This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2004, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Outside a log cabin in Woods Cross, witnesses to today's wedding of a Rose Park couple will take part in an old-time ritual.

Raine Bowen will offer Gary Hogan cornbread or an ear of corn. In turn, he will offer her some meat or deer hide.

The exchange of gifts is part of a Cherokee ceremony that will mark the marriage of a couple who are of European and American Indian descent.

A ceremony that has become almost unheard of in this country - except in Oklahoma and surrounding states - will take place in Utah where, according to the 2000 Census, more than 700 people claim Cherokee descent. Some Cherokees marry at powwows or other community events where they can receive the blessing of spiritual leaders.

Bowen, whose family at one point refused to recognize its Indian roots, said the ceremony performed by Larry Williams, a local Cherokee spiritual leader, is an extension of a spirituality she has adopted since she has come to know more of her heritage.

"I didn't learn about my culture until I was grown," Bowen said.

Following the ways of traditional Cherokee weddings, she will wear moccasins and a buckskin dress. Hogan will don what he calls pilgrim wear. It's an unconventional wedding that "suits me," Bowen said.

Hogan's neighbor, Georgia Arroyo, who introduced the couple, will give Bowen away in keeping the tribe's matrilineal custom that the mother presents the bride. Arroyo is like a mother to her, Bowen said.

"Only a woman can tell where another woman's heart is," said Arroyo.

Bowen pieced the ceremony together from books and Cherokee weddings she has attended. There is no rehearsal, no throwing of the bouquet, no slipping on of the garter.

And that's fine with Hogan, who said he never pictured a "foo-foo" wedding. They will take some chairs in front of a cabin that belonged to his LDS ancestors. They will gather some food, their spiritual adviser and their children from former relationships, who will put a blanket over them. When they are united under one blanket and Williams gives a blessing, they will be husband and wife.

"It'll be one of the most colorful weddings, without flowers," Hogan said.