The Land You’re On: Acknowledging the Haudenosaunee

Otgó’ä•’ Wampum
Wampum is a vital part of Onondaga and Haudenosaunee culture. Wampum is created from the shell of a clam. The beads are cut from the white and purple parts of the shell. The pieces are rounded, sanded and drilled to make a bead. Because of the effort that is needed to make a bead, wampum is highly valued.
The shell is thought of as a living record of the Haudenosaunee. The speaker puts the words of the agreement into the wampum as the strings or belts are woven together. Each speaker thereafter uses the wampum to remember the initial agreement and the history that has happened to date. To us, the belts are our living history.

In the 1890s, more than eleven valuable Wampum belts belonging to the Six Nations (Haudenosaunee) of the Grand River were stolen from their territory. Around 1899, eleven were sold to a Chicago collector who brought them to his own collection. The Department of Indian Affairs of the Canadian Government then worked intermittently to secure their return to Canadian soil from 1900-1915. The belts, however, remained in the Heye Museum’s collection in New York City. In 1921, Chief Deskaheh of the Six Nations found some of the stolen belts in the Heye collection, including one that signified the Six Nations’ autonomous relations with Dutch settlers in North America in the 1770s. They formed, in other words, an important historical document on Dutch-Haudenosaunee relations.

On October 21st 1989, twelve wampum belts in the possession of the New York State Museum, led by Martin E. Sullivan, in Albany, New York were returned to representatives of the Onondaga Nation. The transfer took place at the Longhouse on the Onondaga Nation, south of Syracuse.

Artwork created by Brandon Lazore

The George Washington Belt is one of the greatest examples of Haudenosaunee diplomacy with the United States, and represents the ratification of the 1794 Canandaigua Treaty.

The symbolic figures of 15 men with outstretched arms and clasped hands, extend along its length. In the center is a figure of a house, from the roof of which extends a protecting shelter for the man standing on either side. These two figures may be considered to be the Keepers of the East and West Doors, respectively, of the Iroquoian Long House and to be acting as guards to the open door of the effigy of the pale face house, or the National Capitol Building. The other remaining 13 figures, signifying the 13 original colonies, are joined in unity by the clasped hands. The designs are woven in the dark or purple beads on a solid white beaded field which denotes peace and friendship (Clarke, 1931).

Two of the many symbols of the Haudenosaunee are the Tree of Peace and the Longhouse.

FOUR WAMPUM BELTS

THE SUBJECT OF A SUPREME

COURT SUIT

New York State University Naturally Desires Possession of the Ancient Indian Relics