Ikkemotubbe

Ikkemotubbe is the central character in "A Courtship," which can be read as the account of Ikkemotubbe's fall from being a beloved member of his tribe - "one of the young men, the best one" (363) - to the ruthless schemer who becomes chief by murdering his relatives. Born into the female line of the tribe's ruling family, he "rides the hardest and fastest and dances the longest and gets the drunkest and was loved the best" (363). The story's central narrative - Ikkemotubbe's competition with David Hogganbeck for Herman Basket's sister - displays his moral as well as his physical virtues. It also develops his attraction to his rival in ways that suggest a latent homosexuality, though when he sheds tears at the end it is for his disappointment in heterosexual love, as "one of the young men who loved and was not loved in return" (379).