In The life and adventures of James P. Beckwourth (New York, 1856), p. [116]., The Native American woman died after her husband punished her for disobeying him when she chose to dance in celebration of the scalping of three white men. After her death, her father (a Flat Head) prevented Beckwourth from being killed, and also presented him with the wife’s younger sister as a replacement wife., Recumbent portrait of Mrs. Beckwourth after her husband struck her with the side of his battle-axe.