Photographs (left to right): Mohave Desert, California; Mt. Charleston, Nevada; Mohave Desert, California

Wampum Belt Archive

 

Caughnawaga Four Tribe Alliance Belt

Speck (1915), Plate 24, Figure A.

Original Size:	Length: 15 inches.
Reproduction:
Beads:
Materials:

Description:

Speck reported this belt was "carried by the Penobscot delegate to the council at Caughnawaga. The white ground color symbolizes its peaceful mission, the blue rectangle in the center represents the four Wabanaki tribes grouped about their council fire at Kahnawake, while the four small crosses ranged at the sides again denote the four tribes. Another somewhat variant interpretation may be given in which the central rectangle represents the council fire of the confederacy at Caughnawaga, to which the four tribes indicated by the crosses owe their allegiance."

Reference:

Speck, Frank G. 1915. The Eastern Algonquian Wabanaki Confederacy. American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 17, No. 3, July-Sept., pp. 492-508.