WAMPUM

Wampum is a small and short tubular shell bead. The beads were strung into strings or woven into belts. White beads were made from the inner whorl (columella) of the whelk Purple (also called black) beads were manufactured from the dark spot or "eye" on the quahog clam shell.

Although individual beads have been found in the archeological record, it is believed the use of Wampum in belts dates from the fifteenth century The Iroquois originally obtained Wampum of this form and color by trade and tribute from the "Wampum makers" of long Island. The Iroquois did not make the beads themselves, and Wampum did not serve as a form of currency among the indigenous Iroquois.

Wampum belts presented or received at councils, recorded significant events in Iroquois history. Woven belts were records of important civil affairs. They were a record of events, ideas, contracts, pledges, treaties or compacts between political entities. When no longer needed as a record, belts were commonly unraveled and the beads reused.

The early Dutch settlers recognized the value of the beads to the natives. They introduced contemporary technology into its production and manufactured Wampum themselves. The exchange of Wampum became an important part of diplomatic protocol whenever Indians and whites concluded a treaty or assembled for other councils. From the early seventeenth century through the end of the eighteenth century, Wampum beads evolved in form and in technology used to make them. Early beads are relatively shorter and wider than later beads, and were usually drilled using iron tools from both ends, unlike the later beads. All of the belts being returned to the Onondaga were manufactured from between 1650 and 1800 using either the earlier or the later wampum beads, and sometimes both. After 1800, a group of Iroquois reinterpreted and codified their re1igion~the "Longhouse Religion"-which deepened the religious overtones of traditional ceremonies. Wampum in strings and belts was and still is employed in many of the ceremonies.

Wampum Fact Sheet, sate Education Dept., Albany. NY, 1989

10 Northeast Indian Quarterly Spring 1990