Chapter XXXVII: Section 3: Wampum

Prof. Robert E. C. Stearns (_a_) says that wampum consisted of beads of two principal colors having a cylindrical form, a quarter of an inch, more or less, in length, the diameter or thickness being usually about half the length. The color of the wampum determined its value. The term wampum, wampon, or wampom, and wampum-peege was apparently applied to these beads when strung or otherwise connected, fastened, or woven together. The illustration given by him is now reproduced as Fig. 163.

In the Jesuit Relations, 1656, p. 3, the first present of an Iroquois chief to Jesuit missionaries at a council is described. This was a great figure of the sun, made of 6,000 beads of wampum, which explained to them that the darkness shall not influence them in the councils and the sun shall enlighten them even in the depth of night.

Among the Iroquoian and Algonquian tribes wampum belts were generally used to record treaties. Mr. John Long (_a_) describes one of them:

The wampum belts given to Sir William Johnson, of immortal
Indian memory, were in several rows, black on each side and white
in the middle; the white being placed in the center was to express
peace and that the path between them was fair and open. In the
center of the belt was a figure of a diamond made of white wampum,
which the Indians call the council fire.

In the Jesuit Relations, 1642, p. 53, it is said that among the northern Algonquins a present to deliver a prisoner consisted of three strings of wampum to break the three bonds by which he was supposed to be tied, one around the legs, one around the arms, and the third around the middle.

In the same Relations, 1653, p. 19, is a good example of messages attached to separate presents of wampum, etc. This was at a council in 1653 at the Huron town, 2 leagues from Quebec:

The first was given to dry the tears which are usually shed at
the news of brave warriors massacred in combat.

The second served as an agreeable drink, as an antidote to
whatever bitterness might remain in the heart of the French on
account of the death of their people.

The third was to furnish a piece of bark or a covering for the
dead, lest the sight of them should renew the old strife.

The fourth was to inter them and to tread well the earth upon
their graves, in order that nothing should ever come forth from
their tombs which could grieve their friends and cause the spirit of
revenge to arise in their minds.

The fifth was to serve as a wrapping to pack up the arms which
were henceforth not to be touched.

The sixth was to cleanse the river, soiled with so much blood.

The last, to exhort the Hurons to agree to what Onontio, the
great captain of the French, should decide upon touching the peace.

As a rule there was no intrinsic significance in a wampum belt, or collar, as the French sometimes called it. It was not understood except by the memory of those to whom and by whom it was delivered. This is well expressed in a dialogue reported by Capt. de Lamothe Cadillac (_a_) in 1703:

[Council of Hurons at Fort Ponchartrain, June 3, 1703.]

QUARANTE-SOLS. I come on my way to tell you what I propose to
do at Montreal. Here is a collar which has been sent to us by the
Iroquois, and which the Ottawas have brought to us; we do not know
what it signifies.

M. de LAMOTHE. How have you received this collar without knowing
the purpose for which it was sent you?

QUARANTE-SOLS. It has already been long since we received it. I
was not there, and our old men have forgotten what it said.

M. de LAMOTHE. Your old men are not regarded as children to have
such a short memory.

QUARANTE-SOLS. We do not accept this collar; but we are going to
take it to Sonnontouan [the Seneca town] to find out what it means;
because it is a serious matter not to respond to a collar; it is the
custom among us. The Ottawas can tell you what it is, because our
people have forgotten it.

M. de LAMOTHE. The Ottawas will reply that having received it
you should remember it, but since this collar is dumb and has lost
its speech I am obliged to be silent myself.

In the Diary of the Siege of Detroit (_a_) it is narrated that after receiving a belt of wampum from the commanding officer the Pottawatomi chief called it the officer’s “mouth,” and said that those to whom it was sent would believe it when “they saw his mouth.”

But wampum designs, besides being mere credentials, and thus like the Australian message sticks, and also mnemonic, became, to some extent, conventional. The predominance of white beads indicated peace, and purple or violet meant war.

On the authority of Sir Daniel Wilson (_a_) a string of black wampum sent round the settlement is still among the Indians of the Six Nations the notice of the death of a chief.

The Iroquois belts had an arrangement of wampum to signify the lakes, rivers, mountains, valleys, portages, and falls along the path of trail between them and the Algonkins, who were parties to their treaty in 1653.

On the authority of a manuscript letter from St. Ange to D’Abbadie, September 9, 1764, quoted by Parkman (_a_), Pontiac’s great wampum belt was 6 feet long, 4 inches wide, and was wrought from end to end with the symbols of tribes and villages, 47 in number, which were leagued with him.

In addition to becoming conventional the designs in wampum, perhaps from expertness in their workmanship, exhibited ideographs in their later development, of which the following description, taken from Rev. Peter Jones’s (_a_), “History of the Ojebway Indians” is an instance:

Johnson then explained the emblems contained in the wampum belt
brought by Yellowhead, which, he said, they acknowledged to be the
acts of their fathers. Firstly, the council fire at the Sault Ste.
Marie has no emblem, because then the council was held. Secondly,
the council fire at Mamtoulni has the emblem of a beautiful white
fish; this signifies purity, or a clean white heart--that all our
hearts ought to be white toward each other. Thirdly, the emblem
of a beaver, placed at an island on Penetanguishew bay, denotes
wisdom--that all the acts of our fathers were done in wisdom.
Fourthly, the emblem of a white deer, placed at Lake Simcoe,
signified superiority; the dish and ladles at the same place
indicated abundance of game and food. Fifthly, the eagle perched on
a tall pine tree at the Credit denotes watching, and swiftness in
conveying messages. The eagle was to watch all the council fires
between the Six Nations and the Ojebways, and being far-sighted, he
might, in the event of anything happening, communicate the tidings
to the distant tribes. Sixthly, the sun was hung up in the center
of the belt to show that their acts were done in the face of the
sun, by whom they swore that they would forever after observe the
treaties made between the two parties.

In the same work, p. 119, is a description of a wampum belt that recorded the first treaty between the Ojibwa and the Six Nations of the Iroquois confederacy. It has the figure of a dish or bowl at its middle to represent that the Ojibwa and the Six Nations were all to eat out of the same dish, meaning, ideographically, that all the game in the region should be for their common use.

Mr. W. H. Holmes (_c_) gives an illustration of the well-known Penn wampum belt, reproduced here as Fig. 164, with remarks condensed as follows:

It is believed to be the original belt delivered by the
Leni-Lenape sachems to William Penn at the celebrated treaty under
the elm tree at Schackamaxon in 1682. Up to the year 1857 this belt
remained in the keeping of the Penn family. In March, 1857, it was
presented to the Pennsylvania Historical Society by Granville John
Penn, a great-grandson of William Penn. Mr. Penn, in his speech on
this occasion, states that there can be no doubt that this is the
identical belt used at the treaty, and presents his views in the
following language:

“In the first place, its dimensions are greater than of those
used on more ordinary occasions, of which we have one still in
our possession--this belt being composed of 18 strings of wampum,
which is a proof that it was the record of some very important
negotiation. In the next place, in the center of the belt, which
is of white wampum, are delineated in dark-colored beads, in a
rude, but graphic style, two figures--that of an Indian grasping
with the hand of friendship the hand of a man evidently intended
to be represented in the European costume wearing a hat, which can
only be interpreted as having reference to the treaty of peace and
friendship which was then concluded between William Penn and the
Indians, and recorded by them in their own simple but descriptive
mode of expressing their meaning by the employment of hieroglyphics.”