage to a young Brule named Squatting Bear, who accompanied a party of Sioux to Washington in 1867." -Kansas City Times, 1872 "Her narrative is one of deep and entrancing interest." -Narratives of Captivity Among the Indians "A white trader name Daniel Leroy helped her escape to Fort Leavenworth." - Massachusetts Historical Society (1946) "Exaggerated two stereotypic images: the Indian as savage and the white woman as delicate vessel." - White Captives: Gender and Ethnicity on the American Frontier (2005) "Miss Barber had missionary aspirations; but they were soon quenched by the squalor of her husband's wigwam." - Red Men Calling on the Great White Father (1951) In 1867, when celebrated Sioux Chief "Squatting Bear" was visiting "The Great White Father" in Washington, D.C., 19-year-old Mary Barber (born 1848) would propose to and marry the great Brule warrior, who then promptly set out with her across the country to his Sioux village near Yankton, Dakota. The marriage had created a major sensation in newspapers of that time. Barber notes that "along the route we were greeted either with cheers, or shouts of derision, from the crowds assembled at the different railroad depots." After surviving a perilous journey across the country strapped to a pony, Barber would realize she had been more than a little rash in marrying Squatting Bear, who already had two other wives and would later marry a fourth, the jealous and vindictive Meemole. She notes that "the 'squaw' is forced in most cases, to do all the menial labor, and is in fact a slave." The next five years of her life would be spent "as a captive, in reality," with her husband becoming "a perfect tyrant," from whom she "resolved to escape if possible." In…