Photographs (left to right): Alligator, Florida; Sunrise, North Atlantic; Black headed Vultures, Florida

Wampum Belt Archive

Original:	Unknown
Reproduction:	Beaded Length: 56.5 inches. Width: 7.5 inches. Length w/fringe: 82.5.
Beads:	Columns 339. Rows: 15. Polymer. Beads: 5,085.
Materials:	Warp: Deer Leather. Weft: Artificial Sinew . Beads: Polymer.

Description:

Stolle (2016) recorded the following:

Black shell bead belt with five sets of white, linked shell bead diamonds, at one end four short white bars, 15 rows, dimensions not available, grey parts missing, incomplete length, “Five Nations War Belt”, Six Nations, ex NMAI Cat. No. 03/1906, purchased by George G. Heye in 1907, bought by Thomas R. Roddy from James Jamieson, Cayuga chief in 1899 (Beauchamp 1901, Tehanetorens 1993, Tooker 1998.

Repatriated to the Haudenosaunee Council in 1988.

Any belt could be used as a war belt by painting it red. This certain wampum belt of black background beads shall be the emblem of the authority of the Five War Chiefs to take up the weapons of war and join forces with their men to resist invasion. This shall be called a war in defense of the territory.

Reference:

Beauchamp, William M. 1901 Wampum and shell articles used by the New York Indians. New York State Museum Bulletin 41(8), Plate 16.

Stolle, Nickolaus. 2016. Talking Beads. Hamburg, Germany. ISSN 1437-7837TN.

Tehanetorens. 1993 Wampum Belts [1972]. Ohsweken, ON: Iroqrafts.

Tooker, Elizabeth. 1998 A Note on the Return of Eleven Wampum Belts to the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy on Grand River, Canada. Ethnohistory 45(2): 219-236.