Wampum Belts in Written Records

Historians have traditionally relied on written, often narrative, sources to write about the past. In the 1960s that began to change with the exploration of more diverse written and printed sources like court records, birth, marriage, and death certificates, and so forth. But more importantly, scholars seeking to tell historical stories of people who didn’t leave behind written sources turned to oral traditions, archaeological records, and ethnographic data.

My research in wampum in founded in this approach, a method known as ethnohistory. Obviously, in the case of wampum, the actual, extant physical objects form a significant source for my work. But, ironically, sometimes the written sources produce evidence related to material culture that can’t be found through artifacts themselves.

This is particularly true for the history of wampum belts and the various designs adopted by native people to convey the essence of messages the belts accompanied and signified.

The American Philosophical Society has recently digitized a document that helps tell that story. In 1712, thirteen Delaware Indians, en route to the Five Nations Iroquois, stopped in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and made with the provincial council there. The scribe recording the meeting took the trouble to draw each belt while briefly recording the reason for each.

Up to this point, I’ve only had the opportunity to view a photostat of this document. Misled by a catalog from another manuscript repository, I’ve been searching for the original in the wrong place for several years, so I’m pleased to know that it’s not lost and that it’s accessible to the public.

There are several contributions this document makes to the study of wampum. In the first place, it offers a rare visual representation of 34 different belts. Wampum belts are mentioned very early in the manuscript sources related to wampum, but it is several decades before these are actually described, and when they are, it is often the belt’s function that was noted and not the pattern on the belt, such as “a large covenant belt” or “a belt of intelligence [information].” Or physical descriptions would be limited to “a black belt,” “a large belt,” or “a prodigious large belt.”

Less frequent were detailed descriptions of the patterns, but these are not entirely absent from the sources. “A large French Belt with two Axes in it”makes its appearance, for example, or “145 black long and wide 10 long with 16 white places on it, each place 36 small white.”

But while readers of such sources can imagine what these belts might look like, these descriptions are not detailed enough to allow for reconstructions of such belts or an exact idea of what they looked like.

Taking the time to visually represent these belts on this document, the original scribe has done later scholars a great service, but more importantly, he has honored native people of the time and since–he respected the power and importance of the belts (and thus the native people bearing them) enough to draw them. Likely none of these belts are extant, but his drawings have helped preserve their legacy.

Finally, this document reveals the role of women as well as men in wampum diplomacy. It is easy to visual the meeting of Europeans and Indians as the face-off of male leaders on both sides. Famous images from the time and after the fact place men front-and-center in such diplomatic encounters. But this document (and others) tells a different story.

In this case, at least nine of the belts were presented by native women. For example, one belt–with two diagonal lines leaning to the right likely signifying the supporting rafters of a longhouse–was presented “By a woman[,] that a long time ago they made a peace and desired it may always be kept strong and firm.”

In short, a remarkable document and a rich source for expanding our understanding of wampum and its importance to Native Americans and their interactions with Europeans and with each other.