Photographs (left to right): All Niobara County, Wyoming

Wampum Belt Archive

 

Munsee Wampum Belt

AMNH 50.1/1945

belt

Photo by Harrington (Becker and Lainey, 2004)

 

belt

Enlarged portion with initials G I

belt

Drawing: R. D. Hamell 12.28.22

 

Original Size:

Rows: 9. .

Reproduction:

Beaded Length: 24.10 inches. Width: 4.5 inches. W/ Fringe: 44.0 inches.

Beads:

Rows: 9. Columns: 152. Total Beads: 1,368 beads.

Materials:

Warp: Deer Leather. Weft: Artificial Sinew. Beads: Polymer.

Description:

White shell bead belt with black, mirrored Latin shell bead letters “G T”, interspaced by black shell bead dot, at each end, 7 rows, L: 73.6 cm, length incomplete, AMNH Cat. No. 50.1/1945, purchased from Erastus T. Tefft in 1910, worn in 1908 by the former owner, Jacob Dolson, Lenni Lenape, initials identified by Harrington as probably “Georgius Tertius” (Harrington 1908: 413, Plate XXIVb; cf.: Becker and Lainey 2004: 34), described in text (Stolle, 2016; Fig. 376, p. 361).

Stolle recorded the belt as 7 wide. Examining Newberry's drawing it appears to be 9 wide with a single "dot" between the letters G and T. , whereas, Newberry image has 2 and 3. The photograph by Harrington shows the belt is 7 wide and has one black bead between the G and I.

Becker and Lainey (2004) believe the association with Georgius Tertius (George III) is erroneous and suggest the G. T. is G. I. (J); the initials of Guy Johnson. If so, this belt may be the only survivor of the seven Guy Johnson belts documented in the literature. The photograph (above) supports this concept.

Munsee-Delaware First Nation to visit Wampum belt tied to their history

Andrew Lupton

2024

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/munsee-delaware-first-nation-to-visit-wampum-belt-tied-to-their-history-1.7349003

Later this month about 50 members of the Munsee-Delaware First Nation — located outside of London, Ont. — will take a trip to the United States to pay a visit to what might be best described as an old friend. But instead of visiting a person, they'll be stopping in to a Munsee language and history symposium in Princeton, N.J., to check in on a Wampum belt that originated in their community and is believed to be more than 250 years old. "This actually is the first time in my knowledge where a Munsee item has come out of a museum and where our community has been able to see it," said Ian McCallum, a member of the Munsee-Delaware First Nation and a researcher of Indigenous art, language and history.

Many aspects of its history aren't known. It's believed the belt was made to commemorate a treaty between the Munsee-Delaware people and King George III in the 18th century.

The belt ended up in the collection of Erastus Tefft, a New York businessman and collector of Indigenous artifacts. Much of his collection, including the Wampum belt, was later donated to the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

 

Reference:

Beauchamp, William M. 1901. Wampum and Shell Articles Used By The New York Indians. New York State Museum Bulletin No. 41, Vol. 8.

Becker, M. and Lainey, J. 2004. Wampum Belts with Initials and/or Dates as Design Review of One Subcategory of Political Belts. American Indian Culture and Research Journal. Jan., 22pp.

Harrington, Marc R. 1908. Vestige of Material Culture among the Canadian Delaware. American Anthropologist, N.S. 10: 408-418.

Lupton, Andrew. 2024. Munsee-Delaware First Nation to visit Wampum belt tied to their history. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/munsee-delaware-first-nation-to-visit-wampum-belt-tied-to-their-history-1.7349003

Stolle, Nickolaus. 2016. Talking Beads. Hamburg, Germany.