THE
CHEM AW A
AM ERICAN
7
T hen came th e Civil W ar, w ith troops on duty at th e W hite H ouse.
It presented a forlorn appearance; the fine floors and fu rn itu re were
scratched and injured by sen tu ries, and th e fu rn itu re made ugly and
disreputable. M artha P atterson, eldest d au g h ter of P resident Johnson,
superintended the w ork of renovation in 1 8 6 6 , congress having ap p ro
priated $30,000 for th is purpose. In 18 6 9 th e b u ilding was again re
furnished from top to bottom . G lass conservatories were added to the
west side by P resident A rth u r. M rs. Cleveland enlarged these, b u t in
190 2 they were done away w ith in the m ost com plete bit of w ork done
around the ancient stru ctu re since its resto ratio n . N early $ 5 6 5 ,0 0 0 was
spent to stren g th en the foundations of the building, and floors, etc.,
and for the construction of executive offices and a long corridor, th ro u gh
w hich th e public m ight pass on occasions of public receptions.
A STRING OF WAMPUM
B Y E M IL Y
S O U T H W E L L T II A Y E R I N
K IT -K A T
H R use of w am pum reaches back to a rem ote period u p
on th is co n tin en t. It was an original Indian notion
w hich prevailed am ong th e Iroquois, consisting of
small fresh w ater spiral shell called, in Seneca dialect,
O tekoa, the nam e w hich has been bestowed upon the
modern w am pum . A full strin g is usually three feet
long and contains twelve strands; the beads when
sold are reckoned at one half cent a bead and have been used am ong the
In d ian s east of the Rocky m ountains since the w hites first had deal
ings w ith them . W am pum was first found to be m ade of the w hite and
purple parts of clam shells threaded eith er on vegetable fiber or deer
senews, and long strin g s were som etim es made of the bark of th e slip-
pery-elm tree.
H av in g a fixed value, w am pum was recognized as a reg u lar aboriginal
currency am ong E astern tribes, as well as early colonists who, by v a ri
ous governm ental enactm ents, gave them legal value in com parison
w ith E nglish and D utch coins then in crcnlation. T h e w hite wam pum
is the Iroquois em blem of p u rity and of faith and peace. W hen a chief
m ourned the death of a chief, he wore strin g s of black w am pum .
No technical statem ent of the exact m ethod em ployed by th e natives
in the m anufacture of w am pum is available. It was w rought largely
by the women from th e th ick blue portion of the shell and the process,
th o u g h sim ple, required a skill attained only by long practice. T h e
bits of shell were cylindrical in form, one-eighth to th ree-six teen th s of