Goodhue Coldfield's mother is a very elusive character. The novel several times asserts that Rosa Coldfield's childhood was spent in a household consisting of her father and her aunt, but in one passage it refers to the fact that Mr. Coldfield had to support "a dependent mother" as well as his family (32).
Sutpen negotiates his acquisition of land "with or through" the "Chickasaw Indian agent" (25). The adjective is ambiguous, but it's unlikely the agent was a Chickasaw himself. Historically, Indian agents were white men who worked for the U.S. government as the official intermediary between white America and Native Americans.
