Romance. American West/England. Probably Victorian era. Blonde toddler with Indians

I would have read this in the 90s. A duchess? dies leaving her daughter with a tribe of Sioux?. While the girl is raised, her adoptive father kidnaps a priest to teach her English...only he teaches her French. I think the father has to kidnap another man to teach her English. Also, later in the novel, she admits to the hero that she captured a snak barehanded in an effort to impress her father. Turns out the snake was a rattlesnake.

Possibly Lion's Lady? It matches on the high-born European raised by Native Americans and definitely has the scene about telling the hero she once brought a poisonous snake home to her father.

ETA: Some scene snippets pulled from Google Books:

Christiana turned her gaze to stare at his chest so that his golden eyes wouldn't break her concentration. "My brother carried home a beautiful snake. Father was very pleased."

"He was?"

"It was a fine snake, Lyon."

and

"They didn't want to frighten me into dropping the snake, I was told later. Anyway," she added with a sight, "Father walked over to me. He took the snake out of my hand, killed it, and then began to shout at me. Mother knew I didn't understand. Father had praised my brother, you see, yet he was yelling at me."

Yay! That second scene is EXACTLY what I remember! I'm not sure why I assumed it was a rattlesnake.

Yay! Hope you enjoy rereading it. It's been many years since I read this, but I remember it fondly.

I'm not sure if the text ever specified the exact type of snake. Me, I had always assumed the brother had found a colorful non-poisonous milk snake and the heroine a similar-looking poisonous coral snake.

That would totally make sense because she was mimicking her brother looking for her father's praise.