Wampum: More Than Money

What is wampum?

If you look up the definition of wampum, you’ll find something like this entry from the Merriam-Webster Dictionary: “beads of polished shells strung in strands, belts, or sashes and used by North American Indians as money, ceremonial pledges, and ornaments.”

Let’s start with the “polished shells” part. Wampum was traditionally made from quahog clams and whelks native to the New England and New York coastal waters.  In order to make the beads, the artist had to break the shell into pieces, remove the outside layer, make a hole in the center with a bow drill, and then polish the edges. This video and others listed in the sources demonstrate the time-consuming process:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90vyScbrXyQ

The earliest known wampum beads, about 4500 years old, were pierced discs or shells.  By the time Europeans recorded seeing them, the most desirable beads were pierced cylinders of uniform color, size, and shape, arranged in strict geometrical patterns. Although small strings or even single beads might be used for ornamentation or private trade, the large weavings marked important events and agreements.

The beads were strung on twine made from deer sinew, milkweed, dogbane, or basswood. The pattern had to be worked out ahead of time and painstakingly produced with the white and purple beads.  This video is a nice introduction to beading:  https://youtu.be/2frVHKV8bAc

The Six Nations or “Haudenosaunee” – People of the Longhouse

While the dictionary definition says wampum was used by North American Indians, its use originated in New York and New England and later spread to the Great Lakes and Mid-South.  Native groups from other geographical areas certainly used shells for adornment and trade, but they were not called wampum until Europeans used the term to describe all Indian trade beads. 

The Iroquois Confederacy, also known as The Six Nations, from the Finger Lakes area of New York, included the Mohawk, the Onondaga, the Cayuga, the Oneida, the Seneca, and later the Tuscarora.  These tribes created elaborate wampum belts to honor important events in their history.

After seeing the terrible toll intertribal warfare was taking, the Great Peacemaker brokered a peace between the five original tribes.  Some sources put this event as far back as 1192.  This Great League of Peace united the tribes into the Iroquois Confederacy.  Each tribe had its own leadership, but they all agreed that common causes would be decided by the Grand Council of Chiefs.  Their constitution was commemorated in a wampum “belt” that included a center tree and four squares.  (While “belt is the most common term for these long, intricate weavings, they were seldom worn around the waist.)

Like many wampum belts, this one is a historical record of a treaty.  But it’s also a symbol of collective power.  Its very presence increases the solemnity and power of an event and the people involved. A messenger holding a wampum belt would be welcomed and respected.  A speaker holding a belt would command his audience to listen. 

Wampum also symbolized titles, like Clan Chief or Clan Mother.  When that person died, the wampum was passed to the new leader.

An early account of a days-long sports gathering among the coastal nations notes the strings of wampum hung from the rafters, waiting to be claimed by the winning team.

This illustration shows Iroquois chiefs from the Six Nations meeting in 1871.  They hold a wealth of wampum belts.  These are historical records, but they are also markers of individual and collective authority and strength.

The Tadodaho Belt

One of the oldest ceremonial wampum belts is the Tadodaho Belt, marking the successful campaign by the Peacemaker to win over the fourteen chiefs, including those who loved war.  The most famous adversary was Tadodaho, a feared Onondaga leader whose mind and body were so twisted, he was said to have snakes writhing in his hair.  But the Peacemaker won him over, eventually making Tadodaho the keeper of the council fire for the whole confederacy.  The belt marks the time that the Peacemaker “combed the snakes out of Tadodaho’s hair.”  Then the fourteen chiefs, marked by diamonds on the belt, could be like branches of a single tree.

The Two-Row Belt

Two-row belt

In 1613, the Mohawk noticed strangers coming into their lands uninvited, cutting down trees and clearing land for their homesteads.  After much discussion with the Six Nations leaders and the settlers, the Haudenosaunee (Six Nations) and the Dutch agreed to a peace treaty, saying the two groups would live in friendship and peace.  The Dutch recorded the treaty on paper and gave silver chains as gifts.  The Haudenosaunee gave the Dutch a wampum belt with two rows of purple shells on a white shell background, representing a Dutch ship and a native boat, traveling side by side down the river but not interfering with each other. “Together we will travel in Friendship and in Peace Forever; as long as the grass is green, as long as the water runs downhill, as long as the sun rises in the East and sets in the West, and as long as our Mother Earth will last.”

The George Washington Belt

One of the largest wampum belts was made to commemorate the signing of the Canandaigua Treaty of 1794 between the United States and the Haudenosaunee (The Six Nations).  A native leader named Little Turtle was leading fierce resistance to new white settlements  in what is now Ohio.  Fearing that the Six Nations would join forces with Little Turtle in this struggle, the United States representative Timothy Pickering initiated peace talks to create a boundary line between the United States and the Haudenosaunee.  That agreement resulted in a treaty, which was commemorated with the six foot long wampum belt.  It shows thirteen figures, representing the thirteen colonies, plus the two representatives and the longhouse in the center.  The figures are holding hands, symbolizing peace and cooperation.

Currency

While the large ceremonial belts were the most famous use of wampum, trade in individual beads or strings of beads continued as records of agreements for hundreds of years.

When Europeans came to the Americas, they noticed the great value the native people ascribed to wampum. In 1628, Issack de Sasiere, a Dutch trader, wrote to his friend Samuel Blommaert, “In the winter they make an oblong bead from cockle-shells, which they find on the sea-shore, and they consider it as valuable as we do money here, since one can buy with it everything they have; they string it, and wear it around the neck and hands; they also make bands of it, which the women wear on the forehead under the hair, and the men around the body, and they are as particular about the stringing and sorting as we can be here about pearls.”

Clearly, the Dutch and English settlers saw wampum as the equivalent of their money, and with the growth of the fur trade, it became the established medium of exchange, since there was no coinage in use in New Netherland. It was useful “Indian money.” Wampum was actually recognized as legal tender in New England (1637 – 1661) and New York (1637 – 1673). Each region set up an equivalency of so many beads per penny.

But almost immediately the Europeans saw an opportunity to make a lot of money fast, literally.  Instead of the traditional labor-intensive hand chipping, drilling, and sanding, the Dutch set up manufacturing facilities using steel tools, and they pressed indebted natives, prisoners, and people in the almshouses into producing cheap wampum.

Englishman John Campbell started a wampum mill in New Jersey in 1775 which turned out over a million beads a year. Eventually, wampum mills flooded the market and the value of wampum beads collapsed.

Warfare

As European settlers moved farther into Indian lands, native people resisted.  In the many battles that followed, earlier treaties were ignored.  In 1675, Metacom, a Wampanoag chief, led a revolt against English colonial power in what became known as the First Indian War. He attacked English strongholds in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, which led to a series of battles along the Connecticut River valley.  In the end, Metacom was beheaded by the British and the majority of native people in his coalition were killed.

In the dark days during and after the Indian Wars (1675 to 1890), many of the precious wampum belts were taken by the victors as spoils of war.  Metacom’s wampum belt was supposedly sent to the King of England, but there is no record it was ever received. Some members of the Wampanoag Confederacy are still searching for it. Many other belts also disappeared without record. Most of the finest wampum belts were later sold to museums or private collectors. 

Slow Return

But lately, a few of those lost wampum belts are finding their way home. In 1989, twelve wampum belts in the collection of the New York State Museum in Albany were returned to the Onondaga Nation.  Some of the belts had been in the museum’s possession since the 1890’s.  A representative of the Onondaga Nation said, “These belts are our archives, that’s why we’ve been trying to get them back. They remind us that we are sitting there as peacemakers for our people and the world.”

In 1990, the passage of the Native American Graves and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) required that human remains and cultural artifacts that could be identified by tribe be returned to the rightful owners.  However, this applied only to federal collections, leaving private collections unregulated.  This left an open pipeline from private collections to museums and vice versa.

In 2009, two wampum belts identified as “early” and ”rare” were listed for sale in a Sotheby’s auction, but several members of the Haudenosaunee standing committee on burial rules and regulations challenged the sale, claiming these were rightfully tribal cultural artifacts.  The owners disagreed, claiming the belts were personal rather than tribal property.  They said the belts had lost their significance and become merely relics and curiosities.  Like many museum curators, they claimed these were part of American history rather than Native American history.  “As American as apple pie,” one supporter of the sale claimed.

While the arguments on both sides got louder, the belts were held in a vault, pending a decision on the sale.  Sotheby’s agreed to meet with a delegation of tribal leaders and to show them the belts.  Charlie Patton, one of the delegates spoke these words over the belts (translated):

“You have been locked away for too long and have spent too much time in darkness….You have great life and spirit and power and it is time for you to use your energy…You have to convince the people around you, who hold you, to let you be free…Clear their eyes, their minds, their throats and ears, and lift the heavy spot that is on their heart, so they understand that your value is not in money, it is in the spirit that you carry.”

After seven years, the original seller passed away and his two brothers, realizing that they had something that did not belong to them, relinquished their ownership rights.  In 2017, the belts were formally returned to the Haudenosaunee Council of Chiefs at Onondaga.

In 2012, the Onondaga Historical Association returned a wampum belt and other sacred objects to the Onondaga Nation.  The belt had been in their possession since 1919.  They also returned ceremonial masks and bones. Tadodaho Sid Hill, accepting the items for the Onondaga Nation, hoped this effort would spur others to return sacred items to their rightful homes.

In this way, piece by piece, the cultural heritage of the Six Nations is being restored.  Today, despite the availability of cheap wampum-style beads made in China, some people are reviving the traditional practices, creating new masterpieces in their rows of carefully crafted shell beads. Others are creating copies of very old belts that are too fragile to display.  Tribal leaders are trying to reintegrate the use of wampum in ceremonies and other cultural traditions.

PIC: MARK PASSMORE/APEX 27/09/2021

In 2021, a brand new wampum belt created by the Wampanoag People was the centerpiece of an exhibition titled “Wampum: Stories from the Shells of Native America.”  It was displayed along with seven historic belts on loan from the British Museum and the Saffron Walden Museum as part of the Mayflower 400 celebration. 

While the belt cannot undo the troubled history of these two groups, it can, perhaps, begin to build something better.

Sources and interesting reading:

Bullock, Chris, “How to bead on a loom with Chris Bullock”  https://youtu.be/2frVHKV8bAc

Bruchac, Margaret M.  ”Chains of Custody: Possessing dispossessing and repossessing Lost Wampum Belts,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 162 (1), 56-105. Retrieved from https://repository.upenn.edu/anthro_papers/179

Hale, Horatio, “Iroquois chiefs reading belts” (illustration) https://collectionscanada.gc.ca/pam_archives/index.php?fuseaction=genitem.displayItem&lang=eng&rec_nbr=3193501, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=92095137

“The Dutch Among the Natives: American Indian-Dutch Relations, 1609 – 1664.” New Netherland Institute, source of letter from Isaack de Rasiere to Samuel Blommaert, 1628,  https://www.newnetherlandinstitute.org/history-and-heritage/digital-exhibitions/the-dutch-among-the-natives-american-indian-dutch-relations-1609-1664/

“George Washington Belt,” Onondaga Nation: People of the Hills, https://www.onondaganation.org/culture/wampum/george-washington-belt

Hansen, Terry, “How the Iroquois Great Law of Peace Shaped U.S. Democracy,” Native Voices, PBS 13 December 2018, https://www.pbs.org/native-america/blogs/native-voices/how-the-Iroquois-great-law-of-eace-shaped- us-democracy/

“Hiawatha Belt,” Onondaga Nation: People of the Hills, https://www.onondaganation.org/culture/wampum/hiawatha-belt/

Sawyer, William, Park Ranger at Fort Stanwix, “The Six Nations Confederacy During the American Revolution,” Fort Stanwix National Monument, https://www.nps.gov/fost/learn/historyculture/the-six-nations-confederacy-during-the-american-revolution.htm

Sharp, Teresa, “Exhibit celebrates wampum belts, a sacred link to Native peoples’ pasts,” 22 November 2015, Buffalo News, https://buffalonews.com/news/local/exhibit-celebrates-wampum-belts-a-sacred-link-to-native-people-pasts/article/

“Today in History: Wampum Belts Returned to the Onondaga Nation,” Onondaga Historical Association, 21 October 1989, https://www.cnyhistory.org/2016/10/wampum-belts-returned-onondaga-nation/

“Tadodaho Belt,” Onondaga Nation: People of the Hills, https://www.onondaganation.org/culture/wapum/tadadaho-belt/

Tweedy, Ann C. “From Beads to Bounty: How Wampum Became America’s First Currency – and Lost Its Power.” A story about the history of wampum,”  13 September 2018,  Indian Country Today, https://indiancountrytoday.com/archive/from-beads-to-bounty-how-wampum-became-americas-first-currencyand-lost-its-power

“Two-Row Wampum,” Onondaga Nation: People of the Hills, https://www.onondaganation.org/culture/wampum/two-row-wampum-belt-guswenta/

“Wampum,” Onondaga Nation: People of the Hills, https://www.onondaganationorg/culture/wampum/

“Wampum,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wampum

“Wampum Belt,” Ohio History Central, https://ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Wampum_Belt

“Wampum belt to return to Wampanoag Nation in Massachusetts,” Mayflower 400, https://www.maflowr400uk.org/news/2021/September/wampum-belt-to-return-to-wampanoag-nation-in-massachusetts/

“Wampum History and Background,” Woven Wampum Beadwork, NativeTech: Native American Technology and Art, http://www.nativetech.org/wampum/wamphist.htm

“Wampum: Introduction” Coins, https://coinc.nd.edu/ColCoin/ColCoinIntros/Wapum.intor.html

Wampum, Georgina Ontario  photo  By Oaktree b – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=86500952

Video “ A Brief Introduction to Wampum YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSrWCkvOFa0

Video  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90vyScbrXyQ

Video The Making of a Wampum Belt https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAxWoSYqOUw

Video Native American creates rare wampum bead pieces https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkDl3kaf2hs