In 1800, when he was 20, Tanner married an Ojibwe woman, Mis-kwa-bun-o-kwa, the niece of Michigan fur trader, Madeleine LaFramboise. In 1801 he met a fur trader, Daniel Harmon, who noted in his diary that Tanner spoke only Saulteaux, was regarded as a chief by his people, and was like an Indian in every way except color. Around 1807 his first wife left him and he remarried in 1810 to an Indian woman known as Therezia. During both marriages he quarreled with his in-laws and was threatened with violence. By 1812 he was considering a return to his family in Kentucky but the War of 1812 made travel impossible.