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Woven Words: Native Scholars Illuminating Wampum Histories and Traditions at Penn Symposium

Richard W. Hill and Stephanie Mach

Richard W. Hill Sr., coordinator of the Indigenous Knowledge Centre at Ohsweken, Ontario, with Penn graduate student Stephanie Mach, discussing Haudenosaunee wampum belts in July 2015, at the Recital of the Great Law at Akwesasne, in Hogansburg, New York. Wampum belts shown in the background were crafted by Ken Maracle.

“Wampum belts,” in the American imagination, are often regarded as objects of history and mystery. Many people think of wampum as “money,” a stereotype that harkens back to the early 1600s, when Dutch and English colonists used wampum beads as a convenient substitute for European currency. During the late 1800s, antiquarian collectors handled wampum belts as though they were artistic relics.

Yet wampum is so much more.

On Thursday, October 1, from 4 to 9 p.m., and Friday October 2, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Penn Museum visitors can learn more about wampum when prominent Indigenous scholars from the United States and Canada join with wampum scholars and musicians for a free two-day symposium, Woven Words: New Insights into Wampum and Native Studies. Haudenosaunee (Six Nations Iroquois) and Algonkian scholars will share insights on historical and contemporary aspects of wampum construction, artistic expression and cultural exchange for sacred, diplomatic and decorative purposes.

Woven Words is hosted by the Native American and Indigenous Studies (NAIS) initiative at Penn, with support from the Penn Museum. Sponsors include the Penn Museum’s Penn Cultural Heritage Center, the McNeil Center for Early American Studies, the Provost’s Office, the School of Arts & Sciences, the Department of Anthropology and Natives at Penn.

Two historic Wampum Belts housed at the Penn Museum.

Two historic Wampum Belts housed at the Penn Museum. (Top) a Haudenosaunee path belt crafted circa 1790 to enable the Stockbridge Mohican to travel in Haudenosaunee territory. (Bottom) a 14 diamond alliance belt crafted circa 1760 to be circulated among Native nations.

Keynote Address and Program

Richard W. Hill, Sr. (Tuscarora), coordinator of Deyohahá:ge: Indigenous Knowledge Centre at Six Nations in Ohsweken, Ontario, will open with the keynote address, The Inherent Intelligence of Wampum.

Noting how “wampum captures the words, messages and meaning that the Haudenosaunee (People of the Longhouse) considered essential for future understandings, relationships and ways of being,” Mr. Hill explores the iconography of wampum belts and their metaphorical significance to his people. In his talk, he considers how wampum “works in passing on the voice of the ancestors, and also provides inspiration for the current (and future) generations of Haudenosaunee.”

Other speakers include wampum artisan Darren Bonaparte (Akwesasne Mohawk); Alan Corbiere (Anishinaabe), coordinator of the Anishinaabemowin Revitalization Program at M’Chigeeng First Nation; Jolene Rickard (Tuscarora), director of Native American Studies at Cornell University; Christine Abrams (Seneca), chair of the Haudenosaunee Standing Committee on Repatriation; and Lisa Brooks (Abenaki), chair of the Five College Native American Studies Committee, Amherst College.

Gladys Tantaquidgeon interviewing Wampanoag elders

Gladys Tantaquidgeon, Mohegan ethnologist and the first Native American student in the Penn anthropology department, interviewing Wampanoag elders at Aquinnah, Massachusetts, circa 1928.

On the Wampum Trail

Margaret Bruchac (Abenaki), symposium organizer, is assistant professor of anthropology, coordinator of Native American and Indigenous studies and chair of the Faculty Working Group on NAIS, as well as leader of the Penn Wampum Trail research project, organized with funding from the Penn Museum and the University of Pennsylvania Department of Anthropology. She explains more about wampum:

“The term ‘wampum’ derives from the Algonkian ‘wampumpeage,’ meaning ‘white shells.’ These luminous beads, carved out of white whelk and purple quahog shells, form the foundation of a complex system of indigenous ritual and diplomacy. For generations, the Algonkian and Iroquoian nations of North America have employed indigenous technology to craft wampum beads and weave them with sinew, hemp and leather into belts and collars.

“From an indigenous context, each wampum belt represents a nuanced mix of material, artistic, symbolic and diplomatic meanings best known to the communities who created and exchanged these objects. During the 1700s, wampum belts were also embraced by European leaders as effective instruments for recording and reinforcing intercultural agreements and alliances. Wampum diplomacy is very much alive today in rituals of condolence, narratives of sovereignty, artistic expressions and other practices of survivance.”

An evocative Haudenosaunee “path” wampum belt—designed to mark a clear path among and between Native nations for the conduct of diplomacy—is currently on display in the Museum’s special exhibition, Native American Voices: The People—Here and Now.

Stephanie Mach and Lise Puyo

Stephanie Mach and Lise Puyo, Penn graduate students in anthropology, examining the Kanehsatake “Two Dog Wampum” belt in May 2014, at the McCord Museum in Montreal, Quebec.

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