Cherokee Advocate May 9, 1874

MARRIAGE CEREMONY OF THE ANCIENT CHEROKEES

The following we extract from Rev. Cephas Washburn's reminicences of the Indians. 
There are many persons among the Cherokees who are personally acquainted with 
Mr. Washburn, becoming so when he was a Missionary at old Dwight Mission. He first 
came among the Cherokees in 1819 and from that time until 1840 he remained and 
labored among them in the capacity of preacher and school teacher, spending the 
prime and vigor of his manhood in performing a work with his co-laborers, to which 
is mainly attributable to the present enlightened and Christianized condition of 
the Cherokees.

When he left the Cherokee Nation he settled in Benton County, Arkansas, where in 
our boyhood under this instruction and the kind influences of his estimable family 
we received whatever is of good at present in our composition.

The marriage ceremony as described by him was not in vogue at the time when he came 
among the Cherokees, but is referred to as ancient custom and received by Mr. Washburn 
rather in the order of tradition, and described as follows:

"The whole town was convened, all attired in their gayest apparel. The groom, 
accompanied by the young associates of his own sex, was feasted in a lodge at a 
little distance from the council-house. The bride, with her maiden associate, was 
similarly feasted in a lodge equi-distant from the council house and on the opposite 
side. First the old men took the highest seats on one side of the council house, next 
the old women took similar seats on the other side. Then all the married men took 
seats on the side occupied by the old men, and all the married women sat on the side 
with the old women. At a given signal, the companions of the groom conducted him to 
the open end of the open space between the men and women in the council house. The 
companions of the bride conduct her to the other end of this open space, and they 
now stand with their faces toward each other, but at a distance of from thirty to 
sixty feet apart, according to the size of the council house. The groom now rece!
 ives from his mother a leg of venison and a blanket; the bride receives from her 
mother an ear of corn and a blanket. The groom and bride now commence stepping toward 
each other, and when they meet in the middle of the council house the groom present the 
venison, and the bride her corn, and the blankets are united. This ceremony put into 
words is a promise on the part of the man that he will provide meat for his family, 
and on the woman's part that she will furnish bread, and on the part of both that 
they will occupy the same bed.

After this, holding each to an end of the blankets, and the husband holding the corn 
and the wife the venison, they walk alone and silently to a new cabin which is to be 
their future home.