Photographs (left to right): Swallowtail Butterfly, Adirondacks, New York; Adirondacks, New York; Hens and Chicks, Rush, New York

Wampum Belt Archive

 

Wampanoag - Aquinnah Belt

Presented to the Wampanoag People of the town of Aquinnah, MA

Hamell CorelDraw Graphic

05-03-2020

 

Original Size:	Rows: 7. Columns: 110. 770 beads.
Reproduction:	Beaded Length: 18 inches. Width: 3.5 inches. Length w/fringe: 34 inches
Beads:	Rows: 7. Columns: 110. Total beads: 770.
Materials:	Warp: Deer leather. Weft: Artificial sinew.

Description:

Description from web page of Joan LeLacheur, Kate Taylor, and her late husband Charles Witham

http://www.mvartsandideas.com/arts/portraits/aquinnah-wampum-belt

"We’d been drawn to the beauty of the shell. We’d seen the beads in museum cases strung into belts. We read in dusty books about the uses of the belts to record important events. We lived in a town that was home to people of the Nation of the Wampanoag, and they had just been through a grueling battle for federal recognition (2007) which they won in 2015 and the Interior Department placed their land into trust in 2015 and granted the Mashpee a reservation. A recent lawsuit made the Interior Secretary reversed his decision.

Read more on the Secretary Of Interior Orders Mashpee Wampanoag Reservation 'Disestablished" https://www.wbur.org/news/2020/03/28/mashpee-wampanoag-reservation-secretary-interior-land-trust

The purpose of the belt was they wanted to make a belt that would honor our town; the continuity and sustainability of life in it, the ancient aspects of it’s geology and it’s crown jewel—it’s people. — Thus the Aquinnah Belt."

Belt made by Ms Taylor and Ms LehLacheur.

Reference:

Martha's Vineyard: Arts and Ideas: http://www.mvartsandideas.com/arts/portraits/aquinnah-wampum-belt