About Native American Wampum

About Native American Wampum

Indians have always been fond of beads and of shells. Wampum is shell beads of an especial shape—cylindrical, with square cut ends, and with a length one and a half times their thickness or more. This wampum was made from a thick and heavy sea-shell. A piece was split off, and then ground down until it was like a wheat straw in shape and size. It was then cut into lengths and drilled. The drilling was slow and tedious work. A point of stone, or, after the whites came, of metal, was struck into a cane or reed. The bit of shell to be drilled was held in the left hand; the drill was rolled on the thigh with the right hand. There were two kinds of wampum—white and purple. The purple was most valued. Thomas Morton quaintly wrote in 1630—that is, it sounds quaint to us now,—“White with them is as silver with us, the other as our gould.”

Originally wampum was simply ornamental. But it is always easy for things that are prized as ornament to be used in trade. So wampum was used as a medium of exchange; it was really the money of the eastern Indians. Strings of it passed from hand to hand as coin does with us. Sometimes the ornamental string worn a moment before would be removed to buy some object seen and desired. The famous New England chief, King Philip, is said to have had a coat “made all of wampampeog, which when in need of money, he cuts to pieces and distributes it plentifully.”

Among the Algonkin and Iroquois tribes broad belts or bands of wampum were neatly woven. The work consisted, like all weaving, of two sets of threads. The long warp threads were crossed by threads laden with beads. These belts were neat and handsome and often contained thousands of beads. The differently colored beads were so combined as to make striking designs and figures.

Wampum Belt. (After Holmes.)

These fine belts were often given as pledges of faith and agreement at the making of treaties. Some which were kept in the tribe were made to help in remembering the terms of the treaty. Thus, when an orator was speaking, he would hold up a wampum belt, and in making a point of special importance would call attention to some figure in the belt, which would serve ever after to remind every one present of what he had said. Among the Onondagas (Iroquois) there was an officer known as the “keeper of the belts,” whose business it was to know all these figures and the different ideas connected with them, and to make them known to the people from time to time.

There is a common little sea-shell found in the Pacific Ocean called the dentalium. It is pretty, clear white, very smooth, and shaped much like a wee elephant's tusk. The natives of the coast are fond of it as ornament, and among them strings of dentalium shells serve for money just as wampum did in the east. They were secured usually by a peculiar mode of fishing. Thus we are told at Forward Inlet a number of split sticks or twigs were tied together into a bunch; this was tied to the end of several poles lashed together so as to reach the bottom in deep water. It was driven down into the mud, and then brought up with the shells caught or tangled in it. The value of the shells depended on their length. Little ones were good enough to be worn as ornaments, but the larger they were, the more value they had as money. Powers, speaking of the Hupa (California) Indians, says: “The standard of measurement is a string of five shells. Nearly every man has ten lines tattooed across the inside of his left arm about half way between the wrist and the elbow; and in measuring shell-money he takes the string in his right hand, draws one end over his left thumb-nail, and if the other end reaches to the uppermost of the tattoo lines, the five shells are worth $25 in gold, or $5 a shell. Of course it is only one in ten thousand that is long enough to reach this high value. The longest ones usually seen are worth about $2, that is $10 to the string. Single shells are also measured on the creases on the inside of the left middle finger, a $5 shell being one which will reach between the two extreme creases. No shell is treated as money at all unless it is long enough to rate at 25 cents. Below that it degenerates into squaw money, and goes to form part of a woman's necklace.”

Shell beads are much prized among the Pueblo Indians, and are sometimes in size and shape very like true wampum. At other times they are thin, flat, rather broad pierced disks. These Indians also delight in ornaments made out of haliotis or “abalone” shell. This shell is a large single valve, shaped a little like the ear of some large animal, and hence sometimes called “ear-shell.” The outside is rough and unattractive, but the interior is pearly and of rich colors,—purple, green, blue, red, crimson, often many of these bright colors showing in a small space. Where the rough outside of the shell is ground away the whole material is found to be pearly and rich in color. This shell is cut into elliptical, oblong, or fancifully formed plates which are pierced and hung by a cord. Men used to make long journeys to the Pacific Coast to secure shells. Even from the eastern pueblos on the Rio Grande such journeys were customary, and many of the men at Cochiti delight to tell of their journey, perhaps the most important event of their lives. They loaded their burros with things to trade and with supplies, and then struck across a country, desert and hostile, in the hope of bringing back a great load of the precious shell material.

For another precious material they had not far to go. Turquoise was highly prized. This is a hard, fine-grained blue, bluish green, or green stone, that is found at several localities in New Mexico. It has been mined for a long time near Los Cerillos, and the old diggings and the old stone tools with which they were worked may still be seen. Modern Indians still work the same precious veins, and bits of the rough stone may pass from hand to hand in trade. In drilling the shell and turquoise beads to-day a little drill is used which is called a pump-drill. An upright stick bears a point of hard stone or iron at the bottom. This passes through a hole in a little flat board an inch or so wide and six or eight inches long; strings or thongs pass from the ends of this board to the top of the upright stick. On the upright stick, not far from the lower end, is fastened a thin, wide disk of wood, three inches across. This serves as a fly-wheel to regulate the whirling of the stick. When this little machine is properly adjusted, it is made to whirl by pressing down on the crossbow, and then releasing the pressure, pressing down again, etc. It works very well, and drills the hard turquoise and the softer shell neatly. These beads and ornaments of shell or turquoise are so highly prized that they easily serve the purposes of trade. So much do the Navajo desire the turquoise that they readily exchange for it their beautiful blankets, neat silver-work, or finest ponies.

Blankets have always been greatly prized by all Indians, whether they be made out of skins, bark, or wool. The white man has taken advantage of this fact, and to-day his blankets are to be found everywhere. In some places they have become the real money and have regular set values. In British Columbia, most of the tribes reckon all values in Hudson Bay blankets. These blankets are traded out by the Hudson Bay company and are of various sizes. These sizes are always indicated by some black lines worked into the blanket along the edge. The largest size is called a “four point,” the smallest a “one point” blanket. One size is considered the standard; it is the “two-and-a-half point” size. When any one speaks of “a blanket,” a two-and-a-half point blanket is meant. Skins of different animals are said to be worth so many “blankets.”

The Tlingit and Haida Indians of Alaska and Queen Charlotte Islands used to feel very proud if they were owners of “coppers.” They did not smelt copper, but they used to beat it into various forms. The form most prized, called “a copper,” was of no use, but indicated wealth. “Coppers” were flat sheets of equal thickness throughout except at the edges, which were thicker than the body; there was also upon them a raised pattern something like a T; sometimes also a face was scratched upon their upper part. Such coppers were formerly worth ten slaves each. Lately, however, the whites have taken to making them for trade, and they have become so common that they are much less prized. Still, until quite lately, they were worth from forty to eighty blankets, or from sixty to one hundred and twenty dollars.

William Henry Holmes.—Geologist, archæologist, artist. At present he is at the head of the anthropological work of the United States National Museum. Has written important works: among them, Art in Shell of the Ancient Americans and Archæological Studies among the Ancient Cities of Mexico.