Wampum Belts

To most people a wampum belt means a beaded belt made by Aboriginals. White traders introduced glass beads and with these the Aboriginal people did beautiful embroidery work. Before the introduction of glass beads, embroidery work was made with porcupine quills. The long hair from the bell or the chin whiskers of the moose was also used. With the introduction of the crude glass beads the far more artistic porcupine quill and moose hair embroidery became a lost skill.

The true wampum bead was not made of glass. Along the Atlantic coastal waters from Cape Cod to Florida is found the quahog or round clamshell. Using this material, the coastal aboriginal peoples made wampum beads. These were long cylinder shaped beads about one-fourth of an inch long and one-eighth of an inch in diameter. These were of two colors, white and purple. In ancient times wampum was strung on thread made of twisted elm bark. The word wampum is the Algonquin word for these shell beads. It was a term used by the Aboriginal people of the New England States.

The name has survived to the present day. The early Aboriginal people of the Atlantic seaboard used this white and purple wampum for personal decorations as well as for trading purposes. Belts, wristbands, earrings, necklaces and headbands of wampum were observed by the early white colonists while visiting New England Aboriginals. The Aboriginal people originally drilled this wampum shell with stone or reed drills. Later iron drills were substituted. Even non-native people became wampum makers and the first money of the American colonists was wampum.

At first, only the coastal Aboriginals had wampum. The East End of Long Island was the original seat of the wampum trade. The Narragansett People who were related to the Long Island people soon controlled the wampum trade. They supplied the nations of the interior with their wampum. This wampum was exchanged for furs from the western Aboriginals.

The Hotinonhshion:ni used wampum for official purposes as well as for religious ceremonies. According to tradition, Aionwahtha introduced wampum to the Hotinonhshion:ni at the time of the founding of the League of the Five Nations, Aionwahtha decreed and regulated its use.

He taught the Hotinonhshion:ni that wampum should bring and bind peace and take the place of blood. He first introduced it to the Mohawks and after telling the Council of its use, his co-worker Tekanawi:tah, used wampum to console or wipe away the tears of Aionwahtha whose heart was heavy because of the loss of his daughters. This was the first Condolence Ceremony and has existed without change down to the present day. The first wampum used by Aionwahtha was made from fresh water shell. There are traditions among the Hotinonhshion:ni that, before the Hotinonhshion:ni knew shell wampum, wampum was made from wood stained black and white. An Onondaga tradition says that porcupine quills were first used as wampum. A Mohawk tradition says that the first wampum was made from the quills of the eagle. At any rate Aionwahtha seems to have been the first to use shell wampum for ceremonial purposes.

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