IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I.I IM ilM tU j|||iZ2 ^ 2.0 1.25 mm U IIIIII.6 Photographic Sciences Corporation h /. // K'x ■4?. i< (/. 4 Sb iV \\ ^\^ %\> / 1„>I.I'I,, }\,l. .XAI/. rial, Ml, u|liiiU:Fii.:.xKn^in\'^ -•; "II... i; ^ol, MI. i/v^A X. ■k > mm E^**^* ■lo'u-.nd <,J /'a- .Lilurofh'n^iicil I„^f,ttif-, Vol. .V.\77, riatc Mil. — :;:^:^;::rr~rr2l:r^?K^"J^5^rr2;^ir ■Jiiifnial (if lln- A,ilhr(ij>(ili)i/iv(d I iisfiliilf, Vol. .\'.\'/7, Phiti' X [ I . ! I Four Huron Wampum Eecords: A Study of Aboriginal Amencmi Hidory and Mnemonic Symbols. By Horatio Hale, M.A (Harvard), F.R.S., Canada. Author of Ethno- graphy and Philology of the U.S. Exploring Expedition, the Iroquois Book of Bites, etc. [with plates XI, xn, xiii, xiv.] I. The Huron Nation. Its Position among American Tribes-Claim to Pre-eminence-Early w ^^".^'^ri^^T^'^-^^"^^?.''' Visit-Use of Tobacco and Wampum -War with the Iroquois-Defeat of the Hurons and Retreat to the West-The Wendat-The Tobacco Nation-Visit of Champlain-His Disastrous Expedition— The Iroquois Confederacy— Hiawatha. The surv^iving members of the Huron nation, even in its present broken, dispersed, and half-extinct condition still re- tam the memory of their ancient claim to the headship of all the aborigmal tribes of America north of Mexico. That there 222 H. Hale. — Four Huron IVamjmm Records. was ori<2;in{illy some good fronnd, in tradition and in cliaracter, for a elaini of this sort, though not ([iiite so extensive, must be athnitted. The Ilurons, orWendat, as they shituhl properly be styled,, belonged to the important group, or linguistic; stock, which is commonly known, from its principal branch, as the Iro(pioian fami»y, and which includes, liesides the j)ro])(!r Huron and lro([uois nations, the Attiwendaronks (or neutral nation), tlie Eries, Andastes, Tuscaroras, and Cherokees, all once independent and powerful tribes, tliough some of them are now extinct. In the whole of Gis-iNIexican Xorth America, only two stocks surjiassed the Iroipioian in population and extent of territory. These were the Algonkin-Lenap<^ family (or as it is now scientiticaily named, the Algonquian stock), whose wid(dy scattered tribes encomytassed the more condensed Iro- quoian nations in a vast circuit, which, beginning with the Abenakis, or Eastlanders, of the Clulf of St. Lawrence, extended noi'thwestward in the Cn^es of Labrador and Hudson Bay, and the Ojil)was (or Chippewas) of Ddce Superior, lo the Blackfoot tribes of the llocky Mountains, ■ nd thence circled south and east to the Ara})ahoes and Cheyenues of Kansas and Arkansas, and the Illinois, Shawnees, and Mianiis of the Ohio plains, reaching the xVtlantic again in tlie Powhatans of the Potomac, the l^enapes of the Delaware, the Mohegans of the Hudson, and the Xarraghansets, Massachusetts, and Penobscots of New England. The other eipially widespread stock was the Atha))ascan or Tinneli family, whose northern tribes wander over the coiitincnit in the wide space between the Northern. Algonquian and the Arctic Eskimos, while the southern branches — Umpquas, Hupas, Navahos, and Apaches — occupy large portions of Oregon, California, New Mexico, ami ^^rizona. A third linguistic family of some note, which has been supposed, though incorrectly, to be allied to the Iroquoian— the Siouan (or Dakotan) of the Western Mississippi prairies, deserves notice from the fact that recent researches have found eviilence of the former residence of some of its tribes near the Atlantic seaboard, in close contact with those of the Iroquoian and Algonquian stocks. Among all these and other tribes of Northern America, the Iroquoians held an acknowledged pre-eminence in intellectual vigour and advanced traits of polity, which have won the admiration and the sometimes unwilling respect of almost all who have had occasion to treat of them — from the early Franciscan and Jesuit Missionaries to the most enlightened ethnologists of our day — from Sagard, Brebeuf and Charlevoix, to Gallatin, Parkman, and Brinton. Gallatin, in his " Synopsis of the Indian Tribes," notices the remarkable fact that while i H. Hale. — Four Huron Wampum Records. 223 le '•J .3 e the "Five Nations," or Iroquois proper^ were found by Chaniplaiu, on his arrival in Canada, to be enp^aged in a deadly warfare with all tiie Algonquian tribes within their reach, the Hurons, another Iroquoian nation, "weio the head and principal support of the Algonquian confederacy." "The extent of their influence and of the consideration in which they are held," he '.'ontinues, "may be found in the fact tha^ even the Delawares, who claimed to be the elder branch of the Lenape nation, recognised the superiority of tlie Hurons, whom to this dav thev call their uncles." The origin of this notable difference of political sentiment between the two main branches of the Huron-lro(|Uois ])eople liad \v% when Gallatin wrote, been discovered. It will be found h ay set forth in my paper on the " Fall of Hoclielaga." It will then be seen tliat in ancient times, before Cartier discovered and exphjred the St. Lawrence Eiver, these two tribes, the Hurons and the Iroquois, dwelt t'^gether in friendly unison on the shores of that river, near the present site of Quebec. A quarrel arose, leading to the retieat of one of tlie contending parties to the southern side of the river. Their posterity, augmented perhaps by adherents from other refugees * of Iroquoian stock, became at last the Five Confederate Tribes, or nations, who carried on, for many generations, a desperate warfare with their northern congeners and former friends, the Hurons — a warfare ending at last in the complete conquest and dispersion of the latter people. During the whole of this protracted struggle tht Hu.jns remained, as they had been from the beginning, the friendly allies of the Algonquians, to whom, on the otlier hand, the Iroquois Confederates liad become deadly enemies. A knowledge of these facts, which has been recently gained fi'om the traditions of botti branches of the Huron- Iroquois people, clears up many obscurities that have heretofore perplexed the writers who have dealt with their history. It is essential to the correct understanding of their wampum records. We owe to the narrative of Cartier's voyages our earliest acquaintance with the Hurons, who were thus the first of North i^merican Indians to become known to European visitors. In the autumn of 1G35, Cartier with his little squadron of three small vessels, the largest not exceeding 120 tons, ascended the great stream which the natives knew as the river of Hoclielaga, but which he christened the St. Lawrence. He found its shores above its great tributary, the Saguenay, occupied by sedentary tribes, whose language and customs, as recorded in his narrative, show them to have belonged to the Huron-Iroquois family. Two of their customs are particularly 224 H. Hale. — Four Huron Wampum Becordi, deserving of note in connection with our present subject. These natives were much addicted tc- the use of tobacco. The natives were accustomed to lay up in summer a great store of its leaves, which were dried for the winter. Only the men used it. Every man carried at his neck a skin pouch con- taining a quantity of it, which he smoked in a pipe of stone or wood. This, tliey said, kept them liealthy and warm, and they were never found without it. But tlie most highly valued of all their possessions was that which tliey called csurgvy, an ornament made of beads, which they fashioned from shells found in the river. " These beads," says the writer, " they use as we do gold and silver, and deem them the most precious thing in tlie world." They used them, it seems, chiefly in the form of "chains" and "collars," or as English writers at a later day have lieen wont to style them, strings and belts. When Cnrtier, in the following year, treaclierously seized at Stadacone the cliief of that town to convey him to France, his people, in the lio])e of redeeming him, presented to the captain " twenty-four collars of esiuyiai/," which the writer repeats, " is tlie greatest treasure wliich they have in the world, for they prize it above gold and silver." The name esunjny is apparently an attempt to express in Fi-ench orthography the I i'oqu(jis iovmi (defined by Bruyas in his dictionary as ''collier de porcdaine "), with the pronominal i:s, menning " thy " prefixed. "Yourwam]»um belts," cried the beseeching people, extending their precious ransom to the unrelenting kidnapper, secure behind the terrors of his artillery/ The " kingdom of Hochelaga," as Cartier styles it, comprised, besides the fortified " city " of that name, the important town of Stadacone (commonly known to its people as Canada, or " the town "), and eight or ni'ie other towns along the great riv(^r. All these were at this time waging a desperate warfare agoinst a peo]de dwelling south of them, whom they knew as the Tondamani, a name in which some have thought to trace a corru]»tion of Tsonontowane, the native appellation of the Senecas, who were the most powerful of the Iroquois nations, and were deemed by the Hurons their most determined and formidable enemies. This interpretation seems plausible enough. All the circumst>ances render it probable that Hochelaga, at the time of Cartier's visit, was tottering to its fall before tlie attacks * As some question has arisen as to the nature, or raMier the material, of this esurgny, I may mention that a recent communication with which I have been favoured by Sir J. William Dawson, who has made a careful study of the sub- ject, gives the decisive information that " the only shell-beads found in the excavations on tlie site of Hochelaga, in riddling the kitchen-midden stuff tlirougli fine sieves, are small beails of the ordinary form, made apparently of the shells of a unio." IT. Hale. — Four ITavuit, Wainpam Jlrcords. 'I'l'o of tlie Coufodurato [roqm^is tribes. Aftur iis overthrow, the v.inqiii.shed Huron.s, in retreating westward, seem to liave taken two widi'ly separate routes. One party of tlieni, as related by the native liistorian, Peter Dooyentate C'hirke, tied to the smith- west under their great chief, who bore the title of Sastaretsi. Keeping at first near the St. Lawrence, they afterwards diverged iiortliwardly, until they found what seemed a secure refuge auung the Bkie ]\Iountiiin=;, in a nook of the (reorgian Jiay <)f Lake lluron.^ In their new abo'le they were known, if not among them.selves at least to other nations, as the Tionontatn, or " Peoples beyond the Mountains," and also to the whites as the Nation du P'tan, or the Tobacco Nation. They cultivated a choice descri[>tion f)f tobacco, which they sold — " tluis offering," as Parkman remarks, "an exiirnple extremely rare aniKUg hidians, of a tribe; raising a crop for the nuirket.'"'^ It seeni.5 highly probable that this nation comprised the direct descen- dants of the former inhaV)itants of the city of Llochelaga itself. Though not very numerous, they are held to be at the head of all the Huron-lro(piois peojde. Acconhng to their tradition, preserved by La Hontan, " the namv of their leader, Sastaretsi, had been kept up i.y descent for seven or eight hundred years." Even after their expulsion by the lro(|uois from the Blue Mountains they continued to hohl, as Parkman writes, " a paramount inlluence among the western nations, and were, among these allies, according to Charlevoix, the soul of all councils. The larger body of LIurons who had l»een the suljjects or allies of Hochelaga seem, after the overthrow of this capital, to have migrated in a more northerly direction, following the Ottawa Itiver, and thus gaining the aid of their Algonquian friends in beating off their Inxpiois pursuers. Their final refuge was found in the fertile and inviting region between ' These mountains lie so far out of the ordinary routes of travel as to be little known even in western Ontario. For the following clear description of them I am indebted to Dr. George M. Dawson, C.Jr.G.. Director of tlie Geo- logical Survey of Canada : — " Tlie Blue Mountains are a more than usually elevated part of tlie Niagara limestone escarpment, or ridge, wliich runs across Ontario and out in the promontory between Lake Jluron and the Georgian Bay. The tract so termed is central in Collingwood townsliip, oxtc*n(' tliu Province ol" ()iit.aiiiie(l hy them lo lie ahoiit tM'o days' journey cast of tliat of the Tohaeeo Nation, witli whom t!icy wore de.stinc(l to he aL;ain nnitcd in a common ruin. I»ut, for a consi(h'rahlo lime, thcv rcmaiiK.-d a ,sei)arate comniunily, a confcdei'aey of five distiii"t tiihes, simihu' in some res[»eet.s to the lamous " [ro(|Uoi.s League," though much looser in its orpmisation and Jess efCeclive. Here, in liil'i, tliey were found hy Chamjtlain, when he came to summon them for Ids disastrous exjiedition a^uainst the lro(]Uois. His tirst \'ie\v of tlu.'ir country is tlius deserihed l)y I'arkiuan in his " i'ioneeis of France in the New World "' : — "To the eye of Chaiuplain, accustomed to the des<^laiion lie Iiad left hehind, it seemed a land of heauty and ahnndance. He reached at last a hroad (»])eniniT in the forest, with fields of maize, puiupkins ripenin;^' in the sun, patches of snntiowers, from the seeds of which the Indians may the Indian standard it was a mighty nati(tn; yet the entire Hiuo!i })opnlation did not exceed that of a third or fourth class American city." The ill-advised attack of Champlain and his Huron allies upon the lro([Uois Confederates, ending in defeat and flight, had most serious conseciuences, not only for the coml)atants directly con- cerned, hut for the whole continent. It aroused the animosity of the Five United Nations against both Canada and the Hurons to the highest ])itch, and l)rought on a k>ng and deadly warfare which soon ruined the Huron nation, and in time so weakened their white allies as to lead finally to the conquest of Canada by the British. While the persistent energy and far-seeing •sagacity of the united Inxpiois tribes have betsn mncb admired and highly lauded, they have been at the same time severely condenuied for cruelty, ferocity, and bloodthirstiness. Hoth the piaise and the blame have in a large measure been awarded iu error, merely because the grounds and results of their action have not been correctly understood, If they had remained as they were when they quarrelled with their Huron cousins and fled to the region south of the St. Lawrence, much that has been said of them w(»uld have been just, and much more would l.ave liccji inaj'proprialc. But in tlie meantime a remarkable h II. lI.vi.E. — Four ITui'on iroDipion IifWrds. 007 ' / chiinire liiid tiiki'ii j)lac(; in their diuraeter, a rlianf,^' whk-h ivcalls that which i.s believed by historiaii.s to have been devehiped in the chanicter ()f tlie Siiaitan ■ under the insti- tutions ol' Lveur<.nH, and the similar change which is known to have U))]»eared in the character of tlie Aruliians under the inlhience of the Mohammedan preeej)ts. A jure.it relbinier hail arisen, in the person of the Ononda'^a eiiief, Hiawatha, who, inilaied wilh an overmasterin.LC idea, had insjtirul hi.s l)eo]de with a s))irit of self-sac.jitic'e, whi;'h stoppetl at no obstacle in the determination of carrying into elTect their teacher's sublimti purpose. This purpose was the establish- ment of universal ])eac(^ All wIkj acceded to this object were to I)G heartily welcomed; all who refus(Ml and opi»osed were to be (»verborne by any means and compelled into ac(piiescence. When (lallatin wrote, in JS.'IG, these facts and motives were uidaiown. Jt thus hapjjened that while lauding highly the remarkalih; ability and "cultivated intelli- Lfence" of the lro(iuois, he was led. to rank them '■ amon<» the worst of concpierors." "They coiKjUei'ed," he declared, '•only to destroy, and it would seem, solely to gratify their in-;tinct for blood." Nothing could be more unjust, i.s aiiil receive liilnnal Tieatnient— Tlie Tulja(^co Nation Tlce to Lake Sii|ieii(>r Uctiiin to Michigan - Settle near Detroit — .Alliance with AlLfomiuian Ti'iheH -Kniigratioii U) the South-west — Wyandot Jieservation -- Ainlerdon lieserve — Present Con- dition. Tho story of the forttmcs wliicli l)f'ft'l the Hiirons after their filial defent i>< iiistriK'tixc While some of them took refiij^^e amonjj; tli(; lCri( s, Amliistes, and other yet iiiieoiKHieretl trihe.s of the; lliiroii-lroi[U()is stoek, .several huiulredu of (.'hristiaii converts th'd eastward to the ancient abode, near Qiiehee, from which their forefathers had l:»eeii driven, a century before, by their Iro(|uois enemies. There, at what is known as New Lorette, their descendants remain to this day, a hall-caste people, French in complexion, lan^mia^e and reliirion, but Indian in habits and character, a favourite study of travellers. At the same time, two entire towns of the Hurons a(h)])ted what would have weemed a desperate expedient, if they had not known that the loudly })i'oclai]ned clenKUicy of their ctrntpierors Mas not a snare, btit a setthul part of their constitutional policy. They determined to .solicit an uncon- ditional admission into the Seneca nation, the most powerful and most persistent of tlieir enemies. Their offer was at once acce[>ted, and on the most liberal terms. They were not scattered as captives amon^' their (;on(pierors, but were allowed to form a town by theniselves, thou^di in conjunction with some other refuoees who had been previotisly admitted on siiidlar terms of orace, " Here," writes the ^lissionary liaguenean, in the lielation of IGol, "they are now living as (juietly as if they had never known war." Nineteen years later, the Missionary yrennn found them still dwelling peace- ably in their town, (landougarae, on friendly terms alike with their fellow refugees and th(;ir Iroquois conijueror.*, and ])re- serving with fervent devotion the Christian faith which they had accepted before their change of abode, and the profession of which, instead of occasioning displea.s\ire, had gained them respect among the surrounding heathen. Thus, according to the testimony of the missionaries themselves, the Iroquois, vhom their earlier reports depict as the most implacable and ferocious of eiiemios, had become, under the instittitions of Hiawatha, the most merciful and generous of conquerors. TU,e people of 8astarelsi disclaimed to adopt either expc- «, M. 11 MX.- ~Fu or lloion irinii/)inii RacorJ-^, 'J2'.> . (lient. Tlicy would iicilliur seek .shelter under llic, cannon of (j)ueltev\ nor ucct'iii tlu' nierry of llu-ir licreditiirv encinicH. They had, for a full century, since their fli,L>lit from Hocheliiyii, dwelt iu |»roud isolation in tlmir mountain retreat. It was oidy about ten years before the Hiiid dispersion of the Wendat triltes that they had eorsented to join them, and make tho sixth member of their confederacy, in the strn^jile against the common enemy. The name of Wendat rpronouneed as if spelt in English Waindat), which they thu.s assumed, was for them liardly an exact designation, though, under the form of Wyandot, it became the ap])ellation by which thev were lienceforth to be generally km»wn. It sii^nities literally " people of oiu;', s}teech/' being compounded, Indian fashion, from the words ]Vnid(i, l.inguage, and the radical |)ortion {((t) of skat, one. i>ut careful incjuiries, made during two visit.s to the survivors of this highly conservative people, showed that their language ddfereil in some re.s])ects veiy decidedly fron that of the ]>ro[)er Wendat tribes, and luul prc-ervecl, in especial, one remarkable relic of the original Hochelagan speech which the others had lost. This was the labial articu- lation //^ which has disappeared from every other Huron- IriMpiois dialect, except thiit of the e(piaily conservative Cherokecs.' While accepting the name of Wendat, the de- scendants of the Tionontate people retain to the ]jresent day this and other relics of their ancient tongue. Their spirit of liaughty independence remained uid)roken. Welcoming all the members of the other Huron bands who chose to claim refuge among them, they betook themselvtss to their canoes, and sought at first in Michigan, and afterwards in the westernmost recesses of Lake Su})erior, an asylum from their persistent enemies. Their farthest flight brought them to the country of the suspicious and quarrelsome Sioux, the hereditary enemies of the Hurons' C)jil)wa allies. Fi-om this uncomfortable neighbourhood they turned back, and gradually made their way eastward towards the vicinity of their former home. They settled for a time in or near the island of Michilimackinac, and finally fixed upon a pleasant abode, on both sides of the Detroit River, in the midst of their Algoncjuian fi-iends, the Ojibwas, Ottawas, and others, and under the protection of the newly estaldished French fort, Pontchartrain. Here, in the wars which prevailed among their successive guardians, the French, English, and revolted colonists, and through the ahortive conspiracy of Pontiac, they underwent many vicissitudes, but managed to retain their lands and their highly prized autonomy. Mean- ' See on this point fuller particulars in Halo's "Indian Aligratiotie as evi- denced by Larigiiajrr,'' in " Anicric-in Antiquarieti,"' 1883, 2.".0 If. TIai.E. — /'/"/• I/i'n>>i Winiii'inii Ilecorih, wliilt' llicir miiDlicrs Iiad (h\ iiidlnd, ;iii(l liv llic ycur iSlOlinil lirciHiKi It'ducftl td iilxdit, il lll(tU,sillld, of wliolii It'NS tllilll t \S (J linnilicil r»'Miiiiii('d in Cniiiidii \\vs{. llic rest hcini,' scuttcriMl ill scNcial liiiuds tliidiiuli tlic St;it('s (»t MifliiiL'fUi mid r-,dn. Slioitly iirtci wards, on the invitidioii ot tlic Ajiicricnii (Invcrii- iiiciit, the majority of tlic nation, sonu^ ('i0 horses, 800 cuttle, and oOO sheep. Those Avho I't'inained in llieir small Canadian tract of 7,700 acres, known as the " Anderdon IJeserve," near Amherstburii, on the. ]>etroit Kiver, ered then only ahout sixty. Till! best esidence of their |)roL;'ress and prosperity is haiiid in the fact that in 1(SS4 their number had increased t<) ei,L,dity-ei<^ht, and nearly the whole of them had ceased to be " Inilians tnider tutela|j;e." According' to the (Joverument JJeport of that year, the lartj;e majority had been enfranchised durini^ the ])revious year. " Jlaving served the term 'f oro- batioii icfpiired liy law, they had received letters patent, conveying to them in fee sinj})!e the lands individually as- sij^^ned to themselves and their families." Thus the once ])rou»l and powei'fnl Huron peoi)le, whose ancestors welcomed (!artier, and faithl'ully sustained (Jhamplain and {\\v French colonists in their wars with the Trocpiois and the English, more than three hundred years ago, have in our day shrunk to three insignificant and widely scattered communities, numbering altogether less than seven hundred members, but still retaining everywhere the indomitable spirit of indepen- dence and self-reliance which makes them, next to their near Iroquoian kindred (unless M-e should also perhaps except their more distant (Mierokee congeners), the most creditable repre- sentatives of the American aboriginal race. n. H.M.E. — Four Ilni'nn iri'J-<. T.\ 1 hmiiit^f my visits to the .Aiitlcrdoii Ilcscrvc, I icci-ivt'd tVoni the two Icaditi^' luciiiUfis ul' the Itiiiid, .luscpli Wliiti', the ('liicf, ami AIcmuhUt Clarke, the (lovi'rmiK'iit Iiit»'i|ir(jti'r, and also (111 niif occaHJoii t'loiii Alcxamlfr's bidtlid', Vv\v.\' Claikc, the Hutlior n|' till' " Oii'^in ami Traditional History ol' tlio Wyaiidotts," who liai>i)i.'iiid to l»n tlu'ic on a visit to tho llt'sci'vc tVoin his liome ill the I'.S. Indian TciTitory, much information conceinin^' thti languaj^'c, traditions, and eustoms of tlu'ir i»<.'o|)K'. All tlu'si; were, like most (»f llieir trihesmen, persons of halt'-hlood, " Mr. White," as Ik* was commonly called, lieiiiH ill ])ai't of French origin, and the two Clarkcs heiiiL? the sons of an Kii'jlish military ollicer who had settled in Canada and taken ii Wyandot wife. All had had .some schooling, but had heeii hrought up among their Indian kindred, and were fully iinl)ii''d with Indian beliefs and .sentiments. Karo\vn, who was of purely P'uglish origin. He had been carried olf by a Huron maraudiu'' party from a frontier settle- ment of Virginia, " on his way to school," at the age of eight years. He was brought to IMichigan, adopted by a Wyandot family, and when he grew n]), married a Wyandot woman, M'hom C'larke atiirms to have been his own matcriinl giand- mothfir. Thus we learn that Clarke's mother had the attrac- tions of an English half-caste, with doul'tless some knowledge of English speech and of civilised habits, to captivate her military lover and husband. The story introduces into our history an element of romance which novel writers have been fond of dealing with, antl of which the real life of the last century in America ))resented many examples. " Ab(jut this time," Clarke tells ns, " the king, or head -chief, of the AVyandotts, 8ut-staw-ra-tse [Ha.staretsi] called a meeting at the house of Chief Adam Brown, who had charge of the archives, which consisted of wampum belts, parchments, &c., coritained in a large trunk. One by rtne tliey were brought out and shown to the assembled chiefs and warriors. Chief Brown wrote on a piece of paper, and tacked it to each wampum belt, designating the compact or treaty it repiesented, after it had been exi)lained from memory by the chiel's appointed lor that pur- pose. There sat before them eir venerable king, in whose head, were stored the hidden contents of each wam])um-belt, listen- ing to the rehearsal, and occasionally correcting the speaker and puttinu' him on the right track whenever he devated." "The head chief who presided on this occasion for the last time," continues tlie historian, " was the last lineal descendant of his race of pure Wyandot blood. His lamp of life went out at the close of this decade. — between the years 1790 and 1801. None can now be found among the remnant of his nation but what are either mixed with the whites or with Indian blood of other tribes." What became of these records was explained to me by Chief White, whfise explanation was fully confirmed by Clarke's History, and is thus recorded in my journal : — " When the majority of the people removed to the south-west, they demanded to have the belts, as these might be a safeguard to them. Sc»me of these belts recorded treaties of alliance or of peace with other tribes whicli v.ere now residing in that region, H. Hale. — Four Huron Wamjmm Records. 233 and it mij^ht be of great importance for the Wyandots to be able to produce and rei'cr to them. The justice of this claim \vas admitted, and tliey were allowed to have tlie greater part of the belts. They left those which related to the title of the Indian lands in Canada, to the adoption of the Christian religion, and a few otliers." The chief did not clearly remem- ber, with regard to all the belts lie had, what precise event each was intended to commemorate. He said that the belts vvhicli he knew I. est were those which had been taken away, He had often heard them " read," in former times, by the old chiefs ; but; of course, of late years, since the majority of the people went away, the remaining belts have l)een little but useless lumber. The written explanations attached to them by Chief Brown have disappeared. It may be added that, in the Indian estimate, the only documentary vidue of the wampum record is its actual present utility as evidence of a subsisting treaty or land-right. To any merely arclueological purj^ose which it may serve they are entirely indifferent. Tlie chief said that he had some Ijelts which were his ]nivate property, aiul which he could sell to me. I inferred that thev were belts which had ceased to be of practical use, and wliich the former wampum-keepers, in accordance with tribal usage, had left at his disposal. The four belts which I obtained from him in my different visits, and which are now to be described, were such as had thuvS ceased to be of use as political documents, while they yet remain records of tlie highest histi.trical and archaeological interest (see Plate XT). They belong, as appears by various evidences, to two distinct eras and categories. Three of them date back to the era of CJhaniplain and the Jesuit ]\Iissions, and refer to events of signal impoi'tance, which occurred near the close of that epoch. The fourth l)elongs to the later period of the return of the Hurons to the east, and their settlement near l)etroit under the protection of the French, about the beginning of the eighteenth centurv. Tlie external difference between the two classcH of belts is striking at the first glance. The older belts are entirely of native make; the later one is formed of similar materials, which have been put together by Indian hands, but the shell -beads and perhaps in part the strings which unite them have been procured from white men. In the older belts there is no uniformity in the size of the beads, some of them being twice as large as others. It is evident that they were made by hand, a work to which only Indian patience could be equal ; while the later beads of nearly uniform size, were as evidently wrought by a lathe. It is a curious fact that in the space of less than two centuries which has elapsed since the 234 IT. Hale. — Four Huron Wdm^^nm Uccorih. Tmlians oeastMl to inaimfacturo Mampmn, the knovvledut^ not iinjrely of their I'oi'elathers' mode ol' iniikinif it, but of the faet tliat it was uii artiele of native W()rknianshi[), lias in some trilie.s been lost. Important national events in their past history, such as wars and migrations, are: vividly recalled, but minor mattei'S have faded from niemorv. T » niv ureat surprise, the Wyandot historian, Teter C'laike, in our first conversaticjn, assured nie positivtdy that the Indians had never made wam- pum beads, and seenu'*] insultcid when I ^■enfurl'd to eoriect him. I afterwards found the reason of his sensitiveness in the fact that he had I'ecordcd his o])inion in a footnote of his history, which reads as follows : — " \Vam])um is mamifaetured from a species of sea-shell. ex])ressly for Indians, by Europeans, perforated (lengthwise) tubes, about ^-incli in diameter and A-ineli in U-ngth, and of a mixed light and dark-])urple colour. The tubes are fastened together with strong thread or ligament into belts, frton o to 7 inches in witlth, and from 24 to 40 inches in length." Unfoitiinately, 1 had not at hand a volume of Sagard's "Journey to the Huron ('(umtry," with which I nnght have insti'ucted and ]H-rhaj)S soothed arid gratified my too sensitive ilispntant. I (;ouhl have shown him tlie passage in wliich the good Francisciui INIissionai'v, in his edition of l()o2 (just two hundred years earlier than Clarke's publication), des- cribes the [)rocess of making these poin'celainf!i, as he styles the wami)um bead.s. " Thev are made.'" he savs, " of the substance (des os) of those great sea -shells which are called conchs (rif/iwl>i). resembling snails. These they cut into small pieces, then ]»olish them on a stone, perforate them, and make of them eollars and armlets. It is a work of great pains and labour, oving t< the hardness of their substance, which is (piite a diifereiiL thing from our ivory. This they value little beside their jtorcidain, wdnch is handsomer and whiter." It is a some- what amusing retiection that one of the ingenious Hurons whom Sagard saw engaged in the wampum-making process, wdiich he so pithily describes, may have been an ancestor of the sceptical Clarke himself. It is proper to notice that tlwmgh many attempts were jnade to counterfeit the wamjium, by Dutch and English colonists, soon after their settlement on the Atlantic sea-board, th(^se attempts were for a long period only partially successful. Much information on this subject is collected ])\ oVIr. W. 11. Holmes in liis excellent monogra})h on "Art in shell of the Ancient Americans." ])nlilished in the " Second Annual ileport of the Ameriean Bureau of Ethnology." Thus, Thomas i\'.orton, of Afassachusetts, writing in 1630 of the New England Indians and their \\ampum bca«ls, which thcn"iiassed cuircnt as money II. Hale. — Four ITi/ron Wampvm Rcconh. 235 ill all pfivts of New Eiijiiilantl, frrnii one rud of \\\o. roafit to the otlier," tells us that though snnic of the Cdloiiisls " had en- (loavouivil to make tin; sanu' heads, of the sanu; kind of shells, yet none had e\er yet attained any gooil success, as the salvages liave found a great difl'erence to he in the one and the other, and have known the c(nniterreit l)eads fi'oin those of their own making and doe slight them." Nearly ;. century later, the sui'xeyor Lawsou, of Cai'olina, de.sci'ihing the same money, tells us that "the shells of which it is made are cry large and hard, so that they are very dilficult to cut. Some Knglish smiths," lie adds, " Ikivc tried to drill this sort of shell-monev, and therehy thought to get an advantage; but it pnjved so hard that nothing could he gained." The introdiK/tion of (he machine drill could not have made much dilTerence in this respect, as each head must still be fashioned sejiarately by a white worknuiu whose time was much more valuable than that of an Indian. That which finally ga\e the Knglish i)eads the advantag" was not the superiority or the cheapness of the workmansliip, but the destruction of the Indian workmen. The ipiarter of a century which followed the publication of Lawson's book, from 1714 to 1740, .saw the extermination of most of tlie Carolina tribes and a great decline in the numbi-r of all the Northern Indians. It was during this period th.it the wamjium making industry se«'nis to have ceased among them, and the use of macliine-made beads to have become so univcu'sal that .some r(>8pectable writers of a later period, such as Loskiel and Hutchinson, who on ])oints within their own knowledge are of good authority, Avere led to doulit whether the Indiiins e\er made many of these lieads. A leference to the older writers and the testimony of the mounds putf* this jioint beyond (piestion The [iracLice of making and using wani])um belts and strings of the purchased beads still survived for a century longer, 'J'l ,^ ■work, as a general rule, was left to be done liv the women, and the method remained the same as it was in the oUlest historical times, thou<'h there wns some chancse in the textile materials. The strings of native hemp, bark filaments, deerskin, and sinew, on which the beads had been strung and interwoven, gave place to foreign twine, including silken thread. In fact, these materials, which had been obt-ined by the Indians in their trafHc, are found to have been used in some of their earlier belts. The method of weaving these belts was, though simple when once understood, a highly ingenious process, rerpiiring much care and skill. The piocess cannot be better described than in the words of Mr. L. H. Morgan, one of the most careful and trustw'orthy of obsei*vers. Sujijiosing a belt of seven rows, which is the most common w idth, to Ite (.esigncd, " eight strands 230 H. Hale. — Four Huron Wampum Records. or cords of hark thread," he tells us, " ure first twisted from filaments of sli]ij)ery elm, of the re(iuisite length and size ; after Avhieh they are passed through a stri]> of deerskin to separate them at e(pial distances from each other in parallel lines. A piece of sj»lint is then sprung in the form of a bow, to which each end of the several slriijgs is secured, like war]) threads in a weaving machine." The distance apait at which these parallel strings are held, it should he undeistood, is the average lengtii of a wampum bead. " 8e\en beads, these making the intended width of the ])elt, are t'len run upon a thread l)y means of a needle, and are passed under the cords at right ajigles, so as to bring one bead lengthwise between each cord and the one next in position. The thread is then passed back again along the up|)er side of the cords and again through eacli of the beads ; so that each bead is held firndy in its phice by means of two threads, one ])assing under and one above the cords. This }>rocess is continued until the belt reaches its intended length, when the ends of the c(>rds are tied, the ends of the belt covered and afterwards trimmed with ribbons. In ancient times both tlie cords and the thread were of sinew." Most belts liave devices interwoven, forming intelligible mnemonic pictures. These ])ictures are luade by coloured beads, inseited as the belt ju'oceeds, sometimes dark on a white groujid, and sometimes white on a dark ground. To produce these pictures, with such intractable substances, requires in the weavers a degree of constant care and skill com )arable only to that displayed in the making of gobelin tapestry. TV. The Four Historical HurOxV Belts. "The Ooxible-Caluinet Treaty Belt"— "The Peace-Patli Belt "—"The Jesuit Missionary Belt"— "The Four-Nations Alliance Belt"— The Several Symbols and the Treaties sup])osed to be liecorded. 1. The four Huron belts, ^vhich form the main subject of this memoir, may now be tlescriljed, in the order partly of their ptresumed age, and partly of their importance, (See Plate XI, where they are numbereil as in text, details being enlarged in Plate Xri.) One of the oldest of them, and certainly the most important among them, is that which may be styled " The Douhle ('atir)fi('t Treaty JtilL" This, which must have been, when new, a truly imposing construction, is probably more than two and a half centuries old. It is nine beads in width, and is still over .'> feet and 9 inches long, though it has pi^bably lost about a foot of its original length. It displays on a , H. Hale. — Four Huron Wampum Records. 237 dark groiiiul of tlic. costly puiple wampuni, tlie rather 8in.^\ilar composite device of a coinicil-hciirtli in tlie centre — or what was probably the centre— of tlie original belt, llaidrong could only tell me that it was a peace-belt, represent- ing an important treaty or alliance of ancient times. This is ceitaiidy as much as he could be reasonably expected to know of so anti([ue a record, whicli, from its lack of practical interest, had long ceased to be produced and ex])lained in the tribal council. Fortunately, the Jesuit " delations " give ns ample information concerning what we may reasonably presume to have been the time and the occasion of the treaty indicated by this belt. The letter of Father Lalemant to his superior at Quebec, narrating the events of 1():39 and the following year (chapter X, [)age 95 of the Quebec edition of 1858), contains the following [>aragraphs : — " The Khionontateronon (Tionontate people), wdio are called the Tobacco Nation, on account of the abundance of that herb which is grown in their country, are distant from the country of tlie Hurons, whose language they speak, some twelve or fifteen leagues to the westward. They have formerly had cruel wars against each other, but are now on very good terms, and have lately renewed their alliance, and made a new confederation, against some other uatioris, their common enemies." I'lie only people from whom the Tionontate nation, in their isolated position, can have received such an important pledge of alliance, were their numerous and powerful Huron neighbours. The device may be deemed significant. The double calumets seem to have been originally eight, one having been lost froia one end, as another has partly disappeared from the other extrenuty. it was the habit of the modern Indians, when wampum beads were needed for messages, presents, or sacrifices, to have recourse to the ancient and, so to speak, obsolete belts, which were thus gradually pillaged. It seems likely that the eight calumets had reference to the eight clans or gentes, who ooniposed tlie Huron people, and were found in difterent propor- tions in all the tribes. These clans, called by the Algonquians totfrnn, all bore the names of certain animals, with which the Indians held themselves to be niythologically connected — the bear, wolf, deer, porcupine, snake, hawk, large tortoise, and 2.",8 II. Hale. — Four Huron JVamptn/i lU'curds. small tortoise. Each clan was more niimorons in some towns tlian in othci's, as it was natural that near kindreds should cluster to'^ether. Thus clie missionary Jh'ebeuf speaks of " tlie nation ot" the hears," amonj^ whom he resided. Hut all the (/r/itci were closely connected by inLermarria.Ljes, and a belt including them all, accompanied by a council heartli, would lie niulerstood to expn^ss the nnanimous will of the llunm people. It is true that the five Iroquois nations had also ei^ht clans, though in part dilTerently named from the Huron clan, lint it is impossible to suppo.se that their inveterate enemies of the Tionontate nation can have condiined in bestowing upon the latter such a pledge of amity. The belt, in its tirst estate, must have contained not less than three thousand beads, and must have V)een deenuMl not only an im])ressive record, but also a magnificent gift. It .seems highly probabh; that the special device of the doulde calumet had a complimentary reference to the title and re|»ute, on which the reci])ients doubtless prided themselves, of " The Tobacco Nation." The expressions used by halemant in the j)assage quoted, "renewed their alliance," and '■ nuide a new confederation," are deserving: of notice, as sliowing that the Hochelagan form oi government, to which these exjiressions evidently referred, was not, as (.'artier su])posed, a " kingdom," but simply a con- federacy, doubtless of the usual Iro(juoian starn]). 2. The ■' Peacr-rath Br/L" — This name distinguishes a smaller belt, of which onlv the memorv remains that it was received at tlui conclusion of a treaty of peace, made m ancient times between the Tionontate liation and a ])eople po.ssessing three council-lires. This ])eople can hardly have been any other than the Huron confederacy. That League did indeed include five nations, but two of them were comparatively insignificant, having each but one town, while the lemaining twenty-two towns and villages of the Wendat were ng them, while I, I II. ]1ai>E. — Foil)' Huron Wampum Records. 230 I, I tlie o])])osite side was licM l)y the two other nations, munl)evi)ig each four well-jteopU'd towns." Aceimlinji to the custom of the countiy, the missionaries presented to tlie council a f^ift of three or four hvnnhed wampum beads, as an evidence of tlieir concern for the neneral welfare. When their own case came u]', they delendcd themselves against their accusers with a lorce of argument and ajqieal which secured them from im- meiliate comlemnation ; and soon greater public dangers from the liostile Iroijuois had ahmued the Hurons, and induced them to seek the advice and assistance of the missionaries in their own mortal peril. It was at this time, apparently, that the desire of resuming their ancient amity and alliance with their neighbours of the 'l\ibacco Nation had arisen, of which the first evidences were the two belts that liave now been described. The smaller belt wouhl be first [iresented as an overture of lasting peace from the three heading Wendat nations, while the brger belt would follow when the alliance was completed. 3. " The Jcmit Missionar// Be! f."— The belt which bears tliis name is probably, if judged from its size, its purport, and its history, the most remarkable and memorable wampum-belt in existence. It can only be comi)ared in all tlu^se respects with the famous " Tenn Wampum belt," which in some })oints it decidedly surpasses. What my iufornumt, Chief IMandorong, knew or l)elieved of it was that it commemorated the accep- tance by the Hurons of the Christian religion, in the form in which it was presented to them by the Jesuit missionaries. The belt must have been made ])y ImUans under missionary instructions, and in all probability''in the Huron country ; but of the precise occasion aiul circumstances of its ])resentation to his forefathers, and their acceptance, the chief knew nothing. The missionary reports seem to sujiply ns with sufhcient evidence on these points. In the letter of Father Lalemant, from which the paragraph relating to the treaty with the Tionontate people has been quoted, we have a li\ely narrative of the trials and sutfeiings which befel the two missionaries, Fathers Gamier and Jogiies, to whom the duty of commencing this mission to the Tobacco Nation was assigned. The season was winter and the ground was covered with snow, on which they had sometimes to make their rud.e couches of pine- l)rancl.es for the night's sleep. The pestilence was raging, .nd the bos' ile rumours against the missionaries, as sorcerers \\ho had brought it into the country, excited against them a frenzy of terror'. Almost every door was closed against them ; and sometimes when they had been reluctantly admitted, they were orilered out in the middle of the night by their terror-stricken liost. The women cried out against them in horror, and the —. Si i,i . .^^-"A^, 240 H. Halk. — Fuur II a mil Waiiijium Recurds, teiTitieJ children fled from them s(3roaiuin^. They were iihlo to baptize a few persons whom tliey f(»iuui at the point of death, and tinally returned safely from their ventiiiovis tour, half famished, but triumphant and hopeful. This was in lOo'J. Ten years later, in 1649, we find tlie Tobacco Nation occupied by two missions, each under the charge of two missionaries. It was probably durin^f thi.s decade, and at the commencement of what were deemed the permanent missions, that the belt in (piestion was presented by the missiduaries. It was accepted by the people, not j)recisely as an evidence of the ado])tion of the new religion ol'Icred to them, ])ut as an indication of their willingness to listen to the missionary teachings. This \\'(! may infer from the similar ex])erience of the missionary iJrebeuf, who in his leport of lOoG, near the beginning of the Huron mission, relates that liaving to address an assembly of chiefs and elders of the " Nation of the Bears," and invite them to attend to the precepts of his religion, he closed his address by jiresenting to them a belt of twelve hundred w^ampum-beads, telling them that it was to smooth for them the wiiy to Taratlise. " Such," lie adds, *' are the expressions which they are wont to use in making presents to assist in achieving any diiticult enterprise." Respecting the device on this l.)elt of Brelieuf, we are told nothing; but its character may l.)e conjectured from that of the belt which was afterwai'ds given to the chiefs of the Tobacco Natioii for a similar piir])Ose, and which their successors have X)reserved for us. The tigurt^s are in white beads on a dark grouml. This costly substance, as well as the size of the belt, indicates the importance attached to the gift. Near the centre of the belt is the usual oval or lozenge-shaped figure (Plate XII, 2) representing a cuncil. In this case it must have been under- stood tliat the belt was a formal oflering and oxerture from the whole mission council to the Tionontate nation. By this time, at least thirteen years after Brebeuf's present, the Huron Mission, with its numerous members and lay followers and its imposing buildings, had become an imporLant body. The members held regular councils, which led to results of serious consequences. On each side of this synd)olic council-hearth are religious emblems. Kearest the hearth, on either hand, are two extra- ordinary figures, intended to re[)resent the Dove and the Lamb ; and beyond them are three crosses in the (rreek form, under- stood to indicate the Trinit}'. Some other figures — whether of mere ornament or of some significant purport cannot now be judged — seem anciently to have closed each end, but have now in part disa])peaied through the loss of the beads composing them. The whole remaining device, grotesque as it seems to J ir. If.M.E. — Fuiir ITiu'im irau}/!!')}) RrrortJ^. 241 cur notions, forniod a strikiiif^ text of useful nnKMnomcs for niisHionary exhortations. Tlie l)elt contains lifteen rows of bends, the li^anes wliite on a (hirk *j;roun(l, and must have comprised orioinallv not less than three thousand beads. 4. " Th>'Foar-Natioii>iAirifmccBclt:'—'V\ii^ notable difference between this and the three yn'eeedin^' belts marks a wide chasm of time iind a ,y;rcat ehiin^'e of locality and condition. The latest date which can be ascribed to the .Jesuit missionary belt is the year 1648, the eve of the expulsion of the Hurons b} the Iroquois. The date fixed for the " Four-Xations Belts," ]iy Peter Clarke, in the second decade of the eigliteenth century. This belt is consequently younger than the Jesuit belt by over sixty years. J)urin.tif tiiat period the Tionontatc. peo[)l(% now 1)eing east of the Detroit Kiver in Canada, and two in IMichigan, west of that river ; but each nation was to have the privilege of h' nting in the territory of all the others. It shows tlie strength of a treaty established by the solemnity of a wampum belt tiiat this compact remained in force among the four nations, in spite of wars and changes of government among their white protectors, and through all the turmoil and conl'usion of Pontiac's conspiracy, in which all the Indians were more or less engaged, for over a hundred vears, from the first decade of tlie eighteenth to the fourth decade of the present century. At the latter period, the Algonquian nations had each sold a portion of its separate territory to their white neighbours. They still, however, claimed their ancient privilege in the Wyandot lauds, c 'T'^ri 242 11. Hale. — Four Ilnron IVani^iinn Ilerurds. or a money payment in li(ni of it. Against this unrefisonaMo chiini the, Wyandots ])n)tL'st('(l,an(l tluur [n'otcctini; »i;ov('rnni(iTit, then ivpreseiited hy Sir Francis Head, jtmniptly settled the matter in a whiniisically arliitraiy fashion characteiistie of tliis niilitary-ininded ruh'r, by not oidy rejcctinf? entirely the claim of the Al^'on(|aian.s (except in a certain fashion those of tiiem residin",' in Canadii), lait by (k'ciding to sell a portion of the AVyiindot lands, and to invest the ])roceeds partly for the exclusive benefit of the Wyanilots, and partly for the behoof of the Canadian Indians in ^eneiiil. Tims the " Four Nations Belt " (teased to have any etiicaey as a jxditical document. It became sinijdy an historical record, and one of no little impor- tance, as continuing our knowiedge of the Huron Annals for the full term of three centuries, from (Jartier in loBo to Sir Francis Head in 183G. Tiiis, with the sulisequent time to the present date, is a longer ])eriod of authentic histoiy than can be claimed for any other aboriginal jteople north of Mexico. V. The Penx Wami'tm I>ei-t. Belt Deposited with the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in 18.57 by a great-grandson of William Penn — Sii])j)o.se, which is preserved in the archives of the Historical Society of I'ennsyhania. A fac-.miiile of this belt is given inthe s-ixth volume of tiie memoirs of that Society (for 1 858), together with a record of ihe very interesting proceedings that took place at the presentation of the belt to the Society in April, 1857, by Mr. (Jranville John Penn, the great-grandson and one of tiie heirs of the illustrious fountler of Pennsylvania. In the address wdiich was made on the occasion by Mr. Granville Penn are set forth with much persuasive force his reasons for believing that this is the identical belt which was given to his ancestor by tiie Indian chiefs "at the great treaty held in 1682, after liis arrival in this country, confirmatory of the friendly relations which were then permanently established between them." " That such is the case," continued Mr. Penn, " there can exist no doubt, as (though it has come down to us without any documentary evidence) it plainly tells its ()wn story ; and .11. TIai.K. — Four lluruit }i'iniipini> licconh. 24:J in arcordanoi' with tlu' rescilntiou passed l>y tlu' Society fit its liiHt ineetinj.:, I beg to (iller tlu; lollowin;^ oltscrviirioiis in evidence ol' iliu fact, hi the first ]»liice, its dinicnsions are greater than ot" tliuM? used on more ordinary occasions, of wliieli we have one still in our possession — this belt l)eing e(»ini>oseil ol' eighteen strings of wampum — which is a proof that it was the record of some very imjiortant negotiation. In th(! next place, in the centre of the belt, which is of white wamj)um, are delineated in dark-coloured lieads, in a rude but grajiliic style, two tigures, that of an Indian grnspinu with the hand of friend- shi}> the hand of a man evidently intended to be represented in tlie E.iropean costume, wearing a hat : which can only be inter])reted as having lefereuce to the treaty of peace and friendship which v/as then concluded between William IVnin and the Indians, and recorded by them in tiieir sini]»le but descri[ttive mode of expressing their meaning by the em{)loy- rnent of hieroglyphics. Then the fact of its having lieen preserved in the iamily of the foumler from that i>ei'iod to the present time, having descended through three generations, gives an authenticity to the document which leaves no doubt of its genuineness ; and as the chain and medal which were presented by tlie Parliament to his father, tlie Admiral, for lii.s naval services, have descended among the family archives unac- companied by any written document, but aie recorded in the journals of the House of Connnons, equal authenticity nuiy be claimed for the wam)>um l)elt confirmatory of the treaty made by his son vith the Indians; which event is recorded on the page of histi^ry, though, like the older relic, it has been unac- companied in its descent by any document in writing." r»ut it may be obse)'ved that the " older relic," the Admiral's medal, doubtless had an inscription, which alone would have sufficed to identify it. The wampum belt liad also its inscrip- tion, which, if its purport had been known .n 1857, either to the generous presenter or to the grateful recipients, would have satisfied them that the belt could not have been that which they, with such api^arently good reasons, natuially supposed it to be. This inscription did not, in fact, escape notice at the time. The Society's official reporter, in describing the belt, remarks that " there are three bands, also worked in violet beads, one at either end, the other about one-third the distance from one end, which may have reference to the yjarties to the treaty, or to the Rivers Delaware, Schuyllkill, and Susquehannn." The conjecture that these bands "had reference to the parties to the trea':y " was a sagacious one, and was undoubtedly correct. At the first sight of the belt, when it was shown to me at a later day by the obliging oflicials of the Society, I was able to assure 'J44 H. Ha I.E. — Four Huron, Wniitinnii lUconls tln'iii tliat tliu l)L'lt could not ])O.SHiltly liiivt' Ikm'ii |iros(Mit(!j to Willifiiu IN'ini, ni tlic trcdly <»t' 1()S2, iiiusiimch us tluit treaty was iiiaila wit!i the Dclawait^ (or [.('iia|)(i) Iiidiiiiis, wliilo tlio l>elt i.s ini(|iU',stioiial»ly of Irocinois origin, and iiiiist liuvo hocii }»restMit('(l l>y soitic rt'prcsentativc of the M\(' Nations. Tlie ol»li(iu(' hniulH are tlie \v(.'ll-kuo\vii syndiol of tlic federation. Tiie oiij^in and meaninj.; of the symWol are well understood anion<;- the, Indian trihes. The eonfederacy Nvas known as the " Lon^-llouse," a nietai)hor winch in their s]»eeeh was eanied out in minute particulars. The ordinary Iro([uois fonnnunal dwelling, ealletl a " long-hou.se," was eonstrueted hy planting on each side of the site of the intended edihee a row of stronj^ " fraiiie-poh's," which, after rising to a certain height, were iient inward tartments into separate dw(!llings for the dilVerent households. These frame-poles were Itound together by smaller interlacing poles and withes, and the whole framework, on sides and roof, was carefully covered with eh>sely lifted strijjs of bark (ansvv(;ring to our siding-boards and shingles) leaving only an opening along the centre of the root' for the smoke to escape from the tire-hearths lielow, of which there was one for every two households. The large bejit frame- jioles were known to the natives by the name of La/msfti, a word Avhich they render in luiglish Ity " rafter." This is the object which is represented on wam])um belts by the inclined band, and which is deemed, by a Jiatural synecdoche, the symbol of their confederacy. Thus the Iroquois league is spoken of in their Uook of Kites as kaiiasta-fsilrnra, "the great framework." It was this mighty structure, which, when the belt in (piestion was given, overshadowed the greater part of North America, that was indicated by the oblique bands. That there might be no cpiestion on this subject,! showed the fac-dm tie in the book to my intelli- gent friend, Chief John Buck (Skanaimfi), the leading chief, and one of the l)est informed men of the Six Nations, and asked his opinion of it. He atlirmed, without hesitation, that it was an Iroquois tre:ity belt, though on what precise occa.sion it was given there was nothing to show. The occasion when it is probable that this belt was given seems, however, to be sufficiently shown in the " Colonial Archives of Pennsylvania," vol. i, p. 14-lr, which record a treaty made between William Penn and the chiefs of several nations of Indians, who united in confirming all former cessions of lands, and in establishing a " firm and lasting peace," so that, as the written treaty declares, in words evidently .suggested by Penn him.sclf, they " shall forever hereafter be as one head and one H. Hale. — Fuur Huron Wuiiipvm Becurds. 245 heart, ami live in true friendsliip and amity as one people." Among tlie names of tlie contracting chiefs who represented their several nations, special prominence is given to '' Ahoak.'is- sough, brother to the Emperor or (Jreat King of Onondagoes of the Five Nations, who had arrived in town (Philadelphia) two days ago, witii several otliers of their great men, and Indian Harry for their inter})reter." A delegation of this character would not have attended a treaty conference without bringing unquestion- ahle credentials, such as a belt like this would have fui-nished. Mr. Frederick B. Stone, of the P(unisylvania Historical Society, in his elaborate paper on " Pemi's Treaty witii tlie Indians," published by the Society, says of the treaty of 1701 : — "This treaty seems to have been a very formal affair, and certainly it was a most important one. We do not doubt that tradition has in some manner confounded what was done at it with the earlier treaty which Penn's letters of August H), 168:^, tell us had been held." At this date, as Lawson has informed us, the machine-made wampum had not been accepted by the natives, and we are not surprise.fl to find in tlie carefully \\i\\()grA\A\Q& facsimile abun- dant evidence of the " pains and labour " expended by tlie natives in the manufacture of the hand-made beads, and in wearing them with bark filaments in a belt of the extraordinary width )f eigbteen I'ovvs, making it undoulitedly one of the most imports at and characteristic of aboriginal treaty records. VI. General Conclusions. Evidences of a. Real Civilisratidn in Aboriginal America— Intellectual and Moral Qualities Indicated — JProbable Error of some Ethnologiats and Possible Disasvtrous Eesults. It will be noticed that each of the five wampum belts here described has its distinct device or inscription, and that these devices have for the most part passed beyond the stage ot picture-writing and become conventional characters, analogous io those of the Chinese script and to a large portion of tlui IVyi'tian hieroglyphics. The only instances of mere picture- V riting in the five belts are the two men witli joined hands on the Penn belt and the "white people's houses" on the Huron " Four Nations " l)elt. If the three conventional devices on the Jesuits' belt are of missionary suggestion, the five different symbols on the other four belts — the oval figure indicating a tribal council, the square representing a nation, the double- calumet for a treaty of alliance, the white line for an assurance of peace, and the inclined bands signifying the Iroqu< is con- 246 H. Hale. — Four Huron Wampum Records. federation — are all of purely native origin, and are employed in a manner which shows a clear appreciation of the value of written language, highly creditable to tlie inventors. It may be noticed that we have nothing positive in tlie Homeric poems or in the results of modern excavations to show a similar advance in the Greeirepared to send to the Five Nations as a tribute. At page 471 the (ianawese Indians, in an interview with the Colonial Council, " lay on the table of the Council a belt of wampum to enforce their words," and at the same time state that they had twenty-four belts provided as a tribute to the Five Nations. In vol. ix of the Records, page 774, there is an account of the then " Six Nations" with tlie Catawbas and other southern nations, at which the Litter gave twenty belts and many strings of wampum. Mr. Holmes gives particulars of many similar Councils, and pictures of several notable belts, each having its own special inscription. The American Coloniil H. Hale. — Four Huron Wampum Records. 247 Archives and Missionary Reports of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries abr)und witli similar notices. If only a tithe of all the belts then presei;ted, with the significance of their innevuonic devices, had heen preserved, it would constitute a literature of aboriginal diplomatic records oi which the great historical and ethnological value would not be disputed. The facts adduced in the foregoing |)ages seem to lead to some further inferences which are deserving of careful and candid consideration. It is apparent that when the Spanish, English, and French colonists arrived in America, with the intention of taking possession of the land — which necessarily meant the extermination of the native inhabitants — they found tliese in- haliitants enjoying frames of government and forms of civilisa- tion which evinced intellectual and moral faculties of no mean order. These statements are not only true of the populous communities of Peru, ]\Iexico, and other central and South American countries, but in some respects will apply with even greater force t(^ the tribes of North America, who then oc ipied what are now the I'nited States and Canada. Here we iind a real nvney, which, if it had not all the characters of a true currency, approached it very nearly, and offered many ■ f its advant;\ges. We find the elements of a written language, widely diffused, and eni]>loyed especially in preserving, with happy effect, the memory of treaties of peace and alliance. And we find established systems of government, so devised as to pre- serve for centuries the personal liberties and tribal independence of the communities maintaining them. We find also, according to the testimony of all the early explorers, a degree of generally diffused comfort throughout the greater portion of the native population, not infeiior to any that has existed in other parts of the globe. If scholars who have made what they deem a careful and imyjartial study of the languages, customs, and traditions of the American race and of other so-called inferior races, have found in them, as they believe, evidences of natural endowments not inferior to those of any other races, but merely kept down and made torjjid by centuries and perhaps millenniums uf unfavour- able environment, tliev mav lie entitled to su^ucst, bv way of friendly warning, that other students mIio take a contrary view, and devote themselves to the agreealjle and poi)ular taste of exalting the race to which they themselves happen to belong as naturally superior to all others, may be as sadly mistaken as the Chinese vsages have been in the like circumstances, and may be helping to prepare for the future millions of the self-sufficient and intolerant Aryan race the same deplorable destiny that is now overtaking the self-sufhcient and intolerant millions of China, 1* r f :'-^"f'-= "'^<'''^ *' " ' llHTH' i l l r«M I MrH < H l tn li , i»l . l»..<«e^ TcsssB^mmm 248 E. B. T\wn.—The Hak ScrieH of The HkhE Series of Huron Wampum Belts. Notes and Addenda. By Prof. E. B. Tylor, D.C'.L., F.RS. While writinj^ tliese remarks, T received with regret but hardly surprise the intelligence of Mr. Hale's death. The tone of his letters for months past had been that of a man looking toward the end of his work in life, and anxious to setile linally all matters he had much at heart. Among these were his investi- gations into the history of his friends the Iro([uois and Hurons, to carry out which he had given so much labour, and of which his last studies, uiulertaken to elucidate their native records, form a fit completion. The "Hale Series of Huron Wampum Belts," which lately passed into my hands, have been presented by me to tlie Oxford University Museum, vvheni they are now pi.iced in the Pitt-Ptivers Collection. In bringing Ijefore the Anthropological Institute the long and careful paper written by Mr. Hale to accompany this groii]) of American Indian records, illustrations were needed, the principal of which are here reproduced in Plates XI, XIV, and Figs. 1 and 2. 1 also found it desirable for clearing up points ill the paper, and in support or criticism of the writer's views, to add a number of remarks. These, with others arising from questions raised in further correspondence with Mr. Hale, are now a])pended, reference being made to the passages of the paper with wliich they are connected. Wampum Beads and Belts (page 233).— The different modes of fasiiioning wampum, serving as they do to determine its date and origin, require further consideration here. After a. b. c d ^\ i p \''-^/- p. w/,- e f g. Fig. l.—a,e, ground bead, native make, probably stone drilled, Canada; (T)r. Dawt m). b, c,f, rudeljr ground beads, probably awl-drillcd ; from Mis- sionary Belt, Plate X 1 , 3. ff,ff, machine-turned and drilled bead ; European luoke. Huron IVampvin Bdi^ 249 <;»)iiig Koinewliat carefully into the matter with ^fr. H. lialfour, I lia\ e drawn up the following; particiiIarH in which we a.^ree. As to the outside shajtintfof the heads there are two kinds. The more ancient beiuls werii made hy rubhint^ down a frngment of shell on a stone till the facets united in a fairly regular outline, Fig. 1, ''/, h, c ; the modern l)e!uls, d, received their cylindrical shai)e by turning in a lathe. This classification by the outside dis- tinguishes native-mado beiids from those made in the colonial workshops, but it does not show whether those of native make date before or after the coming of the white men. This, how- ever, may be to seme extent learnt from the mode of boring, liefore European times, the Indians no doubt bored their shell- beads by means of a chipped point of Hint or- other hard stone, fixed to a stick which they twirled between the i)alms of the hands. It is obvious that their mode of drilling hard stone by means of a stick or reed with sharp sand, tluaigh suitable for boring holes half an inch or more in diameter, was quite impractical tie for iterforating wami>um. Oidv boring with the flint i»oint wovdd serve, and that only for short beads. It is seen by specimens of besids of the Stone Age found in the older Indian graves, and even by such ancient beads as aie still worn in Indian necklaces, that cylinders and even thin discs of shell were ])erforated from both ends, the two conical borings meeting in the nuddle. This is indicated by the diagram r in the figure, showing the perforation of the shell-bead a, one of some genuine stone age beads fiom Indian graves, of which selections have been kindly sent to me from Canada by Dr. G. W. Dawson and by Mr. Da\id Boyle. When the goods of the white traders came within reach of the Indians, Eurojtean tftols must ha\'e begun to supersede the flint point. A tem])ered steel tool was needed to bore the shell of the (juahaug or hard.shell clam, i'''enus mrrcrnaria, from which all the purple wampum beads and a great j)artof the white were made, other white beaJs being irom the columella of univalves such as tiie whelk-like Ftt/f/urcarica, The hardness of this material is seen from the fact that though a steel blade will scrape the clam-shell, an ordinary soft iron nail writes on it like a pencil. Indeed the hardshell clam seems to have become typical of stubbornness, perhaps having even suggested the })opu- lar names of the Hardshell Democrat and the Hardshell Bai)tist. There is a remark by Iloger Williams who, writing in his Vocab- ulary of 1G4'», incidentally records both the original use of the stone drill for boring the shell beads, and its supersession by the European awl. He writes, " before ever they had awle blades from Europe, they made shift to bore their shell money with stones."* The awl may have been fastened to a stick and twirled between ' Roger Williams, " A Key into the Language of America," p. 144. d 250 E. B. TYLOn.—The Rale Series of the hands, or it may liavt^ l)eGn wovkoil Avitli the ]»um]»-(Irill, such as ill Europe chiua-inenders still use for their very similar purpose. Tlie use of this instrument, easily made from [»ierf^sof wood and siring, seems to have been 1 arnt from the Euro l)y the natives far and wide m America/; lor instance, it ip 1 l)eseen among the Zuiiis of New Mexico. The diagran .re- senting the boring ot the ground beads /; and i\ fairly ..enl ? the result which the Indian reached in the 17th i-entury l>y the use <>f European tools. The sliglitly conical borings due to an ill-centred metal drill, and still made from botli ends to meet in the middle, distinguish the beads of this period from botli the iirst and last kinds. Finally, we come to the ordinary product of the Dutch and English wami»um factories. These are the machine turned and drdled shell-beads shown by d and // in the figure, in their dimensions like -|-inch lengths of a rommon clay tobacco-pipe. Ai -plying this criterion to the wam])um belts which form the .subject of ]Mr. Hale's ])ni>er, Mr. IJaU'our and I fail to lind in them any stone-lxtred beads, which is equivalent to saying that they belong to the European ])eriod and cannot be nnich earlier than 1 600. The Huron belts, Plate XI, 1 , 2, ."., consist of ground and apparently awl-bored beads, even the most symmetrical Jiot seeming to be turned, 'i'hey may thus be assigned to a time when tlie Indians had already begun to o])tain European steel tools which they o uld convert into suitable drills, liut when factory-nuule wami)um had not come in. Now alxnit IGll Eather Hiard describes the Indian trif)es as coming in summer by the River St. [.awrence to barter their furs against French wares, among which are specially mentioned awls and bodkins.^ Thus there is no chronok>gical objection to these belts being referred to events about 1640, a date at which the Indians were well supplied with such tools. The belt 4 is as certainly of factory -made beads, ])robably of the 18th century. As to the other belts only known to me by pictures such as those figured by I'rof. W. H. Holmes in his valuable account,-' and even tlie I'enn^Belt (Tlate XIII, o) of which so large and careful a representation lias been published by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania,^ I do not think it desirable to express any opinion from this point of view. Even large photograplis are insufficient to give the requisite details. But no doubt the anthropological interest attaching to the questions raised by ' "Relations des Jeeuites dans la Nonvello France." Quebec, 1858, vol. i, p. 7. 1611. Sec also Jacques Cartier's " First Voyage." ' W. H. Holmes, "Art in Shell of the Ancient Americans," in "Second Report of the Bureau of EtlinoloK.v," Washington, 1883, p. 185. •* " Contributions to American History," Philadelphia, 1858. Huron Wurnputh Belts. '2b\ Mr. Hule will lead to all such important wampum belts being examined with a view to settUng their dates approximately from their make. Especially if tliere exists anywiiere a wampum l)elt made of stone-bored beads, or even of stone- bored and awl-bored beu.ls mixed, it will be heard of. There is at present no known wampum belt which appears to have been made before^ the European period in America. The Iroquois (Jhliqur, Band (p. 244). — The statement that the oblique baiul on i wam])um l)elt is the symbol of the Iroquois Coni'edei'acy, was brought forward so far as I know for the first time by M. Hale in his paper read at the British Associa- tion at Montreal in 1884, In his present paper it is reinforced by the substantial authority of two chiefs well versed in Iroquois tradition — (1. H. M. Johnson fOnwanonsyshon), the Government interpreter, and John Buck (Skanawati), the official keeper of the wampum, whose father, grandfather, and great grandfather had held the same office. As, however, the point seemed one on which all available evidence should be collected, I made a further communication to Mr. Hale, who then sent a photograpii which he had had taken of the belts belonging to the Six Nations, here reproduced in Plate XITI (a). Some of the belts are those held in the hands of the chiefs photographed for Mr. Hale in the act of telling the wampum, Plate XTV, 3. The fact that about half these most genuine Iroquois belts have the oblique band, confirms the statement that it belongs to the Iroquois League. The oblique band thus being (considered a conventional repre- sentation of the kanastu or rafter of the kanasta-tsikowa, or great rafter framework, a name applied to the Iroquois League as symbolized by the native long-house extended by successive additions at the end, it becomes desirable to notice how far the band is like the actual rafter of such a structure. For this purpose, two sketches of the Iroquois bark-house are given, Fig. 2, a, b. Here b shows the modern Enropeanized form from a h. Fig. 2. — Iroquois bark-house ; a. Old form. b. Europeanixed. d 2 -ttim . 'm m ^t: 2:.2 Iv H. rvi,0R.~7'A. Hale Srrusuf Morgan.' TIk^ older and eharaeU-iistio Inxjiiois lioiiso of tho tAvo preccxliiif,' ft'nlui'ics i,s rcjiresciiKMl in o, from one of the illu.sti'alioiiH ill [ialitaii, which nhows iiii IicKjUoiH liark-cabiu with tho scivoii t'oiiiiiii^f the ciul leiiioved. T'-'.' roof is foniuid by beiidiiiL!; over llcxiMe polos made fast to the to])H of the upri<,dit yt;ik(!S at eitliov .side, and c-overiiijjf thciii in with sheets ol" bulk. Traoes of this oldtir struetiireare to be still seen in the llexibK; ]M)U', ]ioldiii<4 down the bark sheets in />. Lafitau eonsideied the ha-iii of the cabin a to behaig especially to the IrtKluois-ilnron f;iini!y and their nein'hboiiis who ccjjaed it from them. If so, the adoption must have bei-un lonj,' before his time, for these are the houses in which, as early as 1583, the Alg(tn(inian tribes of Virj^inia are reprcvsented as living. Mr. Hale's descri})tion of the stakes set in the ground and bent over to meet in the middle so as to be wall-i)Osts and rafters in one, though this structure is not unknown, can hardly have been the typical form of the Iro(piois long-house at least in times after the League. It is thus not quite clear what part of the structure the rro([Uoia depicted by the oblique band. 7%f- I'oin Trrttffj (pnge 242). — Though the well-known picture by Renjainin West was painted many years after Tenn's arrival in tlie colony, it seems to have been studied with care, and may fairly be taken to represent what the scene was like in colonial memory. It corresponds with renn's own account, in which there is mention of gifts and friendly speeches, but none ot the wampum cerenutny. A small co}>y of the i)ictuie is here given (Hate XIV, 1), in order to contrast it with Lafitau's picture of a treaty council where a wampum belt is delivered (I'late XIV, 2). This, conventional as the figures are, no doubt fairly represents how one of these highly ceremonial acts was really perforuu.'d. Origin of the Wajiipum Belt. — In llie last letter I received from Mr. Hale, November 12th, 189ii, he mentioned that whereas lie had hitherto declined to accept the positive assur- ance of the Iroquois councillors that Hiawatha (Hayunwatha, " Wampum belt maker") was the inventor of the wampum belt, this was because he understood them to mean that he first made wampum, which seemed to him an incredible statement. Eut since he wrote the foregoing memoir he had come to under- stand that they ascribed to him simply the invention of the woven belt, as a credential for his ambassadors of peace. Accepting the Iroquois tradition in this form, he wrote a paper which was read at the American Association in August, ' L. H. Morgan, " League of tlie Iroquois," p. 3. See also Morgan, in "Contributions to N. A. Ethnology," vol. iv, p. 64. Lafitau, "Mceurs des Sauvage* Americains," vol. ii, p. 9, 8c^-314. ■wraw^wwi Huron Wampum Bdt.^. 253 ISOG. Tliis pnpor will he found in the " Popular Seienre IMonlhly," Fel)ruiiry, LSI)?, uiuler tiie title " Imlian \Vauii)uin Kecords." The accejjtance of Hayufivvatiia as the inventor of tjie wani|)uni belt involves the ar^'ument that the name, derived IVoni Ayunwa = " >;ani|)uni belt," and Katha = " to make," was a houoritic uann^ j^ivi'u to him in commemoration of his hcroie deeds. Otherwise the evidenee is substantially unehanj^ed. Such a tradition involves no im])0ssibility, but it may b(> objected that considerinijj how many obvious fables liave centred in Iroquois lej^end round the name of their national hero, it is too much to accept as real history the details of hit-' foundation of the Irixiuois Leai^'ue. The added belief that he invented tiie art of using the native shell worl< as a nu'ans of ])ictorial record, now comes apparently for the first time to European ears. Oranting that it is now Indian tradition, a l)eriod estimated at over four centuries is a long tinu3 for siich tradition to run clear unless supported by material records. Even if there were un»loubted wam])um belts dating from the beginning of the League, the traditions talked into them might have given more soHd ground of history. The Onondaga wampum belt Hgured in Plate XIII, 2, showing four tri'.ies united by one heart, has been claimed as rec<3rding the forma- tion of the League. I hit Mr. Eeauchamp, a good judge, con- sidered the beads too regular to he hand-made. If so, it is some 2~A) years later than the date assigned to the League, yet ]\Ir. I>eauchamp declares that it is considered the most ancient, and to record the foundation of the League, so that it may be called a kind of constitution, and is venerateti accordingly.* If now it be determined finally by close inspection whether this belt is of beads stone-drilled or steel-drilled, lumd-groimd or machine-ground, we sha,ll have a good o])])Oi'tunity of estimat- ing the historical value of Indian tradition. Mr, Hale himself shows (p. 2;U) how fallible it may be. Until this and other examinations are made, it would, 1 think, be premature to discuss what individual Indian was the inventor of wampum belts. Apart from this historical question, however, I would suggest in conclusion that there is an anthropological proldem in which evidence is availaltle, and seemingly tending toward a conclu- sion up to a certain point in the same direction with Mr. Hale's argument. Any student who examines the information which has been printed as to wampum belts will, I think, be curi- ously struck with the fact that almost all of it is Iroquois. What little relates to other peoples, especially in early times, is found among neighbours of the Iroquois under their influence ' W. H. Holmes, I.e., p. 252; W. M. Beauchamp in "American Anti- quarian," vol. ii, p. 228 ; H. Hale in " Popular Science Monthly," Jan. 1880. T 2r)4 E. K T\LOU. — Thf: Hah Strics of JIaron Wamjunn L'r/ls. and likely to Itorrow tlieir cuHtoniH. A \n(\\) of tho ref^'ion of tlie waiiipuin belt will he found to oentie in the Iroquois country, loading to the infcroncc tluit it vvus there tliut it had its origin. f IReprintedfroiii the Journal of the dnth) apological Institnte, Februarii,\S{^7.'] Harrison and Sons, Printers in Ordinari/ to Her Majesty, Hf. Martin's Lane. ■1