While a large number of Native couples have adopted traditional church weddings, many Native Americans desire their weddings to reflect their Native heritage and do research with the help of a Native wedding planner to incorporate their tribal practices. Here are just a few:
A custom among the Northern Californian Native Americans (Klamath, the Modoc and the Yurok), which is unique to them, is what they call a half-marriage and full-marriage. In a full-marriage, two kinsmen represent the future bridegroom. After agreeing on a bridal price, the bridegroom—usually with his father’s help—would pay the bride’s family. The future social status of the family, including the children, depended on the price. So the bridegroom was willing to pay as much as he could possibly afford.
In a half-marriage, the man would pay about half the usual price for his bride. The bridegroom would live in his wife’s home under her father’s rule. He may have to do this because of lack of money or social standing, or if his own father did not approve of his bride. A bride’s family might allow her to half-marry because the family had no sons and needed another man in the family.
For the Navajo, white corn meal was used to symbolize the groom, and yellow, the bride. They would combine the two meals into a corn mush which they’d put into a “wedding basket” before the ceremony. The Navajo bride was an equal partner with her husband. They would share the corn meal pudding during the wedding ceremony to symbolize the marriage bond.
The Hopi on the other hand would give an informal picnic when their daughter was between 16 and 20. If their girl had chosen a young fellow as a future mate, she would extend an invitation for him to accompany her and would present him with a loaf of qomi, a bread made of sweet cornmeal instead of a maiden’s cake (somiviki). Since this was almost the same as an engagement, the young man would only accept the loaf if he was willing to marry her.
The Algonquin traditions, including the Cree, the Ojibwa or Chippewa, the Ottawa, the Montagnais, the Naskapi and others, when a young man chose his future bride, he went to live with her family since the Algonquins are matriarchal. The bridal customs were determined by the growing season. In warmer climates, women would raise the crops to support the families and were considered matriarchal. In cooler climates, the men would support the family by hunting and were thus led by men.
Adapted from information provided by Lois Pearce, Master Bridal Consultant, Hamden, CT and the Association of Bridal Consultants.
