History 170 - Indigenous Peoples of North America - Prof. Alice Nash - Umass Amherst Wampum and the Iroquois: A Short Overview By A. Brian Deer Wampum played a great role in our culture ... It is still important that we should have wampum to communicate matters ... - Jake Thomas, Cayuga, 1986 1 For the Iroquois, the origins of wampum can be traced to the founding of the Iroquois Confederacy centuries ago. 2 In the traditional oral narrative concerning the Peacemaker and the Great Law (according to one version) Hiawatha retrieves freshwater shells from the shores of Lake Ontario and ties them together in strings to be used for condoling someone. Hiawatha himself is grief-stricken by the loss his daughters during his attempts to assist the Peacemaker to promote the Confederacy and spread the message of peace. Hiawatha loses himself in the forest and wanders about from village to village. Each evening, at the woods' edge, he kindles a fire saying: This would I do if I found anyone burdened with grief even as I am. I would take these shell strings in my hand and console them.

The strings would become words and lift away the darkness with which they are covered. Holding these in my hand, my words would be true. 3 Finally the Peacemaker approaches him and takes up the strings one by one, speaking the words of condolence to him. Thus are the origins of the Condolence Ceremony, and of wampum itself as we know it today, in Iroquois culture. Wampum refers to oblong cylindrical beads individually pierced lengthwise and linked together into one or more strings for ceremonial purposes, or woven together into wide "belts" for communicative and diplomatic purposes. 4 Ironically wampum itself is not indigenous to Iroquois country. The shells that Hiawatha gathered from the lake shore were not necessarily wampum as it was later to be known. Wampum is made from sea shells, primarily whelk for the white-ivory colour and quahog for the purple-dark blue colour. The shells are found on coastal waters along the shores of Long Island Sound and southwestern New England in the country of Algonquian peoples.

The word "wampum" originates from an Algonquian word, wampumpeag meaning "white string of shell beads." 5 The Iroquois traded for wampum especially after it became more readily available in quantity from Algonquian bead-manufacturing production by the early seventeenth century, and later from Euro-North American entrepreneurs as well. For a period of 30 years ending in 1664, wampum beads were actually used by the Dutch and English as a form of currency. 6 However, for the Iroquois wampum has been valued culturally. Wampum (especially white wampum) has signified spiritual, social and physical well-being; peace, lightness, and life. 7 For the Iroquois today, wampum also signifies sovereignty, re-affirmation and identity. One could say that though wampum as material is indigenous to Algonquian sea shores, wampum as concept is indigenous to Iroquois thought and ideology. Wampum played a huge role in the social and political history of the Iroquois, as it still does in the Iroquois Longhouse.

8 Today wampum strings and wampum belts are widely identified with Iroquoian peoples. However, it is important to remember that many Algonquian peoples positioned geographically on all sides of the Six Nations Iroquois also used wampum for ceremonial and communicative/diplomatic purposes. 9 The Iroquois used and continue to use wampum in two different forms: strings and belts. In the fifteen-part Condolence Ceremony for the raising and installation of a new Roianer (inadequately translated as "sachem" or "chief") 10 to replace the one who has died, different wampum strings are employed for each part of the ceremony. During the course of the ceremony strings are ritually passed across from the "clear minded" to those being condoled, and are returned in reciprocal fashion. The most familiar part of the ceremony is the clearing of the eyes, ears, and throat, respectively. Wampum strings are also employed at other functions such as, for example, naming ceremonies, funerals, certain rituals at the Midwinter and other calendric ceremonies, and the convening of councils.

11 For the latter, invitation strings sent out to communities are returned individually when a council is convened. Wampum belts are quite different in appearance from wampum strings. They are of variable width and length (approximately 3-6 inches wide and 3-5 feet long) and are composed of rows of white and purple beads woven together. The belts are encoded with abstract, symbolic, pictographic symbols to aid the memory. The mnemonic symbols - highly stylized human figures, trees and so forth - convey concepts, metaphors and ideas. They are often purple on a white background, as in the Two Row Wampum. Sometimes, the symbols are white against a blue-purple background as in the "Hiawatha belt" commemorating the founding of the Iroquois Confederacy, or the "Two Dog" Wampum of Kanehsatake. 12 As an aside, purple is not a "royal" colour in this context; the colours come from the seashells used to manufacture the beads. Any discussion of Iroquois culture and history can lead to a thought provoking debate on a number of issues.

In a 1993 panel discussion on Iroquois history which took place in Kahnawake near Montreal, John Mohawk asserted that Iroquois people need to think again about how they view their own history, that it is not as glorified as people like to think. He also asserted, half in jest, that it is tough being a Native historian writing about Native history: over one shoulder are non-Native academics looking for something wrong with his scholarship; over the other shoulder are Native folks looking for something wrong with his politics. 13 Similarly, an Iroquois person writing about wampum (especially wampum belts) can find himself in somewhat the same position. It is a topic that in the past has been fraught with discord between Iroquois people and non-Iroquois scholars studying the Iroquois. 14 Following from the above discussion, Iroquois (and non-Iroquois) people need to think again about how wampum is viewed. For example, one sometimes hears it being said that wampum belts are treaties. This is, of course, a misconception.

Wampum belts are not necessarily treaties; it is in fact quite limiting to think of them as treaties somehow fixed in time and history. Most wampum belts never were treaties. Rather, they were used to mark, record, convey, or recall diplomatic messages, conferences, momentous happenings, oral traditions, and (sometimes) to ratify treaties. One also hears it said that wampum is sacred. This also needs to be reexamined. Wampum is not in itself sacred. Even the rituals and ceremonies in which wampum is used are not in themselves sacred. What is sacred are the words, thoughts and feelings carried in rituals and ceremonies in which wampum is used. A wampum string obliges the person holding it and signifies honesty, sincerity and seriousness, whether in a condolence ceremony, a particular ritual in the Longhouse, or even in a Canadian/American courthouse where wampum is occasionally used in lieu of the Christian Bible. 15 As for wampum belts, what is sacred are the messages, meanings, concepts and ideas they contain, not the belts themselves. The wampum belts stripped bare are merely artifacts and objects.

What they represent is what should be considered important and "sacred." as expressed by an Iroquois speaker at a legislative committee hearing in Quebec City in 1983 when reciting the Two Row Wampum, a replica of the belt at hand: "There came a time when people thought that if we lost this article [to a museum], this artifact, this grouping of beads that forms a record, we would also forget the responsibility in our relationship. The relationship is not a material one, it is not written in beads, and that is it. ... No, the relationship is etched in the minds of our forefathers. It has been etched in the minds of our people, sitting here today. That same understanding of principles will be in our children. It will be in the ones ... that are not yet born." 16 The Two Row Wampum and the message it contains has wide appeal in Iroquois country today and, perhaps because of this, has become a flash point for some people when wampum belts are discussed. The historical origins of the belt have been called into question and challenged by many non-Iroquois historians.

One preeminent Iroquoianist has been heard to say (in classic Orientalist fashion) 17 that the Two Row Wampum is a "recent invention." One can debate whether or not the tradition of reciting the Two Row Wampum is a fairly recent development, but there can be little debate over the concept contained in the Two Row. The idea that two peoples shall follow separate paths, without interfering with each other, at the same time linked in peace, friendship and respect is very old. Such thinking can be found in the early documentary evidence. For example, the Treaty of Fort Albany (1664) addresses the responsibilities of the English and the Iroquois in the event of any "wrong injury or violence" being done by a member of either side. 18 Whether or not a Two Row Wampum belt was materially present at the time is beside the point; the concept and the thinking behind it was already present.

What perhaps is really at issue is the representation of Iroquois culture and history, the construction of knowledge about the latter, how we should think about such matters, and whether any particular group (Iroquois or non-Iroquois) has the right to monopolize these activities. This is another area that has been fraught with discord. 19 What of wampum today? Wampum strings continue to be used in much the same way as in former times. Just as the Peacemaker condoled Hiawatha in his grief, so do the Iroquois continue to condole one another in times of grief or distress. Wampum belts for their part no longer function in the Iroquois world in quite the same way that they did in times gone by. New wampum belts are no longer routinely strung up and used for various diplomatic purposes as often as before. However, the Two Row Wampum is an important exception. It provides strength, inspiration and renewal to Iroquois and Indigenous peoples alike at international forums and gatherings. With changing conditions other uses for wampum belts have been developed.

For example, a few years ago a wampum belt was delivered from Kahnawake to Akwesasne to bring the message of diabetes awareness and prevention. It has since been traveling from one Native community to another and has been a source of reassuring encouragement for those requesting and receiving it. 20 In addition, wampum belts are used in recalling oral narratives. They are also used as teaching tools to inform both Iroquois people and the non-Native public about Iroquois history and culture, whether in small groups, at meetings, conferences, or in classrooms. Cultures and societies change all the time; the Iroquois are no exception. Wampum is still highly valued in the Iroquois world. Sometimes I think that historians, although they don't mean to, perhaps want to put us in an historical time and they don't allow us to say [of wampum] "but it is alive today." - Francis Boots, Mohawk, 1989 21 ------------- About the author A. Brian Deer ( Kahnawake Mohawk) is an independent scholar.

He co-teaches "An Introduction to Iroquois Spirituality and Philosophy" with Louise Johnston in the Department of Religion at Concordia University on a semi-regular basis. He is also the creator of the Brian Deer Classification System for First Nations libraries . He welcomes serious questions and comments and can be reached at abdeer@sympatico.ca. Notes to the text 1 quoted in Charles F. Hayes III and Lynn Ceci, eds., Proceedings of the 1986 Shell Bead Conference: Selected Papers (Rochester, NY: Rochester Museum and Science Service, 1989), [iii]. 2 dates vary; according to one author, the process of confederation could have started as early as A. D. 1300-1400; see William N. Fenton, The Great Law and the Longhouse: A Political History of the Iroquois Confederacy (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1998), 128.

Originally a confederacy of five nations, the latter were joined by the Tuscaroras in the early eighteenth-century to form the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy: Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca and Tuscarora, from east to west. 3 Paul A. W. Wallace, The White Roots of Peace (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1946), 21. Wallace, reprinted several times, offers a composite of several versions of this narrative; see also, [Seth Newhouse], "The Dekanawida Legend," The Constitution of the Five Nations or The Iroquois Book of the Great Law , ed. by Arthur C. Parker. New York Museum Bulletin 184 (1916). Reprinted (Ohsweken, ON: Iroqrafts, n. d.), 14-29. A variation of this passage is found in Newhouse, 20. 4 see Michael K.

Foster, "Another Look at the Function of Wampum in Iroquois-White Councils," The History and Culture of Iroquois Diplomacy: An Interdisciplinary Guide to the Treaties of the Six Nations and their League , ed. by Francis Jennings, et. al. (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1985), 99-114. 5 see George S. Snyderman, "The Functions of Wampum," Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 98 (1954): 469-494; George R. Hamell, "Wampum: Light, White and Bright Things are Good to Think," One Man's Trash is Another Man's Treasure , ed.

by Alexandra van Dongen, et al (Rotterdam: Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, 1996), 41-51; for Mohawk words, see Gunther Michelson, "Iroquoian Terms for Wampum," International Journal of American Linguistics 57 (1991): 108-116; 6 see Lynn Ceci, "The First Fiscal Crisis in New York," Economic Development and Culture Change 28 (1980): 839-847; the "crisis" was over currency control - the control of wampum beads; the reference to Algonquian bead manufacture, 840; Elizabeth S. Pena, "The Role of Wampum Production at the Albany Almshouse," International Journal of Historical Archaeology 5 (2001): 155-174.

7 see Lynn Ceci, "The Value of Wampum Among the New York Iroquois: A Case Study in Artifact Analysis," Journal of Anthropological Research 38 (1982): 97-107; George Hamell, "The Iroquois and the World's Rim: Speculations on Color, Culture, and Contact," American Indian Quarterly (1992): 451-469. 8 The term "Longhouse" today refers to a communal building where ceremonial, social and political functions are carried out; it also refers metaphorically to Iroquois society and culture, and to the Co8nfederacy itself. 9 see for example Frank G. Speck, "The Functions of Wampum Among the Eastern Algonkian," Memoirs of the American Anthropological Association 6 (Jan-March 1919): 3-71; Robert M. Leavitt and David A. Francis, eds., Wapapi Akonutomakonol / The Wampum Records: Wabanaki Traditional Laws (Fredericton: Micmac-Maliseet Institute, University of New Brunswick, 1990).

10 Roianer, in the Mohawk language, literally means "good (he)" or "he is good"; more freely translated and understood, it means he who (being good) looks out for the people, or who has in mind the welfare of the people; see Seth Newhouse, "The Dekanawida Legend," cited above, 34. 11 see Francis Boots (Ateronhiatakon), "Iroquoian Use of Wampum," New Voices from the Longhouse: An Anthology of Contemporary Iroquois Writing , ed. by Joseph Bruchac (Greenfield Center, NY: Greenfield Review Press, 1989), 32-39. 12 According to the oral tradition the Two Dog wampum belt was made when the people of Kahnehsatake moved from the island of Montreal to their present location at the Lake of Two Mountains in 1721. Years later the chiefs reminded colonial officials of the message it contained: "...you see this white line which shows the length of our land. The figures with hands clasped who rejoin the cross represents the loyalty which we owe to the faith that we hold.

The body represents the council-fire of our village. The two dogs at the outside are supposed to guard the boundaries of our land, and if anyone attempted to interrupt our possession it is their duty to warn us by barking ..."; Brenda Katlatont Gabriel-Doxtator and Arlette Kawanatatie Van Den Hende, At the Woods' Edge: An Anthology of the History of the People of Kanehsata:ke (Kanesatake: Kanesatake Education Center, 1995), 271; see also 30-31, 270-272, 275-77. 13 see Kanienkehaka Raotitiohkwa Cultural Center, "Great Debate" II: Perspectives on Iroquois History (Kahnawake: 1993). Videotape, Cassette #2. The other panelists were Gerald Alfred, Jane Dickson-Gilmore, Gretchen Green and Francis Jennings.

14 see [The Editors], "The Iroquois Wampum Controversy," Indian Historian 3 (Spring 1970): 4-17, 50, and (Summer 1970): 63; William N. Fenton, "The New York State Wampum Collection: The Case for the Integrity of Cultural Treasures," Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 115 (1971): 437-461; [New York State Education Department], "Wampum Belts Returned to the Onondaga Nation," ed. by Dean R. Snow, Man in the Northeast 37 (Fall 1989): 109-117; William N. Fenton, "Return of Eleven Wampum Belts to the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy on Grand River, Canada," Ethnohistory 36 (1989): 392-410; José Barreiro, "Return of the Wampum," Indian Roots of American Democracy , ed.

by José Barreiro (Ithaca, NY: Akwe:kon Press, 1992), 135-148; Elisabeth Tooker, "A Note on the Return of Eleven Wampum Belts to the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy on Grand River, Canada," Ethnohistory 45 (1998): 219-236. 15 "Judge Allows Wampum Ritual as Oath," Globe & Mail (Toronto) - Metro edition, July 10, 1991, A7. 16 Assemblée nationale Québec, Journal des Débats, Commissions Parlementaires, Quatrieme session - 32e Législature, Commission permanente de la présidence du conseil et de la constitution. Audition de personnes et d'organismes autochtones sur les droites et les besoins fondamentaux des Amérindiens et des Inuits . No. 167 (23 novembre 1983), B9307. 17 see Edward W. Said, Orientalism: Western Conceptions of the Orient .

With a New Afterword (London: Penguin Books, 1995). 18 Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the State of New York (Albany: 1853-1887), Vol. 3: 67-68; see also, Richard Hill, "Oral Memory of the Haudenosaunee: Views of the Two Row Wampum," Indian Roots of American Democracy , ed. by José Barreiro (Ithaca, NY: Akwe:kon Press, 1992), 149-159. 19 see Gail Landsman and Sara Ciborski, "Representation and Politics: Contesting Histories of the Iroquois," Cultural Anthropology 7 (1992): 425-447; Gail Landsman, "Informant as Critic: Conducting Research on a Dispute between Iroquoianist Scholars and Traditional Iroquois," Indians and Anthropologists: Vine Deloria, Jr., and the Critique of Anthropology , ed. by Thomas Biolsi and Larry J.

Zimmerman (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1997), 160-176. 20 see Tom Dearhouse, "Objective Reached - Wampum Belt Delivered," The Eastern Door , July 11, 1997, 16; Greg Horn, "The Diabetes Wampum Belt is on the Road Again," October 9, 1998, 10, and other articles published in this Kahnawake weekly newspaper. 21 Francis Boots, "Iroquoian Use of Wampum," cited above, 39. Wampum Belt | Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia Historical Society of Pennsylvania This wampum belt, on exhibit at the Philadelphia History Museum, was said to be given to William Penn by the Lenapes at the time of the 1682 treaty. The belt, donated in 1857 to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania by a great-grandson of Penn, is made of white wampum with darker accent beads and depicts two figures holding hands, often interpreted as a sign of friendship and peace. Wampum refers to the shell beads used as currency by Native Americans in the eastern United States.

The beads are made of clam and whelk shells and were used as memory aids, often given to commemorate important events such as engagements, marriages, or funerals. Wampum could be fashioned into a belt and used to keep an oral history. The belts were also used as currency and—as seems to be the case here—to mark the creation of treaties. Logged in as . Log out? Your email is never shared. Required fields are marked * Name Native American BEADS -- history, cultural values Page Buttons Choctaw beadwork artist Marcus Amerman created as a beadwork magazine cover the entire portrait of 19th century Crow leader, Medicine Crow, magazine title lettering and all, for the Fall, 1992, issue of Native Peoples magazine. His beadwork portrait was photographed for the cover. Amerman has mastered shading with bands and areas of beads, and has essentially created a new art form. Everyone has seen Native American watchbands, cigarette lighter-holders, belts, purses and other small items. Since the 1960's, this "modern" beadwork has been imitated in oriental factories and imported very cheaply. It competes with high-quality beadwork of native craftspeople.

A U.S. General Accounting Office study done in the mid-80's indicated that native craftspeople have lost tens of millions of dollars in potential sales (over an 8-year period) to such fakes. Since the passage of the 1990 Native American Arts and Crafts Act, [18 USC Sec. 1159, 1993] it is a federal felony to offer imitations as the product of Indian craftspeople. Beads are a many-faceted part of native history in north America and Canada. The 6-strand turquoise necklace at the left was made by the Joe Garcia family, Santo Domingo Pueblo, New Mexico, in 1984. It's a duplicate of one their daughter dances in. The beads are so carefully size-graduated there seems no break between them. Pink spondylus shell (whose use in ornament is very ancient and shows that there were trade routes from the Pacific all over North America) covers the ends of the strands. The necklace is similar to some that were made thousands of years ago. Making beads is an old craft.

Bone, stone (turquoise and other semi-precious stones) and shell beads are still made the ancient way, little affected by modern technology. Sea shells, the commonest material for handmade beads, have been important native regional trade items for thousands of years. Beads were carved and shaped of animal horn, turtle shell, and deer hooves, often for dangling dance tinklers or rattlers. Animal teeth and claws were bored and strung. Bear or wolf-claw necklaces were proof of a hunter's powers. Wooden beads, sometimes dyed, were carved and drilled. Hard seeds were steamed to soften them for awl piercing and stringing. Small animal bones were polished and shaped into taperedcylinders (called hairpipe bone) for neck chokers and large dance regalia breastplates. Softened, flattened dyed porcupine quills -- used here for this Tsistsistas (Northern Cheyenne) 19th-century horse mask -- were used before trade seed beads became common. Quillwork is seeing a revival today. Cheyenne women's qulling societies undertook quillwork as a sacred task. A woman had to be sponsored and tutored for membership.

The objective of these societies was technical perfction in the art. Sacred quillwork in many areas was undertaken to fulfill a vow as a form of prayer for someone. The process of making it was sacred, but the finished piece -- to be worn or used by someone -- was not considered sacred. The product was of secondary importance to the process of creation, according to John C. Ewers, of the Smithsonian Institution. The focus was on the vow, the thoughts and prayers and the work, not on the thing -- very different from Western society, which prizes only things and ignores the process of creation. Fresh-water clamshells were used for the Haudenosee (Iroquois League) purple and white wampum chains that recorded treaties, sacred ceremonies, and songs before and after the coming of the Europeans. These chains or belts were treated with great respect, and highly valued by their keepers. Agreements were generally recorded this way. The result was that Europeans believed wampum belts or chains were money, and the word "wampum" even became a sort of slang for money. Actually, they were more like important original documents.

Animal sinew split fine was the commonest material used to string beads and to attach beads to hide garments, although occasionally strong twined plant fibers (such as nettle) or hide thongs were used. The only ancient type of bead still made in quantity today by native people is the heishii, made by Navajos and some pueblo people. The ancient techniques are still used. Shells (especially olive shell), slices of turquoise, and occasionally other semi-precious stones are broken into small pieces. A hand-pump drill makes a small hole through each piece, drilling from both sides if it is thick. The heishii are then strung. The string is rolled on a piece of fine sandstone until they are smoothed into uniform cylinders around the string-hole. The smaller the bead, the more work involved, so the more expensive they are. Heishii necklaces are always many - stranded, sometimes all of a kind, but turquoise with shell heishii are also common. Animals and other figures are carved from flat pieces of turquoise or shell.

These are drilled and strung between groups of "rocky" or shaped turquoise, silver, or heishii shell beads to make "story" necklaces, where the storyteller can show children each character as she tells the story. Some say women first got the idea for story necklaces from the rosary beads of Catholic priests. Most purchased "story- type" necklaces actually tell no story, but mothers, older sisters, grandmas and teachers make one up to fit the beads. (White traders have given storyteller necklaces the unfortunate name of "fetish" suggesting both some kind of cult and psychological obsession.) Beads are important in archaeological studies of pre-European history. They survive thousands of years well. Seashell beads are important because ancient shell beads are found thousands of miles from seacoasts, indicating trade contacts among ancient peoples. How beads are made helps show the level of technology of the ancient people who made them. Since beads are not tools, their use and production means a tribe had enough food and shelter to spend time or trade goods on ornaments unnecessary for physical survival. This means a more complex culture. Europeans made other types of beads available.

Glass (made in Venice, Italy), ceramic, and cast metal beads (silver, brass, and German silver--an alloy of nickel, copper and zinc) were trade items used from the 16th century on. When Indian women get together to do beadwork, someone often jokes, "My nephew just came back from New York City. He says the shape it's in today, that's one land deal we got the better of." This refers to the alleged "sale" of Manhattan Island to Dutch colonists around 1620 for $25 worth of beads by someone from the Wappinger Confederacy. (Most likely they thought the newcomers were giving them guest-gifts.) Trade beads facilitated early European penetration of the northern Woodland culture area. They were a useful item for "coureurs de bois" (woods-runners) who carried light trade goods in backpacks on forest trails and in canoes on long early northern woodland travels, pursuing beaver pelts during the 17th and 18th centuries.

Lightweight, easy to pack, undamaged by water, immediately desirable to most tribes who never saw them before, beads were among the "gift trinkets" carried by most explorers and expeditions to help in making contact with tribes newly met. With the exception of early 20th-century ethnographer Frances Densmore, anthropologists (almost all male) have ignored native use of "trade" beads, in their studies of native subsistence, craft and ornament. Native women were inspired to invent beadwork techniques unknown to Europeans, as well as beautiful and sometimes spiritually or historically-inspired culturally unique designs. Two types of trade beads were immediately popular (and are still used by native craftspeople). The big ceramic pony beads are about a quarter to half an inch in diameter, with large holes for thongs. These are used on bone chokers and dance breastplates, as well as danglers from medallion necklaces. Red, black, and turquoise-color are the most popular. A few are still made of brass. Their name comes from the fact that these beads are well suited to thong-strung decorations on pony reins and other horse gear.

Shown here is a hairpipe bone choker with red and brass pony beads and a large abalone-shell button. The most widely-used beads today-- eagerly accepted by native women from their first introduction--are tiny seed beads. Their use supplanted the more difficult, time- consuming (and not so flexible) porcupine quillwork. Manido-min-esag ("Little spirit seeds, gift of the Manido" the Anishnaabemowin name for seed beads) was what Anishnabe (Ojibwe, Odawah, Pottawotomi) women named seed beads. The need to have good feelings when one is beading continues this early reaction: that these little things were a gift of beauty from the spirits, handed over by the white man as an intermediary of some sort. Almost as soon as seed beads were available, native women invented two techniques for using them: loom beading and applique embroidery. Those two techniques are still in use today. Loom-beading and a form of single-needle weaving (peyote beading) are not adaptations of techniques known to European or other cultures; they are native inventions. Read about Modern seed-beading techniques now or later.

Fine quality seed glass beads are made only in Czechoslovakia. They were unavailable after World War II until the mid-'60's. Larger, coarser, unsatisfactory beads were used, and older objects were "de-beaded" to make new regalia for relatives, until Czech beads again became available. Very fine, long needles are required, and fine nylon thread is used today for all seed beading. Beadwork today uses all the traditional techniques. Most of the finest beadwork is still done only for relatives and gift giveaways. A lot of work goes into a large piece. To fully bead the yoke and upper sleeves of a fine Plains buckskin dance dress takes 20 pounds of number 12 seed beads and about a year of work. As much time is required to prepare a set of Wood- land-style mens' dance regalia: beaded leggings, cuffs, vest, breechclout-apron, strips and medallions to attach to head roach, bustle, and dance-sticks. Of course this isn't "continuous" or factory-style work, it's done after regular jobs and housework.

Still, such "large" projects are generally made only for relatives, or commissioned by dancers from well-known beadworkers. Items for sale are smaller, take less time, and provide a little extra income when sold in Indian Center craft shops or at powwows. As a 1990 project whose actual purpose was to teach the use of a complex professional computer design program, North Carolina Cherokee and Choctaw college students learned to use AutoCad for beadwork designing. Others have tried it with simpler, less expensive computer programs. Here's Navajo crafts and LOGO programming-- Monument Valley HS, Dinè Bi K'ah Reservation, Utah. Button here is some student computer design work. Computer beadwork design is like Woodland designing by moving around birchbark cutouts, with the addition that colors can be explored, outline shapes easily changed. The designs provide a clear idea of what a project--which might take years to bead--will eventually look like. Beads weave through native history from tens of thousands of years ago to tomorrow's computer design technology. But there is another aspect besides techniques and designs, craft and ornament.

Beaded items for religious purposes are either made personally (medicine pouch, Pipe bag), or given by relatives, not bought or sold. Beadwork on such items often reminds the owner of a personal vision or sign or the meaning of a personal name, it is not only to make them beautiful. However, making sacred objects beautiful, especially by taking a lot of time and care, shows honor and respect to the spiritual powers, not only through words and feelings, but through artistry and work. This reality -- the work done as itself a prayer or vow -- underlies and strengthens ceremonial activities. Treaty of Shackamaxon | Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia Library Company of Philadelphia Penn Treaty Park, named for the traditional story of William Penn’s peaceful treaty with the Lenni Lenape Indians, is found at 1341 N. Delaware Avenue in Philadelphia’s Fishtown section, about 1½ miles upriver from Penn’s Landing on the Delaware River. The treaty supposedly was agreed to on land now occupied by the park.

In this Currier & Ives lithograph based on the painting Penn’s Treaty with the Indians, by Benjamin West (1738-1820), the iconic event is depicted as West imagined it. The site of the agreement was said to be marked by the Great Elm, located to the right in the image. The original elm fell during a storm in 1810, and two hundred years later, in May 2010, a descendent elm was planted in its place. Though no first-hand evidence of the treaty exists, West and other artists have contributed to the legend through their art, and the park’s establishment helped perpetuate it as well. Historical Society of Pennsylvania This wampum belt, which is on exhibit at the Philadelphia History Museum, was said to be given to William Penn by the Lenape tribe at the time of the 1682 treaty. The belt, donated in 1857 to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania by a great-grandson of Penn, is made of white wampum with darker accent beads and depicts two figures holding hands, often interpreted as a sign of friendship and peace.

Wampum refers to the shell beads used as currency by Native Americans in the eastern United States. The beads are made of clam and whelk shells and were used as memory aids, often given to commemorate important events such as engagements, marriages, or funerals. Wampum could be fashioned into a belt and used to keep an oral history. The belts were also used as currency and — as seems to be the case here — to mark the creation of treaties. Library of Congress Tammany Hall in New York City is the central building in this image. According to historical legend, the leader of the Lenni Lenape tribe with whom William Penn made his treaty was named Tamanend, who is quoted as saying the English and Lenni Lenape would “live in peace as long as the waters run in the rivers and creeks and as long as the stars and moon endure.” After his death at the turn of the eighteenth century, Tamanend became a hero figure.

Colonists who wished to create a uniquely American identity for themselves chose to deify the Native American, calling him “King Tammany” and “The Patron Saint of America.” Tammany Societies sprung up throughout the colonies in the early eighteenth century, and many threw Tammany Festivals to celebrate and honor Tamanend’s memory. Some Tammany societies endured, and this 1914 photograph shows the infamous Tammany Hall in Manhattan. After having a variety of meeting places, or “wigwams,” the New York Tammany Society built this structure in 1867. This building was the headquarters for the organization that became synonymous with political corruption and the Democratic Party’s political machine.

Question: Wampum refers to decorative/monetary shell-beads in which culture?
Answer: Native American Indian