The Coming of the People with White Faces - A Record Belt

Reprinted from Wampum Belts of the Iroquois by Tehanetorens

This belt records the condition of the early white people who came to the Iroquois Country. The strong outside diagonal lines supporting the weak inside diagonal line represents the Five Nations, the Iroquois. The thin, weak inside line represents the early whites. The Indians supported these early whites, holding them up so that they would not fall down, that is, showing them how to hunt, to farm, and teaching them how to survive and live in this country until they were strong enough to support themselves. When these early white people were cold, hungry, (and it happened often) and their little ones cried for bread, it was the Indian who gave them meat, corn, and fish. When rival whites and their allies attempted to invade these early English, Dutch and Swedish settlers, it was the Iroquois who stood in the trail and blocked their way.