Photographs (left to right): Raccoon prints, Rio Grande, New Mexico; Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada; Rio Grande, New Mexico

Wampum Belt Archive

 

Tuscarora-Holland Land Belt (1799)

0

Original (Clarke, 1931)

 

Reproduction R. D. Hamell

August 16 2010

 

 

Original Size:	Length: 21.05 inches. Rows: 7.
Reproduction:	Beaded length: 26.63 inches. Width: 4.56 inches. Rows: 10. Length with fringe: 48.63 inches.
Beads:	163 rows: 10 wide: Total: 1,630 beads.
Materials:	Warp: leather. Weave: Artificial sinew.

Description:

The Tuscarora belt was at the Buffalo County Historical Society (Rick Hill). According to the Haudenosaunee Runner (Summer, 2000) was presented at the meeting with a delegation of Tuscarora chiefs and the U.S. general agent for Indian Affairs, Capt. Isreal Chapin. The meeting took place in Canandaigua, New York in 1799. The Tuscarora delegation requested that the Holland Land Company give the Tuscarora Nation an additional square mile of land to be added to their existing territory within western New York. In 1914, Cornell University professor Paul Evans found the wampum belt in a Holland vault. And in 1962, while entrusted to the Buffalo Historical Society, the belt went missing and has yet to be found. The Tuscarora Nation would like to have the belt returned for it is an important document to authenticate the Tuscarora Nation's claim.

Reference:

Haudenosaunee Runner. 2000. Holland Land Belt. Summer Issue, p.23. Published by the Tonawanda Seneca Nation Office, Meadville Rd., Basom, NY 14013.

Hill, Rick. 2010. Personal Communications. Six Nations of Canada.