Photographs (left to right): Sunset, Albuquerque, New Mexico; Silver Pennies, Rush, New York; Tent Rocks National Monument, New Mexico

Wampum Belt Archive

Algonquian - Haudenosaunee Belt ?

BLM Ethno 1906 Am 0523 1

Description:

Short belt or garter, woven on a bow-loom, with warps and wefts of commercial vegetal twine [cotton?], the warps ending in plaits/braids. The ground is of purple beads, of varied lengths and diameters; in the middle of the belt are three large 'V's in white wampum, each line delineated with two beads, except for the penultimate line, with 3 beads, & the final line, with 1 bead. The 'V's could be read the other way up, and so might for instance be read as tents. The maker of the belt had insufficient white beads, so that it is apparently not completed as designed; one of the end 'V's for instance does not have a white bead at the base. The white beads are both of shell and glass. The belt is 6 beads and seven warps wide, and 91 beads long, to make a total of 546 beads, apparently all present, although some are damaged.

Reference:

British Museum. https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/E_Am1906-0523-3