Indians frequently bestowed names and titles on Europeans, titles that often stayed with the office. The Iroquois called the governor of New France Onontio (meaning “Great Mountain,” a translation of the name of the first governor, Chevalier de Montmagny); the governor of Pennsylvania was Onas (meaning feather or quill, their translation of and play on William Penn’s name); the governor of New York was called Corlaer, after Arent van Curler who had negotiated a treaty between the Dutch and the Mohawks in 1643; and the governor of Virginia was Assaraquoa or Assaryquoa, signifying a sword or long knife. The names passed from one governor to the next in the same way that the names of the Iroquois League chiefs were passed down from generation to generation.66 Indians also gave names, sometimes their own, to individual colonists.
The Language of Wampum and the Ritual of Pipes
Wampum belts and calumet pipes were essential to diplomacy in Indian country. They turned treaties into sacred commitments. Indian messengers running forest trails carrying wampum belts and tribal delegations bearing calumet pipes of peace were more common than war parties on raids. “When a nation is desirous of negotiating a peace they send ambassadors, two or three in number, with a string of wampum denoting their desire,” said Jacob Jemison, a Dartmouth-educated Seneca, in the 1820s; and, as the Delaware chief Teedyuscung explained, “Messengers of Peace pass free amongst all Nations, and should they meet with 10,000 Warriors, they are not hurt by them.” A Moravian missionary, John Heckewelder, maintained that Indians traditionally protected peace messengers and ambassadors as a sacred obligation, and they attributed deviations from the custom to white men who “paid no regard themselves to the sacred character of messengers.”67
In the eastern woodlands, words meant little unless accompanied by wampum. From the Algonquian word wampumpeag, wampum was originally made from shells: white from whelks and purple from quahog shells, supplied primarily from beds along Narragansett Bay and Long Island Sound, and drilled and strung on fiber or thread or woven into rectangular belts. A traveler described Indians making wampum on Staten Island in 1760:
It is made of the clam shell; a shell consisting within of two colors, purple and white, and in form not unlike a thick oyster shell. The process of manufacture is very simple. It is first chipped to a proper size, which is that of a small oblong parallelepiped, then drilled, and afterward ground to a round smooth surface, and polished. The purple wampum is much more valuable than the white, a very small part of the shell being of that color.68
Shells were supplemented and eventually supplanted by glass beads, usually manufactured in Italy and supplied by European traders, but they fulfilled the same functions.
Indians used wampum as gifts, jewelry, and trade items, and it served as currency for a time in coin-poor colonies. Dutch authorities banned the baking and selling of white bread and cakes because the common medium for small-scale exchange in New Netherland was strings of wampum, and Indians, who had greater quantities of wampum than the colonists, were getting better bread than good Christians.69
Other gifts might serve to confirm speeches and demonstrate agreement, but exchanging wampum belts became the standard at treaty conferences.70 European negotiators had to learn “the language of beads” because “Without Wampum Nothing is to be Done.”71 Messages were not credible unless they were accompanied by wampum. In 1707, as the English continued their efforts to recover Eunice Williams, who had been abducted and adopted by Mohawks from Kahnawake in the famous raid on Deerfield, Massachusetts, in 1704, New York’s commissioners of Indian affairs gave a sachem from Canada “three small belts of wampum to Releace mr. williams ye minister of dear feild his Doughter from ye Indians if She be possible to be gotte, for money or Els to give an Indian girle for ye Same.”72 (Despite the appropriate wampum embassy, it did not happen: Eunice Williams married a Mohawk and, apart from fleeting visits to New England, lived at Kahnawake for almost eighty years.)
Without wampum, words might come only from the mouth, not from the heart. Governor William Shirley of Massachusetts gave Penobscot and Norridgwock chiefs a belt of wampum “as a Token of the Sincerity of my Heart, in what I have said to you.” He need not have explained: as a Mohawk told Sir William Johnson, Indians understood that “Our words are of no weight unless accompanyed with Wampum.”73 In other words, if a speaker failed to present wampum, he was “just talking,” perhaps floating a trial balloon or indulging in diplomatic hyperbole or double talk that carried no obligation.74 On a rare occasion when Iroquois delegates at a conference with the governor of New York had no wampum with them, they took pains to reassure him “that what we relate is the truth.”75
Communication that depended on wampum was sometimes delayed by its absence. Prior to the Treaty of Logstown in 1752, the Indian council there sent the commissioners from Virginia a string of wampum “to let them know they were glad to hear of their being on the Road” and to ensure them safe passage. “The Commissioners not having any Wampum strung, without which Answers cou’d not be returned, acquainted the Indians that they wou’d answer their Speeches in the Afternoon.” Once the commissioners reached Logstown and negotiations began, they had their wampum belts strung, ready to do business, and matched the Indians string for string: “That what we have said may have the deeper impression on you & have its full force we present you with this Belt of Wampum.”76
Wampum served as aids to memory and storytelling as well as being ritualized gifts and records of agreements. An Indian speaker would often lay out a batch of wampum strings or belts in front of him and then pick up each belt in turn as he spoke, punctuating each point or paragraph with a wampum string; women who accompanied treaty delegations were kept busy stringing belts for the speakers’ prepared talks. A treaty council at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, in 1753 was delayed, an Indian explained to the waiting audience, because the Indian delegates had “mislaid some Strings, which has put their Speeches into Disorder; these they will rectify, and speak to you in the Afternoon.” It was almost as if the Indians had misplaced the notes for a speech.77 John Heckewelder said that it was customary when a speaker was about halfway through his speech to turn the belt on which he was speaking, “as with us on taking a glance at the pages of a book or pamphlet while reading; and a good speaker will be able to point out the exact place on a belt which is to answer to each particular sentence, the same as we can point out a passage in a book.”78 (See figure 1.1.)
Strings and belts of wampum contained messages, affirmed messages, and emphasized the significance—and truth—of messages.79 Wampum was “a coded remembrancer of sacred traditions and political negotiations.”80 A Dutchman traveling in Mohawk country in 1680 described how Indians employed wampum and collective memory to preserve records of their treaties. Each speaker held a wampum string (or “counter”) until he had made his point; when both sides were satisfied, the wampum was marked and put away; the process was repeated for each point until the whole agreement or contract was reached:
FIGURE 1.1 Nicolas Vincent Isawanhonhi, chief of the Hurons of Lorette. The chief is pictured speaking on a wampum belt he presented to King George IV in England in 1825. Although his clothing is from the nineteenth century, the belt dates back to colonial times. (Library and Archives Canada, C-038948)
Then they add up their counters, representing so many articles and the specific meaning which each signifies. As they can neither read nor write, they are gifted with powerful memory; and as it is done so solemnly, they consider it absolutely unbreakable. And because they cannot leave it to their posterity in written form, after the conclusion of the matter all the children who have the ability to understand and to remember it are called together, and then they are told by their fathers, sachems or chiefs how they entered into such a contract with these parties. Then the markers are counted out to them, showing that the contract consists in so many articles and explaining the significance given to the markers and the story of how it was done. Thus they acquire understanding of each article in particular.
Then these children are commanded to remember this treaty and to plant each article in particular in their memory, and they and their children [are commanded] to preserve it faithfully so that they may not become treaty-breakers, which is an abomination to them. Then all these shells or counters are bound together with a string in such a manner, signifying such a treaty or contract with such a nation. After they have been bound together, the bundle is put in a bag and hung up in the house of the sachem or chief where it is carefully preserved.81
In the summer of 1743, Conrad Weiser, a German farmer turned frontier interpreter, traveled to the council seat of the Six Nations at Onondaga, accompanied by John Bartram, a Quaker and botanist from Philadelphia, and a Welsh mapmaker and surveyor named Lewis Evans. Weiser’s mission was to prevent a backcountry skirmish between colonists and an Iroquois hunting party from turning into an all-out war. Weiser first met the Onondaga speaker Canasatego “in the Bushes to have a private Discourse” and “explained my Instructions to him, and show’d him the Wampum.” The council assembled and after “a deal of Ceremonies”—reciting the origins of the Iroquois League, greeting delegates who had traveled from afar, giving thanks for the opportunity to meet—called for Onas (Pennsylvania) and Assaryquoa (Virginia) to speak. Weiser asked Canasatego to speak for him, handing him a belt of wampum to “document” each statement. “Brethren, the united Nations, these Strings of Wampum serve to dispel the Dark Cloud that overshadowed Us for some Time, that the Sun May shine again and we may be able to see one another with Pleasure.” The wampum belts were hung from a horizontal pole set up across the council house about six feet from the ground “that all the council might see them, and here have the matters in remembrance, in confirmation of which they were delivered.” After a meal, the Iroquois delegates responded to each statement Weiser had made, and they presented wampum, string for string, belt for belt: “Brother Assaryquoa, this String of Wampum serves to return you our Thanks for dispelling the dark Cloud that overshadow’d Us from some Time. Let the Sun shine again, let us look upon one another with Pleasure and Joy.” With harmony restored, Weiser and his companions carried away wampum belts “as our tokens of peace and friendship.”82
At the Montreal conference in 1756, the French, Iroquois, and other Indians exchanged numerous wampum belts, which must have been bewildering for anyone not accustomed to this form of communication. A note attached to the account of the conference explained:
These Belts and Strings of wampum are the universal agent among Indians, serving as money, jewelry, ornaments, annals, and for registers; ’tis the bond of nations and individuals; an inviolable and sacred pledge which guarantees messages, promises and treaties. As writing is not in use among them, they make a local memoir by means of these belts, each of which signifies a particular affair, or a circumstance of affairs. The Chiefs of the villages are the depositories of them, and communicate them to the young people, who thus learn the history and engagements of their Nation.83
John Heckewelder said that the chiefs were “very careful in preserving for their own information, and that of future generations, all important deliberations and treaties made at any time between them and other nations.” To ensure that such information passed intact across the generations, they assembled once or twice a year at chosen locations in the woods, laid out all the records of treaties (whether wampum or written), and had a speaker who had been trained in the business recite the contents of the belts one by one. Consequently, Delawares in the 1700s could “relate very minutely” what had passed between William Penn and their forefathers at their first meeting and at every transaction since with the governors of Pennsylvania.84
Color, design, and length symbolized a belt’s content and message. Belts might be of one color or of a combination of purple and white beads strung to form graphic patterns. Straight lines connecting squares or diamonds represented paths or alliances between nations and council fires. White beads represented life, peace, and well-being; purple or “black” beads represented death, war, and mourning.85 Southeastern Indians venerated white wampum beads as tokens of peace and friendship after they adopted wampum during the eighteenth century.86 White feathers served a similar purpose. Staffs with eagle feathers attached were “white wings of peace,” and waving or holding white eagle tail feathers over the head of a visiting diplomat was deemed “the strongest pledge of good faith.”87 A delegation of seven Cherokees in London in 1730 made a treaty and then laid feathers on the table. “This is our way of talking which is the same to us as your letters in the Book are to you,” they explained. “And to you Beloved Men we deliver these feathers in confirmation of all we have said and of our Agreement to your Articles.”88 White deerskins—presented as gifts or sat upon at peace talks—also symbolized peace and friendship.89
At the outbreak of the Revolution, a delegation of northern Indians traveled south to the Cherokee town of Chota in present-day eastern Tennessee. At a meeting in the council house, the Mohawk delegate produced a belt of white and purple wampum and “he supposed there was not a man present that could not read his talk.” The Ottawa delegate produced a white belt with purple figures, indicating the desire to form a lasting friendship between the tribes. The Shawnee delegate offered them a nine-foot wampum belt “strewn with vermilion” as a call to war against the Americans. Cherokee warriors accepted the call by laying hold of the belt.90
Belts often carried more intricate messages. To invoke the memory of the treaty made at Albany in 1754, remind the British of the promises of friendship and support they had made there, and reassert their status as allies, an Onondaga chief at Johnson Hall in 1763 produced a large wampum belt
whereon was wrought in white Wampum the figures of Six Men towards one End, as representing the Six Nations, towards the other End, the figure of Nine men to represent the Nine Governments who assembled at Albany; … between both was a Heart Signifying the Union and friendship then Settled between them. At the Top were the letters G R made of White Wampum, and under that the full length of the Belt was a white line, which they were told was a long board to Serve as a Pillow, whereon their and our Heads were to rest.91
Presenting wampum confirmed and “documented” the words that were spoken. Among the Iroquois, said Jacob Jemison, “the only ceremony attending the conclusion of a peace is the delivery of the wampum belt, which is used to signify their contract.”92 In fact, in negotiations with the governors of New York, Virginia, and Maryland in the seventeenth century, the Iroquois also sang a song “after thar maner being thar method of a new Covenant.” The singing confirmed the agreement and committed the hearers to remember it. As the Mohawk speaker said to the governors, “Let me drive it into you with a song.”93
Taking, or touching, the belt indicated acceptance of the message, and agreement usually entailed a reciprocal gift of wampum to seal the agreement, as it were. Rejecting, returning, or refusing to touch a belt meant the message was not acceptable. Dramatically casting belts aside could convey other messages as well. In 1691, in conference with the governor of New York, the Iroquois said they had rejected as “venomous and detestable” a French wampum belt offering peace “and did spew it out and renounce it … and left the belt upon the ground in the Court house yard.” Three years later, Count Frontenac “kicked away” three Iroquois belts proposing a truce with the English “and by this mark of contempt and haughtiness, indicated to the proudest nation throughout this New World his indifference for peace.” Five years after that, when a sachem at Onondaga asked for five belts sent by the governor of Canada, “one of the Young Indians threw them to the Sachim with an angry countenance”; when the belts did not quite reach him “another Indian most disdainfully kick’d them forward to the Indian that demanded them.” Wyandot, Mississauga, and Ottawa delegates at Fort Duquesne in 1758 each, in turn, kicked back to the French commander a wampum belt inviting them to take up the hatchet.94 Whether or not these offers were actually dismissed with the vehemence described, the meaning of suc
h rejections was clear.
Sir William Johnson mastered the art of wampum diplomacy with the help of good teachers. At a treaty conference at Fort Johnson in 1756, the speaker for the Six Nations “took up a large belt, which the general gave, with an emblem of the six nations joined hand in hand with us,” and addressing Johnson as “Brother Warraghiyagey,” said: “Look with attention on this belt, and remember the solemn and mutual engagements we entered into, when you first took upon you the management of our affairs; be assured, we look upon them as sacred, and shall, on our parts, punctually perform them as long as we are a people.” He then took up another large belt that had been given by the governor of New York years before, asked the English to remember the promises that were made at that time, and promised that the Iroquois would do the same, “though we have no records but our memories.”95
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