THE OHIO VALLEY-GREAT LAKES ETHNOHISTORY
ARCHIVES: THE MIAMI COLLECTION
It is noted that the following work from the Miami Archives should be read and
considered within the historical context in which it was composed and printed.
The opinions expressed and the language used do not reflect the opinions or
standards of the Glenn A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology, but are, rather,
indicative of thought in that historical moment during which the document was
published.
Journal of a Voyage to North America
(1721)
Charlevoix, P. de in: Journal of a Voyage to North
America, vol. 2, London, 1761, pp. 39-49, 50-57.
p. 49.
in default of her, such person as the family of the deceased shall chuse for him. The wife on her part (?) is under the same obligation with respect to the brothers or relations of her husband, provided he dies without leaving any children by her, and if (?) she is still capable of having any. The reasons they alledge for this, are the same expressed in the 25th chapter of Deuteronomy. The husband who should refuse to marry the sister or relation of his departed wife, would thereby expose himself to all the outrages which the person he rejects shall think fit to offer him; and which he is obliged to suffer without murmuring: when for want of such person a widow is permitted to provide herself in a husband elsewhere, they are obliged to make her presents, as a testimony rendered to her virtuous behaviour; and which she has a right to exact, provided she have really observed a prudent deportment during the time of her first marriage.
Amongst all the Indian nations, there are certain considerable families, who can only contract alliances with each other, and chiefly amongst the Algonquins. Generally speaking, the perpetuity of marriage is sacred in this country, and most look upon those agreements to live together as long as they shall see fit, and to separate when they become weary of each other, as being contrary to good order. A husband who should abandon his wife without lawful cause, must lay his account with many insults from her relations; and a woman who should leave her husband without being forced to it by his conduct, must pass her time still worse.
Amongst the Miamis, a husband has a right to cut off the nose of the wife who elopes from him
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