Photographs (left to right): Suwannee River, Live Oaks, FL, Sunrise, Rush, NY, Suwannee River, Live Oaks, FL

Wampum Belt Archive

 

Anishinaabe - Haudenosaunee Peace Belt

Redrawn: R.D.Hamell Dec. 28 2022

 

belt

Courtesy Anishinabek Confederacy

ca. 19th Century

Original Size:
 Estimated length: 12 rows wide by 233 rows.
Reproduction:
  
Beads:
  
Materials:
  

 

Description from belt catalog card:

Approximately 2,800 beads white-field belt with a purple bead peace pipe (or tomahawk) sited horizontally in the center and with two purple beaded horizontal lines running along the edges for the full length of the belt.

White beads are symbolic of peace and it has been suggested that this is a MicMac Treaty belt but is open to discussion as designs similar to the central pattern are known to have been used on Algonquin material during the early period.

1. This belt has been restrung, possibly in the 19th century, using good colored wool, in the warp. It has been well executed, the design in intact and the belt is tight. Later repairs are in several places.

2. The belt has been restrung, probably in the 19th century using good quality rawhide and is with the design intact. Dr Day feels that the rawhide in the weft may represent a much earlier period and that the warp only may have been replaced. More recent repairs are evident at the ends of the ???? fringe has been replaced with leather showing machine manufacture.

3. This belt has been restrung using a thick soft type of twine which has been in common ?????? the past seventy years or so, closer dating is difficult at the moment but I feel that it is fairly recent. The restringing has been very carefully done, the design is intact ???? belt is very tight.

Stolle, Nickolaus (2016): composed of shell and some glass and bone beads. PC X 72.667.3. Purchased by Saul Hendler, acquired before from a Private Collection near Sutton, Quebec.

Reference:

Anishinabek Confederacy: http://oshkimaadziig.org/governing-laws/

Bardeau, Eileen Wms., Edited by Jaré Cardinal, 2010. Definitive Seneca: It's In The Word by Published by Seneca-Iroquois National Museum.

Stolle, Nickolaus. 2016. Talking Beads: The history of wampum as a value and knowledge bearer, from its very first beginnings until today. Hamburg, Germany. ISSN 1437-7837