Ten years of missionary work among the Indians at Skokomish, Washington Territory, 1874-1884Eells, Myron
Religion
Ten years of missionary work among the Indians at Skokomish, Washington Territory, 1874-1884
Eells, Myron
Clallam Indians -- Missions; Missions -- Washington (State); Skokomish Indian Reservation (Wash.); Twana Indians -- Missions
While she probably is not eighty-five, yet she was old enough to obtain
a license and leave her mother. He was about seventy years old. These
were all married with one set of words, when congratulations
followed--regular hand-shaking, none of those present so far forgetting
themselves as to indulge in the (im)propriety of kissing the brides. The
ceremony having been concluded, a part of those present, the invited
guests (but here there was a distinction as to race and color) sat down
to the marriage-feast. It was none of your light, frosted, airy cake (in
fact, there was not any cake in sight), but substantial _solid_ bread
and the like. [Here the line went down, and the meager accounts we could
gather about the elegant and varied costumes worn by the charming
brides, the number and appearance of the bridesmaids, etc., had better
be supplied from the vivid imaginations of the readers.] All of the high
contracting parties, we may say, however, are tax-payers of Clallam
County and land-owners. _Kloshe hahkwa_ (“good so”).
Not much of a direct war was waged on plural marriages. They were simply
fenced in and allowed to die out. In 1874 there were only five Twana men
who had more than one wife, and there were about as many more among the
Clallams. Those who had one wife were never allowed to obtain another as
long as they were living with the first. When one of the wives died of
those who had more than one, or was willingly put away, they were not
allowed to take another in her place. On some reservations where plural
marriages have been numerous, the plan has been adopted of having the
man choose one of his wives as the one to whom he should be legally
married; and then, in order to save the others and their children from
suffering, they have been told to provide for them until the women
should be married to some other man. Among these Indians it has now come
to be practically the same. One is the real wife, and the others are so
old that they are simply taken care of by their husbands, except when
they take care of themselves, until they shall get married again; only
they do not get married to any one else, being willing to be thus cared
for.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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