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Julia Lucas

Julia LucasMed

Marriage was a very sacred responsibility, a mother’s role and grandmother’s role was also a very sacred responsibility and of equal importance was how you treat a pregnant woman as she is the giver of life and what affects her will affect the unborn child as the following video will show. 

The sacred teaching of marriage was one that not only involved the man and woman but it involved the families coming together. A traditional wedding brought the two families together and if at any time the man or woman did wrong then the traditional wedding was a tool for the families to intervene. If a traditional wedding did not occur then the family could not intervene. When the man and his family went for the girl there were challenges put before them to prove how much value was place on the girl. Furthermore, it was assurance that the daughter was going to be looked after properly by her new family. Different tests were done not only physical challenges but metal challenges as well. Each hereditary chief had these challenges that were handed down from generation to generation. When a chief’s daughter was married out of the nation because of who she is, she would take a name with her, songs and dances and many material possessions that she can use in her new life. She not only had rights to use the songs and dances but she had the rights to continue to utilize her birth right within her nation. The songs and dances that went with her were hers to use only it did not mean that she owned them. This practice of sharing songs and dances between the nations is due to the woman and is practiced to this day.

In the days of old, a mother had great responsibilities for example, going to get wood, water, cedar bark, fishing, clam digging. It was always of great importance that a grandmother was involved with the children. Without the grandmother there to help with the rearing of the children, a mother could not do all that she was responsible for. The grandmother played a tremendous role, to the point, that if there was not a grandmother the young woman would be given traditional medicine to prevent her from having children.