Herman Basket plays a much smaller role in this story than either "Herman Basket's sister" or "Herman Basket's aunt," as those two women are invariably identified. He is not involved in the courtship of his sister, and only appears directly in the narrative once, when he asks her suitors to "be reasonable" (368). But according to the narrator's father, Herman Basket can make his sister behave, and unlike his aunt, is not a snob.
As a character, David Hogganbeck evokes the heroes of American tall tales about the frontier. "Bigger than any two" of the Chickasaw men "put together" (366), he is a skilled steamboat pilot, an accomplished fiddle player, a formidable opponent in eating, drinking and dancing competitions, and Ikkemotubbe's chivalrous rival for the hand of Herman Basket's sister. For her love he is willing to throw off his job, and for his Indian rival he is willing to lose his life.
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.
"Moketubbe's little son," who in time would have become chief of the tribe, dies "within two days" after Ikkemotubbe returns to the Plantation (363). While not saying so explicitly, the narrator makes it clear that he is poisoned.
Issetibbeha's son, Moketubbe becomes the tribe's chief, "the Man," on his father's death (363). He appears in the narrative, and disappears from it too, very quickly. Although the narrator does not say so, like his unnamed son Moketubbe is presumably killed by his cousin Ikkemotubbe when, three years after the main story has ended, Ikkemotubbe returns to the Plantation with his box of "strong salt," i.e. poison, and his determination to become chief (363). At any rate, shortly after his return Ikkemotubbe "was himself the Man" (363).
He is "The Man" - i.e. the chief of the Chickasaw tribe in the story (361). In "Red Leaves" the character named Issetibbeha is Ikkemotubbe's son. But in this story and others, he is Ikkemotubbe's uncle. He does not appear directly in the narrative of "A Courtship." Before its events begin he signs a treaty with General Jackson, and he "enters the earth" - that is, dies - about two years after the main story ends (363).
The narrator's father is a member of the Chickasaw tribe. He has a house inside the Plantation. He advises Ikkemotubbe about the best strategy for courting Herman Basket's sister, and helps Owl-by-Night look for Ikkemotubbe's horse. Along with "the young men," he also stokes the fire in the steamboat at the end of the story (380), which leaves open a possibility that the text never develops: perhaps like Ikkemotubbe, the narrator's father "went away" from the Plantation (362).
The narrator who tells the story of Ikkemotubbe, David Hogganbeck and Herman Basket's sister tells us very little about himself. It's highly likely that he is male, though that is not definitively said. He is an Indian: his use of "us" to refer to the Chickasaws and his reference to "my father's house" (369) locate him inside Issetibbeha's tribe. But whether he is relating events that he saw firsthand or repeating a story about "the old days" that he was told is not clear (380). Nor can we say when Faulkner imagines him telling the story, or to whom.
A number of Mississippi Indians did own slaves, and in "Red Leaves" and "A Justice," Faulkner's other Indian stories, he explores this theme in detail. In "A Courtship," however, it only appears in the narrator's brief mention of the black people whom Ikkemotubbe brings with him when he returns to the Plantation three years after the story's main events: the "eight new slaves which we did not need" (363), later referred to as "the eight more slaves which we had no use for" (379).
The city of Nashville was originally founded in 1779. But when the story uses it to complete the phrase "between Natchez and Nashville" (365), it is in reference to the fact that the Natchez Trace, a 440-mile forest trail used by the Indians before the coming of European settlers, ran between the sites later occupied by the two cities.
