Photographs (left to right): Ohiopyle Falls, Pennsylvania; Hamlin State Park, New York; Cucumber Falls, Pennsylvania

Wampum Belt Archive

 

Haudenosaunee

 

Peabody Essex Museum

18th Century ca Iroquois

 

Original Size:	Est
Reproduction:
Beads:
Materials:

Description:

“Wampum are cylindrical shell beads, typically about one Quarter inch in length and one eighth inch in
diameter. Wampum beads are white or purple, with the white made from the interior column of the Atlantic
whelk shell and the purple made from that of the quahog…. The more important use of wampum was as a
symbolic and documentary medium. Among the Iroquois, wampum strings functioned as mnemonics for
reciting ritual speeches, while belts of wampum solemnized intertribal communiqués and commemorated
councils and treaties" (p.103).

“Belts made mainly from white beads suggest cordial diplomacy, while those that made extensive use of purple
(sometimes referred to as “black” beads) have more sober connotations. The meaning of the belt shown here,
which is predominantly purple with ten white cross-filled hexagons, is now lost, but it bears faint traces of red
paint on some of the beads and fringe. Belts marked with red were understood as a call to war” (p.105).

Reference:

Grimes, John R. ,Christian F. Feest, and Mary Lou Curran. NY. 2002. American Federation of Arts, New
York in association with University of Washington Press, Seattle and London.

http://teh.salemstate.edu/Immigration/Vanishing-Ind/pages/E53442WampumIriquois_jpg.htm

Uncommon Legacies: Native American Art from the Peabody Essex Museum.

Grimes, John R. ,Christian F. Feest, and Mary Lou Curran. NY. 2002. American Federation of Arts, New
York in association with University of Washington Press, Seattle and London.