Photographs (left to right): Alligator, Florida; Sunrise, North Atlantic; Black headed Vultures, Florida
Original Size:
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Rows wide: 15 by 417 columns long. 6,250 beads.
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Reproduction:
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Beads:
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Materials:
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Description:
Documentation - Wampum belt X.72.667.1
Purple background with fie equally spaced lozenges outlined by double white beads across the belt from edge to edge. Typical Iroquois group symbol and indicative of the Confederacy during the Fie Nations period' possibly representative of the Montreal Treaty (1701) between the Mohawks and French. Constructed of fifteen rows of about 417 beads" total 6,250 beads.
Purchased circa 1880 by Theodore Robitaille, LIeutenant Governor of the Province of Quebec from the Tessier Desrivieres family of Quebec City. On his death, the belt was left to his brother M.P. Robitaille who donated it in 1912 to the Order of the Sisters of the Holy Cross in St. Laurent, Quebec. They ere subsequently displayed in the Indian Museum operated by this Order. Purchased from the Order by Mr. Joseph Guindon in 1962.
Mr, Hendler later purchased the belt from Mr. Guindon.
Beads - The belt has been examined by Dr. Gordon M. Day - National Museum - opinion that the beads date from the early 17th Century, genuine wampum beads made from clam shells peculiar to the Gardner and Oyster Bay areas of Long Island, N.Y. Two areas the only source of shell suitable for the manufacture of this type of beads. X-ray examination of the belts shows that they are a mixture of double and single bored beads which confirms this dating with the possibility that the double bored beads may pre-date this period.
The combination of these two types of beads was quite normal in the early belts.
String - belt restrung possibly in the 19thy Century using colored wool in the warp. Work has been well executed, design intact and belt tight. Later repairs evident in several places.
Reference:
Canadian Heritage Parks. 2001. Memo sent to Jonathan Lainey. Forward to R. D. Hamell.
