Photographs (left to right): West Canada Creek, Adirondacks, New York: Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada; Cedar Breaks, Utah

Wampum Belt Archive

 

Penobscot Marriage Belt

Beauchamp 1901, Plate 26, Figure 279

 

 

Original Size:	Rows: 7. Length: ?
Reproduction:
Beads:
Materials:

Description:

Beauchamp stated this is a Penobscot Marriage Belt of "a very novel character." It has said to have "belonged to Molly Molasses, sent to her parents from the young buck's parents that wanted her in marriage. Molly was one of the characters about Oldtown, Maine, looked on as the medicine woman of the tribe. She lived to be 92 years old. It is a defective belt of seven rows of dark beads." Art of the white pattern suggests letters.

It came to him "directly from the families to whom the belts were descended by marriage, passing from generation to generation at the marriage of the oldest child. The belt came from Lizzie Nicola, one of the old-time Indian families of the Penobscot tribe."

Collected by Walter C. Wyman among the Penobscot descendants of Molly Mollasse, Oldtown Maine.

Reference:

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