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A Note on the Return of Eleven Wampum Belts to the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy onGrand River, CanadaAuthor(s): Elisabeth TookerSource: Ethnohistory, Vol. 45, No. 2 (Spring, 1998), pp. 219-236Published by: Duke University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/483059Accessed: 20/09/2008 09:21

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A Note on the Returnof ElevenWampumBelts

to the Six Nations IroquoisConfederacy

on GrandRiver,Canada

ElisabethTooker, TempleUniversity

Abstract.Thedemandof theIroquois or and the eventual eturnof elevenwam-pumbeltsthenheldbythe Museumof the Americanndian,HeyeFoundation,othe Six Nations Reserven Canadahasattracted omenotice,including narticlein Ethnohistoryby WilliamN. Fentonin i989. The reasonsareseveral,amongthem the legaland ethical issues involved n the repatriation f objectsnow invariousmuseums.Documentaryvidencenadvertentlyverlookedby the various

principalsnvolvedn the return uggests hatthese beltsarenot thosetheywerepresumed o be, pointing o another ypeof issuethat thiscase illustrates.

On 8 May i988, in a ceremony held at the Onondaga Longhouseon the SixNations Reserve in Ontario, eleven wampum belts were transferred fromthe Museum of the American Indian,Heye Foundationin New York City,to the Iroquois on the reserve(Figure 8). The repatriationof these belts wasin response to a demand of the Confederacychiefs at Six Nations that theybe returned. After an examination of the Indians' request, the museum's

board of trustees had decided, as Fenton (i989: 408) summarized it, thatalthough "therewere legal groundssufficient for retainingthe belts . . . thecircumstances of accession were ethically shaky, and . . . there was moregoodwill to be gained by returning the belts to their original owners thanby resisting the claim."

This demand was only one of a number of such demands on the partof Indians in recentyears. Many of these involve objects once belonging toIndiansthat were acquiredin the closing decades of the nineteenthcenturyand the beginning decades of the twentieth-the heyday of naturalhistory

museums-for the purpose of studying and illustrating the lifestyles ofpeoples outside the Westerntradition.

Ethnohistory45:2. (spring998). Copyright ? by theAmerican ociety or Ethno-history. ccc ooI4-i8oi/98/$I.5o.



220 Elisabeth ooker

Given the number of objects now in various museums in the coun-

try and the complexities, legal and otherwise, that must be considered inrespect to each such demand, it may be fairly said that the course of re-

patriation has just begun. For this reason, the return of the eleven Iroquoisbelts is of more than passing interest: it serves as an example of how onemuseum successfullydealtwith a highly sensitive and emotionally chargedcase. Yet I believe that it is at the same time an example of the kind ofembarrassmentthat may follow on repatriation. For evidence not consid-ered by the principals of the case indicates that the eleven belts returnedon 8 May i988 with much ceremony were not belts once in the custody

of John SkanawatiBuck, custodian of the wampum belts of the IroquoisLeague at the time of his death in i893, but a quite differentcollection ofbelts: five belts of uncertainprovenience and six belts that had once beenin the possession of JamesJamieson, a Cayuga chief living at Six Nations.

The following brief-historicalsketch places in context the evidence forthis conclusion: (i) an i87I photograph of the Six Nations belts taken atthe behest of Horatio Hale (Figure 3), (z) a photograph of the six Jamiesonbelts (Figure 5), and (3) three letters of J. N. B. Hewitt to W. J. McGee,ethnologist in charge at the Bureau of American Ethnology (Hewitt i897,

1898, 1899).

Use of Wampum

Wampum-or "truewampum," as it is sometimes called to distinguish itfrom other kinds of shell beads-is a particularkind of cylindrical bead,either white or purple, whose manufacturewas facilitated by the intro-duction of metal drills. White wampum beads were made from the centralcolumn of whelk (Busycon).Purple or "black"wampum, worth twice asmuch, was made from the purple portion of the quahog (Mercenaria).

Although the making of wampum was certainly a postcontact intro-duction, just when and where it began is not known. But the Dutch inNew Netherlands quickly recognized its value, and theirpractice of payingIndians living near the source of the shells to manufacture it spread to theEnglishin New England.After its manufacture in "wampumfactories,"thewampum was traded to other Indiansby the colonists, who also employedit among themselves as coinage. The Iroquois, however, did not use it thus

but, like other northeasternIndians,made the wampum they obtained intostrings and belts that became personal ornaments.These included collars,headbands, arm and leg bands, waist belts, bracelets, and earrings, any ofwhich might be buried with the dead.

By Iroquois custom, a gift might accompany a statementof importance



Returnof ElevenWampumBeltsto theSix Nations ZzI

to attest to the latter'svalidity.Any item of value might be used in this way.

After wampum became more abundant,wampum made into either stringsor belts became the customary gift on a number of different occasions.Among these were treaty conferences, where each important statementwas accompanied by the gift of a wampum belt, a practice adopted bythe colonists in their treaty negotiations with the Indians. Preparationsforsuch conferences consequently included the manufacture of belts-manywith designs of purple beads-for use by both colonists and Indians inthe proceedings. The belts might be retained as mnemonic aids of whatwas said at the conference. Others were taken apartand the beads used in

other belts.After the American Revolution, and with the decline of the fur trade

and the quantity of wampum beads available, the use of wampum alsodeclined, for with few furs to trade, wampum could no longer be "themagnet which drew the beaver out of the interior forests" (Weedeni884:

i5). Although still in evidence on some occasions-notably in strings usedin the Condolence ceremony and in short strings attached to tally sticksused as invitations to certain meetings-much of the wampum that sur-vived had more the characterof heirlooms. In time, some of this wampum,

including a numberof wampum belts, was lost, disintegrated,or was sold.Among these heirlooms were the belts in the custody of the wampum

keeper of the league, an Onondaga who held the seventh Onondaga name-title on the Roll Call of the Chiefs and who might recall, when required,the agreement to which each belt attested. After the American Revolution,when a number of Iroquois moved to the Six Nations reserve in Canada,these league belts-possibly forty in number-were divided, one moietyof the belts remaining in New York State and the other going to Canada,where a council of league chiefs was established that paralleledthat in theUnited States.

The New YorkOnondagaBelts

Although some Onondagas who had fled their village south of the presentcity of Syracuse during the American Revolution returnedthere, a num-ber did not. Some moved to the Six Nations reserve in Canada. Othersremained at Buffalo Creek, where the council fire of the league was re-

kindled at the Onondaga longhouse built there. Over the years, a numberof Onondagas at Buffalo Creek returned to theirold homeland. Not, how-ever, until the Buffalo Creek reservation was sold in i842 and the notedchief Captain Cold, the Onondaga keeper of the league council fire, haddied (on I5 May i845 at Buffalo Creek) were both the council fire of the



222 Elisabeth ooker

league and the wampum belts moved back to the Onondaga reservation.'

After their return, the belts were explained to Joshua V. H. Clark, a localhistorian, who estimatedtheir number at twenty-fiveor thirty (Clark 849,

I: I24-25).

In the succeeding years, a number of these belts seem to have disap-peared, for when Horatio Hale saw them in i875 there were only twelve(Hale i88oa). These twelve were photographedin i878 by GeneralJohn S.Clark,andthe photographsformed the basis of two brief notices publishedin i88o by W. M. Beauchamp (i88oa, i88ob, I90I: 4II). When Henry B.Carrington saw them in i890, there were only eleven (Carringtoni892:

33-34), the fragment of a plain white belt having disappeared.2During allthese years, Thomas Webster was keeper of the wampum. He kept them,Carringtonreported, under his bed in "anold valise, very dilapidated,andtied with a rope" (Fenton I97I: 449).

Carringtonpersuaded Webster to sell him four belts for a consider-ation of $75, the price of a horse and wagon, hoping that the federalgovernment would reimburse him. When it did not, he sold the four beltsfor about $359 to his Yale classmate, Dr. Oliver Crane, who in turn soldthem to John Boyd Thacher,mayor of Albany, for $500 (ibid.: 449-50).

Seven of the belts remained in Webster's custody when he died on3 July i897. The following year the Onondagas agreedto make the Univer-sity of the State of New York wampum keeper, and these seven belts weretransferred to the New York State Museum-an arrangementdesigned toprevent further loss of the belts. In I927, in accordance with the will ofEmmaTreadwellThacher,Thacher'swidow, the four belts Carringtonhadpurchasedfrom Chief Webster were also transferredto the state museum(ibid.: 452-54). Then, in i989, these eleven belts were transferredback tothe

Onondagas, alongwith

another belt acquired by W. M. Beauchampthat had been purchasedby New York State in I949 (Snow i989).

The Canadian Six Nations Belts

The belts that were taken to Canada after the American Revolution served-in some sense-to validate the league council established there whoseorganization paralleled that in New York State. Horatio Hale saw thesebelts in i87i and had them explained by the chiefs. He also had three

photographs made: two almost identical poses of the chiefs explaining thebelts and one of the belts themselves (FiguresI-3).

It may be that Chief John SkanawatiBuck, custodian of these leaguebelts, subsequently sold some of them. An account of Buck's explanationof the belts in i887 contains descriptions of only fifteen belts (Gilkison



Return f ElevenWampumBelts o theSix Nations zz3

Fiur :::i...hef epaining..th Six Naion bet. Fro left:o right these...hiefs.

are Joseph Snow (Oonaga George H. M- -i-. Johnson-Moaw)ohn------ Sati-

Figure. i.. Chiefsexplining- theSix Nation belts.; From left to right,thesechief

Buck(Onondaga), ohnSmokeJohnson Mohawk), saacHill (Onondaga), nd

SenecaJohnson Seneca).Photographaken n Brantford,Ontario,114September

1i871.Courtesy f NationalAnthropologicalArchives,Smithsoniannstitution.

i9z8), and H. E. Krehbiel, who in 1897 published some articles in the

New YorkTribune,reported that when Buck had shown him the wampum

belts in 1891, they "did not appear so numerous" as those in the 1871

Hale photograph (Beauchamp 1901: 416). Krehbiel apparently had goneto Six Nations in the company of Harriet Maxwell Converse, who also

later reported that Buck had shown and explained the belts to her in 1891

(Fentoni989: 404).

Buck died the following year, and his children,Joshua, John Jr., and

Esther,began offering the remainingbelts for sale.' Severalsold to David

Boyle were recovered in i894, and in February1895 the chiefs deposited

the four belts then in their possession in the safe of the general store at

Ohsweken,the seat of their

government(Fentoni989: 404).

Despite the offer of a hundred-dollarreward by the council at Six

Nations, the Buck children continued to offer the league belts for sale,

along with others in their possession. In i897, J. N. B. Hewitt began a

seriesof attemptsto buythe belts for the SmithsonianInstitution,bywhom



224 ElisabethTooker

Figure2. Chiefsexplaining he Six Nations belts. Photograph akenin Brant-

ford,Ontario, 14September8711.Courtesy f PittRiversMuseum,University fOxford.

he was employed full-time as an ethnologist. He justified these attempts

by noting that if the council should "again get control of them [the belts]someone else would be made custodian and they would again begin to di-minish in numberas they have in the past, as various tempting offers havebeen made for their purchase.The presentcouncil does not even know ap-proximately how many belts there are, so little do they know about them"

(Hewitt 1897).In I897 and the next two years, Hewitt was unsuccessful in obtaining

any belts from the Buck children.The council was equally unsuccessful inblocking the Buck children's efforts to sell them, and when Beauchampvisited Ohsweken in September899 to photograph the remaining belts,there weremonlysixfnlthe council'spossession (Beauchampsi90: 418, 426).

The disposition of fewer than half the remainder originally in the

custody of John SkanawatiBuck is now known (Table i). Harriet Max-well Converse acquired one and possibly two now in the New York StateMuseum. Three others were once in the possession of the two daughtersof George H. M. Johnson, government interpreterand Mohawk chief atSix Nations.4 In m96 the younger daughter,E. PaulineJohnson, a notedCanadianpoet, sold one of these to George G. Heye.uIn1s23, her sister,



Return f ElevenWampumBelts o theSix Nations Z25

Figure3.TheSix Nations belts. Photograph taken in Brantford, Ontario, I14Sep-tember 1871. Courtesy of Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford. HoratioHale (i88ob), who had this photograph and those in Figuresi and2taken, statedthat the belts were hung in groups. He was told that the five in the group on theleft relate to the founding of the league: the long white belt signifies peace, andthe smaller ones with diagonal lines signify the four walls of the longhouse, thediagonal lines being the braces of the walls. The four belts near the center referto the first treaty between the Iroquois and the English. The ninth belt from theleft (a Friendshipbelt) represents the "covenant chain"-an Indian and a white

man united by a row of black (purple) wampum beads. The device in the middleof the seventh belt from the left was said to represent a dish of beaver, and thebelt itself the record of a treaty between the tribes to share certain hunting andfishing territories (see n. 6). The twelfth belt from the left was given by the Cana-dian government as confirmation of a treaty (see n. 5). The belt at the bottomof the photograph is half of a belt (the other half was left in New York State)symbolizing the formation of the Iroquois league (see n. 6).

Evelyn H. C. Johnson, transferred the two others to the Royal Ontario

Museum.6At the same time that the Buckchildrenwere offeringthe league belts

for sale, James Jamieson, a Gayuga chief, was offering for sale six beltsin his possession (Figures 4-_5).7 He did not, however, want to sell them

separately from his large collection of Indian artifacts, for which he was



zz6 Elisabeth ooker

Table i. Dispositionof wampumbeltsin I87I Halephotograph Figure3)

Belt Disposition

1 Unknown2 Seen by W. M. Beauchampat Six Nations in 18993 Unknown4 Probably seen by W. M. Beauchampat Six Nations in 18995 Perhapsnow in the New York StateMuseum, with beads lost in the

middle; acquired from Harriet Maxwell Converse

6 Unknown

7 Now in the Royal Ontario Museum; acquired from EvelynH. C. Johnsonin 1922

8 Seen by W. M. Beauchampat Six Nations in 1899

9 Unknown

10 Unknown

11 Unknown

12 Transferredfrom the University of PennsylvaniaMuseum of Archaeologyand Anthropology to the National Museum of the American Indian in1996; purchasedby George G. Heye from E. PaulineJohnson in 1906

13 Unknown

14 Seen by W. M. Beauchamp at Six Nations in 189915 Seen by W. M. Beauchamp at Six Nations in 189916 Unknown17 Seen by W. M. Beauchamp at Six Nations in 189918 Now in the New York StateMuseum; acquired from Harriet Maxwell

Converse19 (bottom of photograph) Now in the Royal Ontario Museum; acquired

from Evelyn H. C. Johnson in 1922

Note: Thebeltsarenumberedrom eft to right.Thewampum tringsare omitted romthenumberingystem.

asking three thousand dollars (Hewitt i898). Hewitt thought the price too

high and did not buy them. The following year (i899), Thomas R. Roddy,

a Chicago dealer in Indian artifacts, did purchase them from Jamieson.

For what price, or whether Jamieson's entire collection was included in

the sale, is not known.

Roddy had also acquired from a person or persons unknown, at a

time also unknown, five other wampum belts. These he added to the six

acquired from Jamieson in i899, and that same year he began to peddle

the eleven belts as a single collection.

Just how the six belts Roddy purchased from Jamieson came into the

Jamieson family, and what they represent, is not known. It is possible, but



lSW~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~aSESU~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ s~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

0 W 0 f i S00 ff 0 1111Z~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~. . .

j~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.......| 1 f~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Figure 4. JamesJamieson, Cayuga chief. Photograph by J. N. B. Hewitt. Date un-

known. Courtesy of National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.



228 ElisabethTooker

Figure5. TheJamiesonbelts.Photograph y J. N. B. Hewitt,1899. CourtesyofNationalAnthropologicalArchives,Smithsoniannstitution.

not documented, that they are Cayuga belts. The names and identifica-

tion of the eleven belts Roddy provided may be inaccurate(Figures6-7;

BeauchampI90I: 423-25) and thus no guide to their true history.'

It is perhaps of interest that two types of belts given particularatten-tion in this century by the Iroquois are representedin Roddy's collection:

the FriendshipandTwo Row belts (Figure7, nos. i90 andi88; the Friend-

ship belt pictured in Figure3 is not the same belt). Copies of both types, at

least some in modern materials, have been manufacturedby Iroquois for

their own use, and both have been read on various occasions, the burden

of these readingsbeing to reassertthe independentsovereigntyof Indians

andwhites. Accordingto Iroquois tradition,the Friendshipbelt representsthe

originalagreementsbetween the Iroquois and the colonists, the figure

with the white chest symbolizing the white man and that with the black

chest the Indian.The Two Row (Two Paths)recalls the agreementbetween

them, that they would travelby separatebut parallelpaths.9Hewitt may have known that the belts being sold by Jamieson and



Figure 6. Belts purchased by Thomas R. Roddy in 1i899. Reproduced from Beau-champ 1901ii plate 115 Roddy identified these belts, perhaps erroneously, as fol-lows:



No. i8o "Red Jacket belt" (Beauchamp 1901: 423; Merwin I9I6: 131). "It con-tains pictorial representations of the nine council fires in which he [Red Jacket]took part during his life" (Beauchamp 1901: 423).

No. i8i Bunch of strings arrangedfor council use (ibid.: 471).

No. I82 Bunch ofstrings arranged

forcouncil use (ibid.).No. I83 "Black Hawk belt" (ibid.: 424; Merwin I9I6: 131).

No. I84 "French mission belt" (Beauchamp 1901: 423). This belt was "carriedbythe great Frenchmissionary and explorer, Marquette" (Merwin I916: 131).

No. I85 "Frenchpeace belt, 200 years old" (Beauchamp 1901: 423).

Belts I83-85 were purchased from JamesJamieson.

Figure 7. Belts purchased by Thomas R. Roddy in I899. Reproduced from Beau-champ i9oi: plate i6. Roddy identified these belts, perhaps erroneously, as fol-lows:No. i86 "Captain Brant belt of 1750.... the three white lines on his wampum

show his trips to England" (Beauchamp 1901: 424). The "Capt.Joseph Brant Belt... refers to a journey Brant made to England in I775. This journey is designatedon the belt by a line which connects two squares standing for England and thereservation"(Merwin I9I6: 131).

No. I87 "FiveNations' war belt" (Beauchamp 1901: 424; Merwin I9I6: 131).

No. i88 "'Six Nations' peace belt, representing two roads.' . . . [it recalls] anoffer of peace from the Americans and English respectively, either of which theIndians might choose" (Beauchamp 1901: 424). "It was given by the Commis-sion, settling the boundary in 1789, to symbolize the two governments. Two white[sic] stripes run the entire length of the belt and show that the Indians 'had tworoads offered

to them. They could go to the British Government or to the UnitedStates' (Merwin I9I6:I131).

No. I89 "Six Nations' peace belt" (Beauchamp 1901: 424).

No. I90 "Governor Denny belt of 1758, inviting the Indians to a council at Phila-delphia" (ibid.). This belt "was given to the Indians of the upper Ohio in 1756.The belt represents Governor Denny and an Indian connected by a path when theformer invites all of the Indians to come from the Ohio to Philadelphia saying,'I have laid out a nice smooth road for you and want all to come who can'(Merwin 9I6:I131).

No. I9I "Old French fort belt of New York, 300 years old" (Beauchamp I9OI:

424). "This belt was given to the Indians about 1700 to confirm an agreement

by which they were to watch and guard the French forts on the coast" (MerwinI9I6:I131).

No. 192 "First William Pennbelt ... was given to the Indians 'before they enteredthe council house where the treaty was to be made, and was a token of amity andgood faith.... When the treaty had been concluded, and the Indians came outof the council house with Penn, they presented him with a returnbelt as evidenceof their good faith"' (Beauchamp 1901: 424-25). The "First PennTreaty Belt. . .was given by William Penn to the assembled chiefs in making his famous treatyin I682. The two men are said to represent Penn and an Indian and the diagonalwhite line signifies that it is the first treaty" (Merwin I9I6:I128-31).

Belts I86, I87, and I9I were purchased fromJames Jamieson.



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232 ElisabethTooker

Figure 8 Belts returned to Six Nations, 6 May 1988

those being sold by the Buckchildrenwere differentcollections, but others

did not. Harriet Maxwell Converse, for example, assumed that the belts

Roddy had purchasedwere the belts that Buckhad shown her in 1892, and

she wrote E. D. Cameron, the Indian superintendentat Brantford,to thateffect in February 900 (Fenton i989: 404). Over the next ten years, as

Roddy tried to find a buyer for the belts, various individuals, both Indian

and white, believing that the belts were those once in the custody of JohnSkanawatiBuck, attemptedto block his efforts. Pushedto demonstratehis

title, Roddy went to Six Nations in i9-0, where the jamiesons confirmed

that the belts had been in their family for at least fifty years (ibid.: 406-7).

Later that year, George G. Heye purchased the belts for two thousand

dollars. Efforts over the next few years to restore the belts to Six Nations

failed, in part because the chiefs did not supply the necessary affidavits

(ibid.: 4o6-7)-it is tempting to think because they themselves were not

sure from whom Roddy had purchasedthe belts. Originallyhoused in the

UniversityMuseum at the Universityof Pennsylvania,the eleven beltswere



Returnof ElevenWampumBelts o the Six Nations 233

transferred to Heye's Museum of the American Indian in New York City

when it was established in i9i6.It was these belts Roddy had purchasedfrom Jamieson and some un-

known person(s) and now transformed by error into league belts that werereturned in that ceremony held on 8 May i988 at the Onondaga longhouse

on Six Nations reserve in Canada.

Notes

I am indebted to BarbaraGraymont for locating in the National Anthropologi-cal Archives, Smithsonian Institution, the J. N. B. Hewitt letters cited here andfor providing me with copies. The identification of the belt in the University ofPennsylvaniaMuseum of Archaeology and Anthropology and the two belts in theRoyal Ontario Museum is based on information that William C. Sturtevant ac-quired at the Newberry Library.I am also indebted to Lucy Fowler Williams ofthe University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and toGertrude C. Nicks of the Royal Ontario Museum for information on the threebelts that once belonged to George H. M. Johnson's daughters, E. Pauline andEvelyn.

i Clark i849, I: io9) errs n stating hatCaptainCold diedat Tonawandan thefall of i847. Both Beauchamp (n.d.: i65) and Schoolcraft (i846: 224) say thathe died at Buffalo Creek in i845. The death date of 25 May i845 was reportedby Beauchamp on Captain Cold's tombstone at Onondaga.

z This belt is not the "Path"belt purchasedwith the Beauchamp papers in I949(Fenton I97I: 457).

3 ClaraJamieson was not John SkanawatiBuck's daughterand JamesJamieson'swife, as Fenton (i989) conjectures, but ratherJamesJamieson's daughter.JamesJamieson's wife was namedJulia (caption to Hewitt photograph in the NationalAnthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution).

4 Just when and how E. Pauline and Evelyn H. C. Johnson acquired these threebelts is not known. The records of the Museum of the American Indian, Heye

Foundation, state that the belt transferred in i996 from the Universityof Penn-sylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology to the National Museumof the American Indian was originally the property of Chief Johnson of GrandRiver. This is unlikely. Chief George Johnson died in i884 and his father, JohnSmoke Johnson, in i886. However, in i887, and again in i892, the three beltslateracquiredby E. PaulineandEvelynH. C. Johnson were reportedto be still inthecustodyofJohnSkanawatiBuck(Gilkison928; Beauchamp90I: 4I5-i6).

Gilkison (I928: 50) states that John Smoke Johnson was wampum keeperbefore John Skanawati Buck. This is probably also false. John Smoke Johnsondid not even hold a league name-title, whereas John Skanawati Buck did. Butalthough Buck was regarded as the wampum keeper of the league, his name-title of Skanawatiis the last Onondaga name on the Roll Call of the Chiefs; the"official"name-title of the "wampumkeeper" of the league is the seventh Onon-daga title on the Roll Call of the Chiefs. Further, Hale (i883: 4I) reported thatto Buck's knowledge the wampum records of the league had been in his familyfor at least four generations. Hale (ibid.) also reported that Buck's "knowledge



234 Elisabeth ooker

of the legendsand customs of his people"was inferioronly to that of John

SmokeJohnson,himself "consideredo have a betterknowledgeof the tradi-tionsandancientusagesof the Six Nationsthan other memberof the tribes."It was perhaps his latter actthatin somewayledto Gilkison's tatementhatJohnSmokeJohnsonhad beenwampumkeeperbeforeJohnSkanawatiBuck.In this regard, t is not without interest hat of the four beltsgiventhe longestdescriptionby Gilkison I928) andof the fourgiventhe longestdescriptionbyKrehbielBeauchamp90I: 4I5-i6), threewereonce nthepossession f GeorgeJohnson'swo daughters,E. PaulineandEvelyn.

5 GilkisonI928: 50) reportedhat of all the beltsshownby JohnSkanawati uckin i887, this belt was "thelargestandmost showy,but leastsignificantn itsdesign.Itwasfullythree eet anda halflongand five ncheswide andcontained

a groundworkof purplewampumwith white workedin, forminga zig-zagpattern.This was given by Col. Clauson behalfof the CanadianGovernment,afterhe hadstudied hewampum ecords,at which he must havebeenlookingand understood heirsignificance. t was givenas a token thatthe governmentwould never orcethe Indians o change heircustoms."Krehbiel lso saw thisbelt in i892, writing hat"abeltof purplecontaining white conventionalizeddesignlikethatcommonlycalledthe Greekkey pattern a meander)was saidto havebeensentbywhites as a confirmation f a treaty" cited n BeauchampI90I: 4i6).

6 Gilkison I928: 48)wrote that Bucksaid of the belt that was "allwhiteexcept

for a roundpurplepatch nthecentre":"Thisrepresents ll Indians n the con-tinent.Theyhaveentered nto onegreat eagueandcontract hattheywill be allone andhaveone heart.Thespotinthe centre s a dish of beaver,ndicating hattheywill have one dish andwhat belongsto one will belongto all." Krehbielalsomentioned his belt:"Onebelt whichshowed nitsmiddleanoblongfigurewith a spot in its center,Bucksaidwas the recordof a treatygrantinghuntingandfishingprivileges, hat is to say,the tribesexchanging he beltsagreed ouse certainhuntingandfishing erritoryn common.Whenaskedhow thiswassymbolized ythedesignon thebelt, Buckexplained hat theparallelogramasa dish,thespotin its centera piece of meat"(cited n Beauchamp90I: 4i6).

Of the otherbelt,Gilkison I928: 48-50) wrotethat it "was he mostex-

tensive,beingon groundworkf bluewampumand overseven ncheswide. Onit wasworked nwhite, five igures, epresentingmenhand n handandstandingwith theirelbowscrooked.Thisrepresentedhe greatIroquoiseague.Theideaoriginatedwith a chief,Pa-ka-na-wi-dakDeganawideh],hat it would bewellto formdifferent ndian ribesinto a confederation or mutualprotection, orbeforethey wereat waramong hemselves ndwereconsequently iminishingin numbers.Thatwas during he settlement f New YorkStatebythe English,DutchandFrench.This beltrepresentshetribesstanding n a ring oinedhand-in-hand,and the compactwas to beso strong hat eventhougha tree might allit couldnot break he chainof unity.Theunderstandingas that f anyonewent

out fromthis circle of protectionhewouldhaveto go out for good andcouldneverbereceived.Theirelbowsbeingcrookedndicatedhat f a deerwere o tryto break hroughhe chainhis hornswouldcatchonthem;or, inotherwords, fa chiefshould eave heconfederacy e must eavehischieftainship rauthoritybehindhim.The emblemsof chieftainship re the antlersof a deer.Theotherhalf of thebeltwasleftin New YorkState."



Return of ElevenWampum Belts to the Six Nations 235

Krehbiel describes this belt as the "most interesting"in Buck's collection:"[It was] half of the belt which, according to tradition, signalized the formationof the Iroquois confederacy. The circumstancethat he had only half the belt Buckexplained by saying that, when the Six Nations separated after the Americanrevolution, the majority leaving their ancestralhome in what is now New Yorkstate to become the wards of the British people, for whom they had fought, inCanada, the wampum belts were divided between the two bodies. In the case ofthis belt, the league belt, neither body wished to surrenderit to the other, so itwas cut in two and each body took a half" (cited in BeauchampI90I: 4i6).

7 Hewitt (i898) writes that Jamieson had eight belts for sale. Why he gives thenumber as eight, ratherthan six, in this letter is uncertain.

8 It is not without interest that most of the design elements of the Roddy belts

are different from those on the belts pictured in the i87i Hale photograph. Thedesigns on the Roddy belts include diamonds (symbolizinga council), horizontallines (peace path or alliance), and open squares (fort or tribe). In contrast, withthe exception of a Friendshipbelt, these elements do not occur on the belts in thei87i Hale photograph.Approximately half of these belts, however, haveoblique(diagonal) lines, which symbolize the bracesor rafters of the longhouse-a meta-phor for the Iroquois league. At least some of these belts probably representIroquois allianceswith variousAlgonquian-speaking peoples. On the list of eightbelts that Hewitt (i892: I46-48) says is "thewampum-belt record of what wasdone to bring all the nations of Indiansinto the Extended-House League,"sevenrecord treaties with Algonquian-speakers, among them the Shawnee, Miami,Ottawa, and Sauk. Five of these seven belts may be the five on the left-hand sideof the i87I photograph that, Hale reports, relate to the founding of the league(Figure 3).The other two of these fivewere apparently largebelts, one of twenty-one rows and one of thirty-six rows not pictured in the i87i Hale photograph.The eighth belt may be the large belt at the bottom of the photograph.

9 For a contemporaryreading of the Two Row belt, see Hill I990: 25-27.

References

Beauchamp, William M.i88oa WampumBelts of the Six Nations. InAnnual Reportof the Smithsonian

Institution for i879. Pp. 389-go.i88ob Wampum Belts of the Six Nations. AmericanAntiquarian 2: 228-30.I90I Wampum and ShellArticles Used by the New York Indians. New York

State Museum Bulletin 4I: 32I-480.n.d. BeauchampCollection. Vol. 3, Sketchesof Onondagas of Note. Manu-

scripts Division, New York State Library.Carrington,Henry B.

1892 Report on the Condition of the Six Nations of New York.In ExtraCen-sus

Bulletin: Indians. Thomas Donaldson, ed. Pp. ig-83. Washington,DC: Bureau of the Census.Clark, Joshua V. H.

1849 Onondaga; or, Reminiscences of Earlierand LaterTimes. 2 vols. Syra-cuse, NY: Stoddard and Babcock.



236 Elisabeth ooker

Fenton,William N.I97I The New York StateWampumCollection: The Case for the Integrityof

CulturalTreasures.Proceedingsof the American Philosophical SocietyII5: 437-59.

i989 Return of the ElevenWampum Belts to the Six Nations Iroquois Con-federacy n GrandRiver,Canada.Ethnohistory6: 392-4I0.

Gilkison, Augusta I. GrantI928 What IsWampum?Explained by Chief John Buck. In Thirty-sixth An-

nual Archaeological Report, Being Part of Appendix to the Report ofthe Minister of Education, Ontario. Pp. 48-50.

Hale, Horatioi88oa Letter to John S. Clark, 30 August. Cayuga Museum of History and

Art, Auburn, NY.

i88ob Letter to John S. Clark, 2 September.Cayuga Museum of History andArt, Auburn, NY.

i883 The Iroquois Book of Rites. Philadelphia:D. G. Brinton.Hewitt,J. N. B.

i892 Legend of the Foundingof the Iroquois League.AmericanAnthropolo-gist 5: I3I-48.

I897 Letter to W. J. McGee, 21 October. Hewitt Folder i893-99, Bureau ofAmericanEthnology LettersReceived i880-i906, National Anthropo-logical Archives, SmithsonianInstitution, Washington, DC.

i898 Letter to W. J. McGee, 26 November. HewittFolder i893-99, Bu-reau of American Ethnology Letters Received i880-i906, National

Anthropological Archives, SmithsonianInstitution,Washington, DC.

i899 Letter to W. J. McGee, 2 February. Hewitt Folder i893-99, Bureau ofAmericanEthnology LettersReceived i880-i906, National Anthropo-logical Archives, SmithsonianInstitution,Washington, DC.

Hill, RichardI990 Oral Memory of the Haudenosaunee: Views of the Two Row Wampum.

Northeast Indian Quarterly (spring): 2I-30.

Merwin, Bruce W.i9i6 Wampum. Museum Journal 7: I25-33.

Schoolcraft, Henry R.i846 Notes on the Iroquois. New York: Bartlettand Welford.

Snow, Dean R., ed.i989 Wampum Belts Returned to the Onondaga Nation. Man in the North-

east 37: I09-II.

Weeden, William B.I884 Indian Money as a Factor in New EnglandCivilization.Johns Hopkins

University Studies in Historical and PoliticalScience, 2d ser., Nos. 8-9.

Tooker - Note on Return of Wampum

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