"Her kindred have a prior right and can use that right to separate her from him or protect her from him, should he mistreat her….not only does the woman (under our white nation) lose her independent hold on her property and herself, but there are offenses and injuries which…would be avenged and punished by her relatives under tribal law, but which have no penalty or recognition under our lawas… At the present time, all property is personal…a wife is as independent in the uses of her possessions as is the most independent man in our midst….While I was living with the Indians, my hostess one day gave away a very fine horse….I asked, ,will your husband like to have you give the horse away?….I tried to explain how a white woman would act, but laughter and contempt met my explanation of the white man's hold upon his wife's property….As I have tried to explain our statutes to Indian women, I have met with one response. They have said, "As an Indian woman, I was free, I owned my home, my person, the work of my hands, and my children could never forget me.I was better as an Indian woman than under white law."