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What Was Wampum Used
For?
Wampum is strings or belts made up of white and purple beads
that were cut from certain kinds of shells. Each string or belt
held a different message. The use of wampum suggested the
seriousness of the message and the sincerity of whoever made it.
This drawing, First Grand Council,
was done by John Kahionhes
Fadden of the Mohawk Nation in
1980. It shows the Peacemaker
presenting the Great Law of
Peace. The figure under the Tree
of Peace is holding a wampum
belt. According to Iroquois
tradition, Hiawatha introduced
wampum to his people.
Thinking
It Through
In what other ways do
societies record their
history and laws?
In Chapter 1, you read that Canada has a written
Constitution that sets out the rules of Canadian society. The
Great Law of Peace is the constitution of the Iroquois. It
describes principles of good living and tells how the
Confederacy should be organized and run. The Great Law of
Peace is so long that it would take days to recite the
whole thing. In order to help them remember the
Great Law, the Iroquois used wampum belts.
A wampum keeper was responsible for caring
for the wampum and reading it. The reader would
pass his hands along the belt, bead by bead, using
their texture to remind him of the events or treaties
it recorded. Wampum keepers were chosen by the
clan and trained from a young age—younger than
you are now—to remember the information on the
belt and tell it in a dramatic and poetic way.
This photo taken in the 1870s shows Iroquois
Iroquois women made the wampum belts.
chiefs from the Six Nations Reserve reading
Wampum belts.
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Background
Wampum was a typical item
used or carried by American
Indians. Wampum consisted
of beads of two principal
colors, white and purple,
having a cylindrical form, a
quarter of an inch, more or
less, in length, the diameter
or thickness being usually
about half the length which
were usually strung or woven
into patterns on a belt. The
white beads were made from
Wampum beads
channeled whelk shell and the
purple were made from quahog shell. Wampum
belts were used to record events and memories.
The use of patterns and symbols were a method of
storytelling. The color of wampum held meaning,
for example, white beads indicated peace, and
purple or violet meant war. A string of black
wampum sent round the settlement signifies (still
today) the death of a chief to the Iroquois.
The term wampum was apparently applied to
these beads when strung or otherwise connected,
fastened, or woven together. Pontiac’s great
wampum belt was six feet long, four inches wide,
and was designed with the symbols of 47 tribes
and villages that were leagued with him. It is
noteworthy that the usual conception of woven
beads in patterns is not necessarily the norm for
wampum. Sometimes wampum were presented in
long strings connected at one end and left to dangle
free and tied off at the other end.
The early settlers discovered that wampum beads
were a very valuable trade commodity and quickly
learned to mass produce it. There is a common
American Indian Unit:
Wampum
Wampum bead weaving
misconception that wampum was money. Some
Europeans used it as currency but the Natives
never did.
Reproduction “George Washington” wampum belt by Iroquois artist
Ken Maracle
The original of this belt is the sacred agreement
between the Six Nations (Iroquois) and the
original Thirteen Colonies (U.S.). It is the record
of a Treaty with George Washington in 1789.
The house in the center is the longhouse of the
Six Nations. The two figures on each side of the
Longhouse are the Mohawks; the Keepers of
the Eastern Door of the Confederacy and the
Seneca; the Keepers of the Western Door of the
Confederacy. They have joined their hands in
friendship, a covenant with the Thirteen Colonies.
This was made by Iroquois artist, Ken Maracle (see
Artist Profile).
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The Hiawatha Wampum
words
matter!
A collective identity is a
shared belief system that
often includes the same
language, culture, values,
and attitudes.
This belt is known as the Hiawatha
Wampum. It is a primary source of
information about the Iroquois.
How does the Hiawatha Wampum
show the relationship among the
nations of the Confederacy?
More
Today the Great Law of Peace exists as a written document. It
was first recorded in English in about 1880. Now, there are
several versions of it. The Hiawatha wampum is one of many
belts and strings that describe the Great Law.
Here are the meanings of the symbols on the Hiawatha
Wampum:
• From left to right, the five images represent the Mohawk,
Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca Nations and
their territories. The Onondaga symbol in the centre also
represents the Tree of Peace.
• The lines joining the five images show the connection of
the five nations to one another.
• The two lines extending out from the squares at the two
ends of the belt are the Path of Peace by which other
nations are welcomed to join the Confederacy.
• The Great Law explains the white colour on the Hiawatha
Belt this way: “White here symbolizes that no evil or
jealous thought shall creep into the minds of the chiefs
while in Council under the Great Peace. White, the
emblem of peace, love, charity and equity surrounds and
guards the Five Nations.”
About. . .
Wampum Treaty
Wampum often represented treaties among two groups of people. The
wampum are primary sources that tell us about Iroquois history. The
Two Row Wampum Treaty symbolized the relationship between the
Iroquois and the European nations that settled in North America.
One purple row of beads represented the path of the Iroquois canoe
that carried their culture, laws, and beliefs. This shows that the
nations of the Iroquois Confederacy shared a collective identity.
The other purple row represented the path of a sailing ship carrying
the Europeans’ culture, laws, and beliefs. The parallel paths show
that that neither group will try to interfere with the other. The three
white background rows symbolize peace, friendship, and respect
between the two groups.
This is a replica of the Two Row Wampum Treaty.
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Wampum
Among the Iroquois, wampum beads made from shells are
woven into patterned strings or belts that record important
events, ideas, contracts, pledges or treaties among nations.
When Europeans began to arrive in North America, the
Iroquois negotiated and concluded agreements with the
newcomers and presented them with records of the
agreements in wampum. Wampum strings and belts
were used at councils and in ceremonies of the Iroquois,
and still are.
The wampum belts in this
photograph were held by
the Museum of the
American Indian in the
United States for years. In
1989, the museum
returned them to the
Iroquois. Jacob E. Thomas
of the Cayuga Nation, on
the right, is reading the
belts for the museum’s
curator.
The belts are historical
records. Why are
historical records
important to the
collective identity of a
people – their sense of
themselves as a group?
Why might the Iroquois
have wanted these
wampum belts returned?
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The Hiawatha Wampum Belt
This wampum belt records the structure and principles of
the Iroquois Confederacy. Each of the figures on the belt
represents one of the original five nations of the
Confederacy, in their geographic order. The Tuscarora are
not represented by a symbol on the Hiawatha Wampum
Belt because they joined the Iroquois Confederacy many
years after it was founded.
SKILLaSt Work
What information
about the
foundation, structure
and processes of the
Iroquois Confederacy
do wampum belts
provide? Why are
primary sources such
as wampum belts
valuable?
LS
CEN
E
3
TR
S KIL
• use primary
sources to interpret
historical events
and issues
Geographic
Thinking
Seneca
Oneida
Cayuga
Mohawk
Onondaga
This figure represents the Tree of Peace and it stands at the centre of the
Confederacy. You can read more about the Tree of Peace on page 108.
The white line that joins the nations symbolizes the path
of peace. It extends out from both sides of the belt. This
invites other nations to follow the path of peace, accept
the Great Law of Peace, and take shelter under the Tree
of Peace.
Chapter 4
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