Native American Polygamy Essay

Words: 1089
Pages: 5

Native American Polygamy

The first cases of polygamy where before Christian settlers even arrived in the United States and began to claim lands. Polyamorous relationships were known to be had by Native Americans, ranging from one man and two sisters to temporary polyandry (one women married to multiple men). Due to there being many different tribes all over America, there are very many different ways of marriage (not all including polyamory).
Such as, Navajo tribes having sororal polygyny- one man marrying two sisters. This wasn’t uncommon as sisters wouldn’t fight as much as co-wives would. If a man married a women and he was a good husband, the sister would get married into the family in order to be supported as well. Or if the sisters
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On a Christian God the laws in the camp were based, and punishment could mean payment, to whipping, to full blow execution. Worse crimes included adultery, witchcraft, and worshiping any other deity than A Christian god, while less offensive transgressions were polygamy, powwowing, and fornication. Still, they were transgressions and many missionaries tried to change the ways of Native Americans which included their polyamorous ways and their polyamorous ways meant a lot to how their family bases was …show more content…
However, the U.S government was not and announced the churches official abandonment by the state in 1890. The church stopped supporting them as well, as long as polygamy was an open practice, so for fourteen years the church fully stopped polygamy (publicly and privately). Until 1904 where in the Second Manifesto of the church, it was announced again that Mormon Polygamy was to be practiced worldwide if wanted by the people creating a family. While today most Mormons do not practice plural marriage, some branches of the church continue to practice plural