At the end of the story, Joe explains to the narrator what really happened to Henry’s wife, alluding to ongoing tensions between white settlers and Native Americans in the process:
“She went to see her folks half a year after she was married, and on her way back, on a Saturday evening, the Indians captured her within five miles of this place, and she’s never been heard of since.”
This moment is notable as it reveals the unexpected plot twist that Henry’s wife was never on her way home to Henry (as the narrator thought was true for the entirety of the story), but that she had been missing (and presumed dead) for almost two decades.
This moment also includes a subtle allusion to the tensions between Native Americans and white settlers during the period of westward expansion in the United States. While the logic of Manifest Destiny filled white Christian settlers with a sense of entitlement over the Americas, indigenous peoples resisted this ongoing colonization (and genocide), sometimes by attacking white communities in return.
It is important to note that in this story—and in many others—Twain depicts Native Americans as violent perpetrators when, in reality, the violence between settlers and indigenous people was initially and primarily perpetrated by settlers (including miners) who displaced Native American communities in order to own and exploit land for themselves.
