Northwest History. Alaska. Eskimos.

• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1937
• Subjects: marriage; Eskimos; Washington; John Collier; federal government's Indian office; benefit of clergy; civil or religious ceremony; Eskimo reservation; Alaska; Eskimo custom; Northwest; Pacific > History > 20th century; Collier; Indian; Pacific; eskimo*
• Online Access: http://content.libraries.wsu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/clipping/id/91083

Collier O.K's Eskimos' Plan Of Marriage. Collar O.K's Eskirrlos' Plan Of Marriage WASHINGTON, Saturday, Sept. 18.—(UP)—-John Collier, chief of the federal government's Indian Office, tonight put an official O. K. on Eskimo marriages conducted without benefit of clergy. "They are," he said, the most virtuous people in the world." Marriage without civil or religious ceremony is an old Eskimo custom and if it's still all right with the Eskimos it's all right with him. Collier explained. What's more, he said he will brook no interference with this custom by any employe of the federal government. He made this declaration after receiving unofficial word that a government teacher on an Eskimo reservation in Alaska had sought to compel a native couple to adopt the white man's way in marriage.