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Article: Indian Intermarriage
- Article from:
- Dictionary of American History
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CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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INDIAN INTERMARRIAGE
INDIAN INTERMARRIAGE.
It is impossible to say when the first marriage between an American Indian and a non-Indian occurred. Perhaps it was a marriage with an American Indian ceremony. Surely it was between an American Indian woman and a man, probablya white man.
Over the centuries, Indian intermarriages increased. Colonists, fur traders, soldiers, and settlers, faced with a demographic imbalance of women of their own race, turned to Indian women as mates. More intermarriages occurred, however, in areas where the fur trade lasted longer, such as in parts of the Southeast and around the Great Lakes. Such unions were often frowned upon, eventually giving rise in some ...