The Chemawa American, April 23, 1930, Image 1

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Vol. X X X I
W ednesday,A pr. 23, 1930
A S T R IN G O F W A M P U M
It is a common failing with the vast majority to ac­
cept without question names, dates, things and state­
ments in general, and often we go for years with a
very hazy mental picture of a very common thing that
we see every day. For instance, “ Wampum” is a
very common word with many of us, but how many
could give even a “ half-way” definition of the word?
Some time ago Fmily Southwell Thayer, writing in
Kit-Kat, ga\e a most interesting article on this subject,
as follows:
The use of wampum reaches back to a remote period
on this continent. It was an original Indian notion
which prevailed among the Iroquois, consisting of a
fresh water spiral shell called in the Senaca dialect,
Otekoa, the name which has been bestowed upon the
modern wampum. A full string 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 among the Indians east of the Rocky moun­
tains since the whites first had dealings with them.
Wampum was first found to be made of the white and
purple parts of clam shells, threaded either on vege­
table fibre or deer sinews, and long strings were some
times made of the bark of the slippery elm tree.
Having a fixed value, wampum was recognized as a
regular aboriginal currency among Eastern tribes, as
well as early colonists who, by various governmental
enactments gave them legal value in comparison with
English and Dutch coins then in circulation. The
white wampum is the Iroquois emblem of purity and
of faith and peace. When a chief mourned the death
of a chief he wore strings of black wampum.
No technical statement of the exact method employed
by the natives in the manufacture of wampum is avail­
able. It was wrought largely by the women from the
thick blue portion of the shell and the process, though
simple, required a skill obtained only by long practice.
The bits of shell were cylindrical in form, one-eighth
to three-sixteenths of an inch in diameter and one-
eighth to seven-sixteenths of an inch in length.
Perhaps the most important use of wampum was in
the symbolic record belt and strings which weie the
stamps of authority in every intertribal transaction.
The famous belt used in the treaty between William
Penn and the Indians is now in the rooms of the Penn
Historical Society. It was given to its first white
No. 32
owner as a solemn token that they would keep their
pledge. Such belts had the beads arranged in sym­
bolic figures more or less suggestive of the transaction
thus ratified. The Penn belt shows in the center two
figures clasping hands; one wears a hat the other does
not. This shows one was a white man, the other an
Indian. Others of interest are the Cherokee belt at­
testing peace made with the Iroquois, before the Revo­
lutionary war, and the Iroquois belts which are pre­
served in the archives of New York State at Albany.
Smaller belts for chiefs were woven with diamond­
shaped figures in the center worked in white beads.
These were called peace belts. The women also made
themselves bracelets and neck chains. The old myths
of years ago are repeated in Indian homes, and many
of the stories, like those told in the poem of Hiawatha,
are familiar to little children in Western tepees. Hia­
watha the Wise we know was an Iroquois hero and
the legend of his travels and how he was the first to
make wampum is charming. We find Hiawatha start­
ing on his journey to the arrow-maker—
‘‘From the lodge went Hiawatha
Dressed for travel, arm ed for hunting,
Dressed in deerskin shirt and leggins
Richly w rought with quills and w am pum .”
It was probably doe to the genius of Hiawatha that
we have the invention of the wampum belt as his
name implies. Hay-un-watha, maker of belts.
The Aztecs or Mexican Indians had a serpent god.
The Euni Eannape or Delaware Indians haa stick rec­
ords to tell that the country of the Great Serpent was
conquered little by little. Mounds are themselves the
unsolved record of a great people. No Indian legends
or histories have ever explained the meaning of those
heaps of earth, but the wampum belt tells its story by
the pictures upon it. There is a string of wampum,
hand wrought of pure whiteheads, which is treasured
and possesses an additional interest because it was giv­
en as a pledge of love and fidelity and once belonged to
the famous Chief Eogan. About 20 years ago, a little
English maiden wandered away from camp and was
lost on the shores of Lake Champlain. An Indian boy
was sent in search of her and, when he found her, he
threw a string of wampum on her and said;
“ Dike my great Chief Eogan, whose descendant I
am, I capture you with my Ote-Ko-a.”