Photographs (left to right): Lizard, Everglades, Florida; Black Racer; West Virginia: Unknown Insect, Rush, New York

Wampum Belt Archive

 

Abenaki Mother Of God Belt

Drawing R. D. Hamell February 26, 2024

 

Original Size:
 not given.
Reproduction:
 Beaded length: 59.0 inches. Width: 11.0 inches. Length w/ fringe: 83.0 inches.
Beads:
 Columns: 351. Rows: 24. Total beads: 8,424.
Materials:
 Warp: Deer leather. Weft: Artificial sinew. Beads: Polymer.

Description:belt

The belt shown here is #4 illustration (bottom belt). The three other belts are illustrated separate links.

Drawing of the four wampum belts hanging on the wall in the Lorette [Wendake] chapel prior to the fire

of 1862, 1846. Drawing by Samuel Douglas Smith Huyghue. Dimensions unknown.

The Latin on the wampum reads, (bottom to top,) as follows (some words are abbreviated):

  1. V˙MATRI˙ILIN˙D˙D˙ (Gift of the Illinois to the Virgin Mary)

  2. B˙ANNAE˙MATRIM˙V˙VOTUM˙HUR (Vow of the Huron to the Blessed Anne Mother of the Virgin)

  3. B˙JOSEPHO˙MARIÆ˙SPONSO˙HUR˙(The Huron to the Blessed Joseph Husband of Mary)

  4. DEIPARÆ:ABNAQVÆI˙ D D (Gift of the Abenaki to the Mother of God)

The belt images were re-drawn using CorelDraw (X3). The width of the belts was determined to be similar to the Abenaki Virgin

Mary belt. At first thought counting the number of fringes would indicate the number of bead in each column (9). Comparing this

number to the ‘stepped’ appearance in the letters suggested the beads in a column would the twice that number. A comfortable width

with the letter was appropriately deemed to be 22. Estimate length based on the polymer beads: 10mm x 4 mm.

 

Reference:

Lainey, Jonathan. 2022. Wampum in Quebec from the 19th Century to Present Day: Appropriation, Loss, Identification., Gradive. Review of Anthropology and History of Arts. https://journals.openedition.org/gradhiva/

Melbourne, Museums Victoria, Collection SDS Huyghue, XM 1495, Manuscript, pre-1879.