Our Quinnipiac Heritage Legacy
Traditions of the Wampum-Makers
by Iron Thunderhorse
An ancient practice that best characterizes the Long Water Land culture and its ancient maritime patterns of existence is embodied in the traditions of the Wampum Makers. It begins in the primal mists of Algonquian Prehistory.
Migrations
The Algonquian people migrated from their northern roots in four successive waves after the last Ice Age from about 12,000 years BP to about 5,000 years BP. The coastline of Connecticut runs parallel with the northern coast and is approximately one-hundred miles long. This was the site of a 100-mile freshwater falls that emptied into a monstrous lake as the glacial runoff melted. The lake eventually filled up even with the coastlines of Connecticut and Long Island and met the ocean and became known as Hobbomock's Belt (renamed The Devil's Belt by the Puritans) and later as Long Island Sound. According to Oxford's Concise English Dictionary, 10th Ed. (1999), a sound is: "a narrow stretch of water forming an inlet or connecting two larger bodies of water." In this instance, it does both; as the Sound is both an inlet and it connects the Atlantic Ocean on the east end and the New York Harbor on the other.
At that time the Connecticut River ran from Quebec (Kebec) Canada to Middletown (Mattabesec) and at that point turned west and connected to what is today the Quinnipiac river, which joined the ocean at what is now New Haven. The indigenous name for the Connecticut river in our language is Quinnehtukqut (which means: "at the long tidal waters") and the ancient name for the Quinnipiac River is Quinnipyooghq and means "long water river". There was also originally another river named Quinnipeauke ("long water land") which is near the Mystic River in eastern Connecticut. This was the easternmost boundary of the Long Water Land Sachemdom prior to 1500 AD, when major epidemics wiped out 85% of our populations. After this the eastern boundary was moved to the shores of the Connecticut River (which was our maweomi, or central council fire, in earlier times). Originally, the overall boundaries of the Long Water Land Sachemdom were from the Quinnipeauke (near the RI/CT border today) on the east to Manhattan Island on the west, and from Long Island (which was named Paumanokke, or Land of Tribute) on the south to the Kebec confluence (which is today the St. Lawrence Seaway) on the north. Later, the northern boundary became a line running roughly from just above Mattabesec through Sicoag (Hartford) and to the Shawangunk Mountains at Esopus in NY.
The Connecticut River eventually pushed its way southward to the Sound at Old Saybrook (Pasboushauke) and the connecting river between Middletown and The Quinnipiac River is now a massive lake known as Besec Lake and a few smaller rivers which have since dried up and become marshland. Millennium after millennium passed from our first migrations to the time of European colonization and the Long Water Land had become the predominant Sachemdom of the region. Throughout this region a vast aboriginal trade network was established as part of the broader indigenous "world trade network" identified by scholars and covered the eastern half of Turtle Island with the western half. Feathers, animal hides, copper, quartz, mica and shells became popular trade goods and were shipped by boat and rafts all along the main rivers. The Quinnipiac were known as being part of a broader class of Algonquian "River Indians" whose lifestyle followed certain maritime patterns along the main tidal estuaries known as the "Sequin" Shells were stockpiled in vast quantities and hauled to regional world trade centers like Cahokia or they were worked by local artisans as wampumpeague, the primary commodity of our land.
Traditional Folklore
Our ancestral teachings explain that long ago the first shamans smoked clay effigy pipes in the likeness of sacred clan lineage ancestral odoodem (totem animals). As with pottery the crushed shells of oysters were added as a binder to make it stronger once the clay was smoked. Corn husks were burned to create a dark smoke that made clay/shell mixtures water tight and air tight and much stronger.
Clay was the flesh of metanokit (Mother Earth) and oysters were the gifts of Grandfather Sea. Only the male shamans could plant the sacred tobacco used in these sacred pipes. There were about 25 varieties of herbs used for this, but collectively any Indian tobacco is called assema. Mixtures are called kinnickick and this literally is translated as "admixture" from the Lenape dialect.
When our ancestral shamans planted these sacred herbs they left tiny moccasins and gifts for the Makia Wisag, or "Little People," who watched over them and could secure a good crop. Unlike the American tobacco plant (Nicotiana tabacum) which has dangerous levels of nicotine (and is a variety of the nightshade plant), the Indian tobacco is from the lobelia genus (a sub-species of the bellflower plant recognized by its blue flowers). When mixed with red sumac, this blend, traditions say, would not cause lung problems.
Our traditions also say that these sacred effigy pipes emitted a sacred smoke which also produced tiny gifts of the oddodem in the shape of tiny beads. The bead-spitter motif is a contemporary name for this ancient mythical image of shamans smoking pipes and spitting out sacred beads and is found throughout the east coast and from the Mississippi River to the Atlantic.
These sacred beads came in three colors, white, red and dark (there is no word for black or purple in our language, "dark" is used for both purple and black). Legends say that the three paths in life are ruled by these colors: white for the path of peace, red for the path of war, and dark (purple/black) for the path of condolences/mourning. All the Indian trails in Mishimayagat (The Great Indian Trail System) were paved with either white, red or dark shells. This is interesting because ancient trails, straight as an arrow, once led from place to place and many are being re-found with modern technology today and led from one trade center to another and these were paved with shells and broken pottery as a pavement.
Historical Facts & Linguistics
The word/phrase "wampumpeague" derives from the PEA-A (Proto-Eastern Algonquian-Archaic) in two root forms: wap / womp / wamp all are the root word for 'white' (in the various sub-dialects), and the suffix umpe (plural is umpeag) is the root word for 'string' — thus, stringing something together. Together, this denotes the sacred strings of mostly white beads given as tribute to honor others for their deeds, standing in the community etc.
Sashes, belts, and collars of wampum-peague were later fashioned by string — these beads in rows and then sewing the rows together using native hemp. The contrasting colors were positioned in such a way as to produce pictographic imagees. Our ancient pictographic language was a cross-cultural, inter-tribal form of sign language that we are reviving again in many ways. The major wampum-belts include the two-row wampum where two dark rows are interlaced between three white rows to show parallel paths. The covenant chain belts depict the joining of sachemdoms into alliances known as confederacies (see illustrations).
A section of a Covenant Chain Wampum Belt
showing the alternation, size, and stringing/sewing
of individual wampum beads with natural hemp.
Courtesy of
Northeast Indian QuarterlyThe word sewan is our word for 'shell'. The Narragensett, Quinnipiac, Unkechuag of Long Island and our Sewanoag sub-sachemship were primary manufacturers and distributors as the following historical account maintains: the Long Water Land/Long Island Sound Indians "were the greater producers of wampum or sewan, and on account of the production and manufacture of these shells, Long Island Sound was called sewanhacky or 'The Land of Shells'."
These cylindrical shaped beads were about 3/8ths of an inch in diameter and about 3/4ths of an inch long — drilled through the center by an an arrow shaft "pointed with flint or agate." then ground down to uniform size using abrasive stones.
In the year 1637 'wampum-peague' coined as "shell-money" was made the first official legal tender in New Haven colony which became Connecticut Colony. As the records reflect: "The accepted length of a string of wampum was the fathom, containing 360 beads valued at 10 shillings each fathom."
In 1645 the Connecticut Court of Commissioners valued the beads "The black or purple for 3-a-penny, and the white for 6-a-penny… It was reckoned in July 1657 as 6 shillings 3 pence per fathom."
A Grand Sachem at the center of a crescent-moon maweomi
with a Covenant Chain wampum belt in the foreground,
a symbolic element that bound the Grand Council together.
From
Moeurs des Sauveges Ameriquains, Joseph Francois Lafitau, 1724
Sun and Moon Wampum
In Volume IV, Number III, Autumn 1987 of Northeast Indian Quarterly, the entire issue was devoted to wampum belts and traditions. On page 34 of that issue we find: "Uses of wampum have been documented… the Delawares [Lenape] gave the British a large belt with strings hanging from it, like torches to light the way along the path… When the Ohio Valley became the 'Indian Country' in the latter half of the 18th century a 'moon of wampum' with four strings of wampum hanging from it was placed there by the nations. This signified that the land was like a house for all the nations, from the four directions. (a moon of wampum was a flat shell disk). [sic]."
Actually there were two types of moon wampum. The cylindrical beads were mostly white, accented with a few purple and red beads to signify all three paths in life and were called sun beads because they were like rays of the sun and were thus made in strings. The moon wampums were flat (1/8th inch thick) and round disks of varying size in circumfrence, some an inch, others 2 inches. Each had a whole in the canter and these too could be strung in lengths. These were the "full-moon wampums". Other very large crescent shaped disks were known as "crescent moon wampums" and these were the most precious as only the Sachems wore them. These were made from the larger conch shell and a Grand Sachem wore a set of two (one slightly smaller) to symbolize the Maweomi and a larger one symbolizing the Kitchi Maweomi or "Grand Council Fire" and formed a double medallion hanging from a necklace of full-moon wampums around his neck so the crescent wampums made a shell breast-plate over the heart. Today these are all classified generally as "gorgets". Round or oval shaped gorgets were work around the neck hanging on the chest like a medallion and were made from shell or slate.
Hundreds of wampum-belts were exchanged throughout the Dawnland during this period yet fewer than 200 belts survive today. Why? Well, some were buried, others hidden, and some were taken apart to preserve the wampum-peague and were later re-worked.
Dawnland & Long Water Land Revitalization
Today in the Long Water Land Sachemdoms our confederacy is revitalizing these ancient traditions. The new wampum-makers still reside in Sewanhacky, "Land of Shells," all along the Long Island Sound and are descendants of the Old Wampum Makers of the original Long Water Land.
Let's start with our cousins the Unkechaug Nation from Paumanokke (Long Island). Log on to www.wampummagic.com and you will learn about Chief Harry Wallace and his daughter Lydia Wallace as well as others who are doing fantastic work in strings of moon wampum, and many other items. Start with the menu selection "DIRECTORY" for a list of items and photos.
Lynn Smiling Owl Besset (Mohawk/Wampanoag) is another contemporary wampum- belt maker that we are profiling. Her work can be found at two sites: www.wampumbelts.com, and www.silverhawkgallery.com. Smiling Owl has a variety of wampum-belt style recreations that are commissioned by many of our indigenous nations.
Another art form that is being revitalized by contemporary artisians is
the art of scrimshaw or carving shalls. Steve Moon (Shawnee/Cherokee) re-creates authentic shell gorgets and crescent moon wampum usually made from the conch shell or from the lightning whelk. (see illustrations).
Not far from the shore of East Haven where the original 1200 acre Quinnipiac Indian Reservation once stood, there is an island shown on maps as Waumpieg (a corruption of wampumpeague). It was also known as Sachem's Island. There, a large earthen mound was situated and a long-house on top held effigies of The Earth-Maker and all around were caches of wampum, and on the island as well as at other stockpiles were tons of shells. This precious commodity was part of the Long Water Land heritage Legacy that still remains an integral part of our Sachemdom and our existence as The Long Water Land People.
Endnotes
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