CHAPTER XIX.
THE MARRIAGE LAWS.
THE Klamath Indians intermarry to some extent with the surrounding tribes. The upper and lower divisions of the Klamath tribes marry very freely, being the same tribe, with the exception that their language is different. The two divisions are so closely associated with each other that many of our people speak both languages fluently. It was always considered a good marriage for a man of the lower division to marry a woman of the upper division, or a man of the upper division to marry a woman of the lower division, but they always preferred to marry outside their own division if possible, as they were not so liable to marry relations. It was not considered good to marry relations, even to fifth and sixth cousins, as their law taught them that marrying blood relations was a crime against posterity. It was considered a crime for parents to bring demented or deformed children into the world. By marriage they keep a close trace of their relationship, the woman never loses her identity by marrying, as she takes the name of her husband and the husband takes the name of his wife, as the following will illustrate: a Trinidad woman marries a man of the Pec-wan village, the Indian name of which is Cho-ri, therefore the woman is Cho-ri woman, and they call her husband after marriage Cho-rosh; the husband is a Pec-wan man, therefore they call the wife after him and call her Pec-wish-on. The children are called Pec-wan-alth, and are always addressed by these names which remind them that their mother is a Cho-ri woman, and their father a Pec-wan. This custom is followed so that they can trace out their relationship exactly for generations.
Occasionally a Talth will marry the daughter of a wealthy family, however, they are very careful in selecting their wives, as they usually marry into the Talth families, if they can marry where there is no relationship. Some of the very rich men had plural wives, or as many wives as they cared to support, but the average Indian had but one wife. There has been some instances of plural marriages since the white man made his appearance on the Klamath River, one of which I will make special mention of. This Indian who had made eleven women his wives, was born under the very lowest marriage laws, at the Wah-teck village and was known as Ca-wah-ter; his parents were extremely poor, living in poverty and squalor at the Wah-tec village, where they raised a large family of children. The romance of his parents was very pathetic as they had nothing to give in exchange of the marriage vows, except some manzanita berries. The exchange of food-stuffs in the marriage ceremony is considered the very lowest of marriages that could be called a marriage. From this lowly marriage were born several brothers and one sister, Ga-wah-ter and his brothers, when they had grown into manhood, were all industrious and became good managers in securing wealth, as the bitter taunts of the poverty of their parents urged them on to greater ambitions. While they were children, the children of the middle and wealthy class would not associate with or play with them, always being coldly shunned by the other children and looked down upon as unworthy of respect. Children of the wealthier class would always make insinuations that the brothers and sister of this family were born under the very lowest of marriage, that their parents were nothing, hardly worthy of notice. These children grew up almost in desperation, being despised so much for their poverty, and the storms of insinuations were continually hurled at them in defiance, to become anything better, where their birth was so lowly. When they reached manhood, they were stricken with remorse because of their lowly birth right, their parents were both born of good birth, their families having at one time a good deal of wealth before they were married so unfortunately. With that remorse of poverty sunken deep into their hearts these young men started out in the pursuit of the Indian life to hunt, trap, fish and accumulate all the wealth they could possibly get. Early and late the brothers were always at work, as great ambitions spurred them on to accumulate vastriches, and rise up from the lowly depths, where they had been so despised. They worked and banked their wealth together until they became very rich, then they separated and married, each taking his portion of the wealth as they went to different places to make homes for their families.
Ga-wah-ter, with renewed energies every time he thought of the bitter stings of his early boyhood years and struggles, determined to become one of the richest men on the lower Klamath River. His prayers were so sincere, his ambitions so great, his toil so earnest, that his reward came after the weary years of struggle, for he was now one of the richest men the Klamath River had known for generations. He rose to power and greatness from a miserable down-trodden child. Now his triumphs were supreme, for he had crowned himself with success and everlasting power, and could now look down upon those who had scorned him so much in his youth, for they could never be so rich as he. When his vast fortune was made, eleven wives shared his home at Ser-e-goin village, where he spent most of his wedded life. His first wife belonged to the upper division of the Klamath Indians, and was the romantic bride of his life, as he had given to her the love of his young manhood, and his tender devotion was hers throughout the years of their wedded life. When the ten other brides had come to dwell in their home, she remained his constant companion and counselor of the household. One to five children were born to all the wives except the first wife. Sometimes the wives would all get to quarreling and become very insolent to one another, when the husband would appear upon the scene and whip them all, except his first wife, he never punished her as he loved her more than all the rest.
For many years, with riches, wives and children around him, he was a powerful member of the Klamath Indians. As he grew old, family troubles arose among his relatives and sons, which resulted in bloodshed and loss of lives. One day, under the excitement of all these troubles, he started to swim across the river as no canoe was at hand, and while swimming across at Ser-e-goin village severe cramps overtook his already tired body, and he met the tragic death of drowning. A very large family of children were left fatherless, and the wives separated off from the home at Ser-e-goin, each one taking her own children. Some of these children are alive yet and have a great deal ofwealth. This closes the summary of one of the plural marriages of the Klamath Indians.
Some of the Talth had plural wives, but they always married the first wife by the highest marriage ceremony, so that the children born under this marriage would be eligible to be admitted to the sacred lodge. As before, the husband takes the wife’s name and is always addressed by her name, while the wife is addressed by the husband’s name, an exchange of names as well as the exchange of marriage vows. The other women that may be married to a Talth, under the plural marriage, are not married by the highest marriage laws, therefore, their children can never be admitted to the sacred lodge. Plural marriages among the Talth are very seldom, and a Talth under no circumstances will marry a slave, or any one of the low class. The Talth usually select their wife or husband with great care from the families of high birth. When they marry they live very happily, and are devoted to their families. They were never known to gamble or drink the white man’s whiskey, their soul being free from all temptations. I will here illustrate the devotion of one of the Talth marriages. This Talth was of a very wealthy family of the Pec-wan village, who married a woman of the Tu-rep village. Under the Indian laws of marriage, the husband took his wife’s name and was known as Tur-rep-ah-wah and the wife was known as Pec-wish-on. After they had been married for two or three years the wife contracted a chronic illness, which made her almost a helpless invalid for a number of years, and the devoted husband would cook, wash, sweep and attend to all the household duties. He remained by the side of his sick wife day and night, administering to her every want, lead her tenderly about, take her in his canoe for long boat rides on the river, that she might get the fresh air and grow strong again. He secured the very best Indian Doctors for her, and payed all the doctor bills during all the years of her illness. His kind patience and attentions towards her, never failed him, as he continued in this way, giving up all his time to his wife for a number of years, until at last, with all his effort, he succeeded in almost making her well, and she is yet alive. He lived for a few years, then died leaving her a widow.
The Talth marriage is a long ceremony, where a great deal of wealth is exchanged between the two families of the bride andgroom. This ceremony is principally performed by the Indian money, cheek, which is a long slender shell, conical in shape and is inclined to be curved. It is about one and a half to two and a quarter inches in length, and is valued according to its length, and longer the shell the more value it is. This money is measured by the rings of the joints of the middle finger from the inside of the left hand, and it takes twelve pieces of cheek to make one string, which is called cor-ton-a. In stringing the cheek they put the two large ends together and the two small ends together, this is done to prevent the shells from cupping inside. In estimating the value of a string of cheek, we hold one end of the string between the fore-finger and thumb-nail of the left hand, drawing it tightly up the arm towards the shoulder, keeping the arm extended straight. Ten of the cheek on the string are measured in this way, not measuring the two which makes twelve on the string, as the twelve only make ten, according to our numeration; we do not count the extra two cheek on the string as we wish to give full value, so that no one will be able to find any fault as to the value of the string. In measuring the cheek a tattoo is made on the arm where the end of the string comes, so they can easily detect if any of the cheek has been exchanged, should it happen to be handled by different persons. In marriage the young Talth gives twelve strings of this cheek to the parents of his bride, as it is the real Indian money that we brought from the old land of Cheek-cheek-alth, the parents give in exchange other valuable articles to their son-in-law. The elder Talth always attend these high marriages, bringing with them the herb, walth-pay, with which they give the benediction to the bridal couple, in wishing them peace, love, happiness and success.
The children born under these marriages are selected by the Talth and are given the opportunity to become a Talth. A Talth is very reserved and never advances to meet anyone who is a stranger that is inquiring into our traditions. Our traditions and religion are too sacred to be expounded before strangers of another race, therefore the white man has received most of his allegory from the lower classes of the Indians. This type of Indian readily gives the fairy tales of the tribe, such as mothers and grandmothers tell to the little children for their amusement, and these are the stories that the white man is made to believe as the true traditions and religion of the Indian. These storiesare no more like the traditions and religion of the Indian than daylight is like night.
There is another marriage law that is termed among the Indians as, “half married.” The prospective husband gives but a small sum of articles, of little value, and receives in return a few articles of little value. In this marriage the husband is taken to the wife’s home to live, or in the same house with her parents, and the wife, in this marriage, is the head of the household and the husband is compelled to obey her in whatever she commands him to do. He is compelled to fish, hunt, work and support her folks just as much as he supports his wife, while the wife teaches the children and rules them absolutely, as the husband has no right to correct his own children or make them mind in any way. When these children become men and women they must marry according to their mother’s wishes, as the husband has nothing to say as to their conduct, or pursuits of happiness in life. However unpleasant it may seem to him, he must bear it all with patience and silence. If he refuses to obey his wife and children, she can make his surroundings in home life very unpleasant for him, and if he wishes to dissolve the marriage vows and she is willing, he has nothing to do but to walk out of the house, as his wife guides the children and rules the household, and owns everything that belongs to him, except his own individual life, even his own children acknowledge him as their father in flesh and blood, but no more.
There is a slave marriage where, they being absolute paupers, having no home of their own and no articles to exchange in the marriage ceremony, they are married by the exchange of food-stuffs, and this is considered to be the lowest marriage that could be called a marriage. When they have a divorce they do not have much trouble in separating as articles are given back by their masters and a settlement is usually made easy.
In some of the Indian marriages, they do not mate happily. After they have been married a short time, or even a number of years, serious trouble arises and results in a final separation, and when such a separation is agreed upon, and there are no children, all the valuables exchanged at the marriage alter are returned accordingly. If there are children and the father wants them to remain legitimate he must be very careful in counting out the valuables or the wealth that he wants returned fromhis wife’s people. He must divide a portion of the wealth that he gave to his wife’s people on his wedding day, to each child, the remaining portion is given back to him. If all the valuables of exchange between the contracting parties are returned to him or his people, this leaves the children as bastards, without a law to protect them from slanderous tongues and no rights to a legitimate birth. These children are forever looked down upon by the Indian society, as bastards without a marriage to legalize them as the off-spring of respectable parents. I can truthfully say that in the past twenty-five years, and more, since the advent of the white man among the Klamath Indians, that most of the white men have married under the half married system, until there are no Indian marriage laws. The “squaw” gives her “white buck” her home and supports his low born half breed children, while he idles his time away on the Indian ranches or lies about in a drunken stupor. Yet these same white men cry, is there no redress for the Indian, has he no soul to save? Oh, not a soul to save under these conditions. But why do these white men hang around the Indian ranches and reservations, living off the toils of the Indian? There is a pathetic story in this nefarious business of human lives. The Indian himself has followed pursuit after his white brethren in the half married system, or not marrying at all, until there is no sacred marriage tie. This shows positively, that the Indian laws are forever lost. Education is the only way out of these difficulties, for those who have had an opportunity to attend the schools have married under the laws of the United States, and these laws must be enforced, since all the Indian laws have been abolished by the degenerate white men. I trust the day is not far distant when the degenerate white man will no longer be tolerated to camp on the reservations and leave in his path the ruination of human lives.
Before the appearance of the white man, the marriage of the middle and wealthy classes were considered sacred, the most sacred ties that could bind a human being for the cause of the future generation. Divorces were considered a disgrace upon posterity and a shame upon moral society, therefore, divorces were few and far between. When a divorce cause was pleaded, usually trouble ensued that resulted in bloodshed before the case would be settled. These divorces sometimes left the birth of the childrenfor slanderous tongues to assail, and when these children became of age they would resent bitterly the action of their father and mother, and the feud would be renewed, sometimes for several generations before a final settlement would be made. Divorces among the Indians were very difficult to obtain, as it was ruinous to posterity, and a menace upon society. Among the Talth divorces were unknown.