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Photographs (left to right): All Wyoming
Wampum Belt Archive
Tuscarora Taken-In Belt
Original belt
Hamell Reproduction
February 25 2009
Original Size: |
Length: 28.0 inches. Width 3.3 inches. Rows: 12. |
Reproduction: |
Beaded length 189 rows by 12 wide; 32 inches. With fringe 56 inches by 5.4 inches wide. |
Beads: |
2,268 polymer beads. |
Materials: |
Warp: deer hide. Weft: artificial sinew. |
Description:
While this web site refers to the above reproduction as the Tuscarora Alliance Belt the description given is that of the Tuscarora Taken-In Belt. The Tuscarora gave the Iroquois council several belts at this ceremony (Rick Hill, Six Nations Reserve, 2010). A white beaded national belt of the Onondagas, containing six purple diagonal bars, or braces, along its length. It is somewhat mutilated and when first seen by General John S. Clark of Auburn, N. Y., it contained seven of these diagonal bars, and it may have contained a greater number once, for General Clark's photograph of it then showed it to have been mutilated at both ends. It has been incorrectly explained as commemorating the entrance of the Tuscarora Nation into the League of the Iroquois in 1713. As the belt once bore seven bars, this interpretation may be eliminated for the reason that the Tuscaroras were the sixth nation to enter the League. The use of diagonal bars on a belt signified support to the Long House, the symbol for the League.
Reference:
Clarke, Noah T. 1931 New York State Museum Bulletin No. 288, Fig. 36.
Hill, Rick. 2009. Personal Communications.
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