DCHP-3

blanket marriage

DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

Entry from the DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

This entry may contain outdated or offensive information, terms, and examples.

among North American Indians, a marriage performed according to local custom, in some tribes by having a blanket placed over the couple.

Quotations

1927
". . . there is a good deal of . . . loose living among the Indians and breeds since the white man came into this country. Nearly all of them just have a blanket marriage, and there are so few in here that they'd marry their own sisters if they dared, for the priest." "What's a blanket marriage?" said I. "Oh, a lad sees a girl he wants, and he takes his blanket to her tent, and they're married as long as he leaves it there."
1958
The reference to "legitimate child" raised the question in the Committee of the status of a so-called "blanket marriage," entered into according to local custom.