--- title: Wampum Money — Wigwam stories told by North American Indians · full text with trees description: Wampum Money, «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: Wampum has been used among the Indians east of the Rocky Mountains since the whites first had dealings with them. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73136/9/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Wigwam stories told by North American…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73136/) / Wampum Money # Wampum Money Wampum Money of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd: the whole text, 38 sentences and 745 words. 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Wampum has been used among the Indians east of the Rocky Mountains since the whites first had dealings with them.[1](1/ "tree and pragmatics") Among the eastern Indians it was first found to be made of the white and purple parts of clam shells.[2](2/ "tree and pragmatics") These shells were carefully cut into small pieces by means of sharp-edged stone knives, and a hole was bored through the pieces, making them like little tubes.[3](3/ "tree and pragmatics") The white and the dark-colored beads were threaded and carefully arranged into patterns when belts or other woven pieces of ornament were made.[4](4/ "tree and pragmatics") The threads were either of vegetable fiber or of deer sinews, and long strings were sometimes made of the bark of the slippery-elm tree.[5](5/ "tree and pragmatics") Dark-colored parts of the shells from which the beads were made were called black, but they were really dark shades of purple.[6](6/ "tree and pragmatics") White beads meant peace.[7](7/ "tree and pragmatics") Dark beads were woven into the belt either in square or diamond patterns or in some more irregular shape.[8](8/ "tree and pragmatics") The wampum belt used in the treaty between William Penn and the Indians is now in the rooms of the Pennsylvania Historical Society.[9](9/ "tree and pragmatics") It was given to this society by a great-grandson of William Penn.[10](10/ "tree and pragmatics") This wampum belt was given to its first white owner as a solemn token that they would keep their pledge.[11](11/ "tree and pragmatics") History has shown how faithfully these red men kept their pledge with the Quakers.[12](12/ "tree and pragmatics") This famous belt is an unusually wide one, having eighteen rows of wampum and nearly three thousand beads, which is proof that it was an important token.[13](13/ "tree and pragmatics") The center of the belt is of white wampum with two figures of men wrought in dark beads.[14](14/ "tree and pragmatics") The figures are pictured as clasping each other’s hands.[15](15/ "tree and pragmatics") One man pictured on the belt wears a hat, while the other does not; this shows that one was a white man, the other an Indian.[16](16/ "tree and pragmatics") This belt was kept in the Penn family and treasured with as much care as the chain and medal given to William Penn by the English Parliament; indeed, the medal and the wampum belt each served a like purpose: they were reminders of the promises of a nation.[17](17/ "tree and pragmatics") Wampum belts of great historic value are kept by the Onondaga Indians; the finest of these is called the George Washington belt.[18](18/ "tree and pragmatics") It is believed by those who have had charge of it to be a pledge relating to a treaty between the early government of the United States and the Six Nations.[19](19/ "tree and pragmatics") Fifteen men are pictured on this belt.[20](20/ "tree and pragmatics") These may mean the original thirteen colonies and the people who were the speakers at the time of the treaty.[21](21/ "tree and pragmatics") Such uses of belts of wampum were common among the different tribes of Indians.[22](22/ "tree and pragmatics") Smaller belts were woven for the chiefs to wear, and the women made themselves bracelets and neck chains of the beads.[23](23/ "tree and pragmatics") It was necessary for the whites in the very early times to have this Indian money ready when they wished to purchase furs or other supplies of their wild neighbors.[24](24/ "tree and pragmatics") The beads had a certain value according to the number of strings.[25](25/ "tree and pragmatics") This value never changed.[26](26/ "tree and pragmatics") It is told by the people who wrote back to England in those early days that the Indians could not be made to understand why they should pay more wampum for anything when it was scarce than when it was plentiful.[27](27/ "tree and pragmatics") They were used to having one price for things they wished to buy and never having the price changed.[28](28/ "tree and pragmatics") For this reason the early settlers were able to buy many valuable things at a very small price.[29](29/ "tree and pragmatics") The chiefs of the Iroquois, while mourning a chief’s death, wore strings of black wampum.[30](30/ "tree and pragmatics") Other strings of different lengths or colors meant various things to the owners and those about them.[31](31/ "tree and pragmatics") The wearing of wampum in any quantity meant wealth and position.[32](32/ "tree and pragmatics") It is told of the famous Chief Logan that he saved a captive white by rushing through the circle of Indians who were tormenting him, and throwing a string of wampum about the captive’s neck.[33](33/ "tree and pragmatics") From that minute he belonged to Chief Logan.[34](34/ "tree and pragmatics") Wampum has been made by machinery since 1670 and sold to the Indians.[35](35/ "tree and pragmatics") Old belts and strings of beads, so slowly made by hand, are very valuable.[36](36/ "tree and pragmatics") The white and colored glass beads now used are worth but little compared with the wampum of early days.[37](37/ "tree and pragmatics") Arranged from Powell’s Report to the Bureau of Ethnology.[38](38/ "tree and pragmatics") - ← previous: [Indian Records](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73136/8/) - next →: [Indian Traits](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73136/10/) - ↑ back to [Wigwam stories told by North American Indians](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg73136/)