Wampum
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Wampum is a string of white shell beads fashioned from the North Atlantic Whelk shell also known as the Knobbie and is traditionally used by Indigenous Americans, First Nations peoples, Native Americans, hobbyists, business people, traders, who regard it as a sacred and/or money object. Wampum is also used for engagement, marriage, and betrothal agreements, as well as for ceremony and condolence ceremonies. The white shell beads of the whelk symbolize internal energies of peace, harmony, and contentment. Wampum is often confused with Sewant, which symbolizes the outside energies of a system. Wampum beads (white) are made from the Whelk Shell. Sewant beads (black or dark purple) are made from the Poquahock, commonly known as the Quahog, Quahaug, or Western North Atlantic hard-shelled clam.
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[edit] Description
The term "wampum" is derived from a word—"wampumpeag"—in one of the Eastern Algonquian languages meaning "white strings [of beads]" (c.f. Maliseet: wapapiyik "white-strings [of beads]"; Ojibwe: waabaabiinyag "white-strings [of beads]"; Proto-Algonquian *wāp-āpy-aki, "white-strings [of beads]"[1]). Traditionally the white beads come from the inner spiral of the whelk north atlantic knobbie shell. Sewant or suckauhock is often confused for wampum. Sewant is the black or dark purple shell bead from the quahaug or poquahock clam shell of the western North Atlantic Ocean. Wampum beads are traditionally made by rounding small pieces of the shells whelks, then piercing them with a hole before stringing them. Suckauhock is the black-purple beads from the quahaug/quahog shell. Many people confuse white for black, namedly wampi (white) and saki (black) for centuries. Wampum belts are used as a memory aid in Oral tradition, badge of office, and ceremonial device of indigenous cultures such as the Iroquois. When Europeans came to the Americas, they realized the importance of wampum to Native people, but mistook it for money. Soon, they were trading with the native peoples of New England and New York using wampum. Dutch colonists actually began to manufacture their own wampum.
Perhaps because of its origin as a memory aid, loose beads were not considered to be high in value. Rather it was the belts themselves that were wampum. A typical large belt of six feet in length might contain 6000 beads or more. More importantly, such a belt would be a great sanctity, because it contained so many memories.
With stone tools the process was labor intensive, and the shells were available only to coastal nations. These factors increased its scarcity and consequent value among the European traders, until the Dutch glutted the market they created with it. Wampum is part of the Coat of Arms of New Brunswick.
In the area of present New York Bay, the clams and whelks used for making wampum were found only along Long Island Sound and Narragansett Bay. The Lenape name for Long Island was "Sewanacky", reflecting its connection to the "black" wampum. By the time of the arrival of the Europeans, the Pequots reputedly used their dominance of tribes around this area to gain control of the sources of the beads.
[edit] Post-colonization wampum
In 1609, Henry Hudson received wampum as a gift from upriver Indians. The first European credited with discovering the significance of wampum was Jacob Eelkes, a Dutch fur trader in the New Netherland colony. In early 1622, Eelkes seized a sachem of the Pequot on Long Island and threatened to cut off his head unless he received a large ransom. The sachem gave Eelkes wampum of over 840 feet in length, which Eelkes discovered would command many more pelts in trade among the Indians than European-made goods.
As a result, the two-trade system for the purchase of pelts quickly supplanted direct barter methods. The Dutch began both accepting and distributing wampum as a currency at their trading stations. They began an aggressive campaign of buying as much wampum as possible from coastal Algonquians and transporting it up the Hudson Valley, where it was scarcer, to trade for pelts among the Mahicans.
The sudden growth of wealth of Mahicans, who were considered a peaceful people by the Europeans, soon brought them into conflict with the Iroquois tribes of present-day upstate New York, resulting in the Mohawk-Mahican War.
Word of the value of wampum was spread to English settlers in Massachusetts by Isaak de Rasieres, the chief commercial agent of the Dutch West India Company, who informed Governor William Bradford of the Plymouth Colony of the significance of the belts.
The system of wampum trading did not survive long after the arrival of Europeans. The Europeans introduced metal tools, specifically rasps and steel drills, that greatly reduced the labor needed to manufacture wampum. Additionally, the English in the Massachusetts Bay Colony began to manufacture wampum on their own.
In 1746, John Campbell established a wampum factory in what is now Park Ridge, New Jersey. The manufacture of wampum was a seasonal occupation which arose out of the need for establishing closer trading ties to remaining Native American tribes in the Pascack Valley region.
[edit] Wampum as transcription
"The weaving of wampum belts was a sort of writing by means of belts of colored beads, in which the various designs of beads denoted different ideas according to a definitely accepted system, which could be read by anyone acquainted with wampum language, irrespective of what the spoken language was. Records and treaties were kept in this manner, and individuals could write letters to one another in this way."[2]
Wampum was also used for storytelling. The symbols used told a story in the oral tradition or spoken word. Since there was no written language wampum was a very important means of keeping records and passing down stories to the next generation. Wampum was also durable and so could be carried over a long distance.
[edit] Modern references
Musician Tori Amos composed a short song entitled "Wampum Prayer" on her Scarlet's Walk album, which is thematically very Native-oriented. The song briefly addresses the Trail of Tears, as well as the importance of prayer to the Aboriginal American peoples.
Also, Comedian Mitch Hedberg referred to wampum during his "Three Easy Payments" joke, shouting "That last payment must be made in wampum!"
[edit] See also
- Commodity money
- Fiat money
- Wampum was also the name of a popular shareware database management system based on dBASE III used on IBM-compatible PCs in the 1980's and 1990's.
[edit] References
- ^ http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=wampumpeag
- ^ William James Sidis, 'The Tribes And The States: 100,000-Year History of North America' (via sidis.net)
