New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1897-07-11


white mems beads and often strings and threads.
Some have buckskn thongs. General CarrinSton
in 1891 secured the covencnt belt with the
United States, and another Of interest. for the
Government. The Covenant Belt had men hold
ing hands but the cheyron appears en- some OK
the wider belts
What Dr. Beauchamp calls the Covenant Belt
corresponds with the belt which John Buck
showed me as the League Belt but DIR. Beau
champ makes reference to the mutilation
which have described.
AS to the antiquity of wampum, it furnishes
another troublesome point Wampum has been
found in the mounds of the Mound Builders.
DR.. Beauchamp says, however, that the Iroquois
had little or no wampum until the Dutch came
L. II. Morgan says that they used fresh-water
shell beads of q spiral form until they had ma
rine shells from the Dutch but none have been
found. Short coored sticks were used for some
time after the whites came. In 1Il4 the Five
Nations gave some sticks Of wampum to confirm
a treaty but year later replaced them with
belts showing that the sticks were a temporary
expedient. Cusck docs not mention wampum
in his narrative until he reaches the story of the
formation of the league
HIAWATHA IN THE STORY
Singularly enough, he knows nothing about
Hiawatha in connection with that story, YET
several legends connect that Onondaga chief
(whose imperishable monument is the history Of
the Five Nations and not, as the world thinks
the poem of Longfeow. which makes him an
Ojibway demi-goD with the invention OF wam-
pun. Mr.. Hale translates Hiawatha with 'He
who seeks the wampum belt" One OF the lro'
quois legends tells how in his journeys under
taken to bring about the confederation of tribes
Hiawatha came to a lake which he wished 10
cross While he was gazing at the water flock
Of ducks settled in it and drank and soaked 1t all
up. Its dry bottom the chief found to be covered
with white Shells which he gathered and made
into wampum According to the received tradi-
| ton Hiawatha, having failed to enlist the inter-
est OF the head chief of his own people. the Onon-
dagas. in his enterprise joined the Mohawks and
persuaded them to take the initiative. story
told to Dr. Beauchamp bears upon this, and also
on the use made by Hiawatha of wampum:
He luilds a fire near the Mohawk town. which
| was reported to the chief who sent young men
| out to see whether it friend or foe. Ihey
crept near and looked through the bushes. Sit
! ting by the fire they saw an old man stringlng
short eagle quilts. He did not look up and they
! went back and made their report. They were
! sent to invite the oil man to council, but he
neither looked up nor answered stringing the
and when they spoke the third time he raised
! his head and held up string of beads, saying:
"'When your chief wants me at a council he must
send me a string like this. The quilts were those
of the wampum bird. which scars very high and
is rarely seen. but which Hiawatha could call
down The Mohawk chief had none of these ana
sent a string of partridge quilts instead. Hia-
watha came and first showed them how to make
and use wampum, and then proposed the
league.
TIE WAMPUM BIRD.
Concerning the wampum bird another Indian
legend tells how q man once saw q Wampum