The Wampum lesson is designed to show learners one method that Indigenous people use to record information and share that information with people within their communities or outside communities. As explained by an Indigenous expert, a wampum maker would select white and purple shell beads and sew them with animal sinew into a belt. The patterns on the belt show a record of an event or information.
Grade Level: 6-8
Objective: The goal of the lesson is for learners to understand the complexity involved in making a wampum belt.
Learning Outcomes: Learners will understand how and why wampum belts are and were made and used. Learners will create their own pattern for a wampum belt.
STEM: Math, ecology
Materials: example of a wampum belt if available or pictures of wampum belts; examples of shell and leather if available; maps of the US.
Time: 25 minutes
Overview: Wampum (or wampumpeag) is a shell bead traditionally used by Indigenous people in Eastern North America. Wampum (Otgó’ä) is a vital part of Haudenosaunee culture (https://www.onondaganation.org/culture/wampum/; https://archaeologymuseum.ca/wampum/). Indigenous people used white and purple shell beads. White shell beads were hand made from the inner spiral or columella of the North Atlantic Channeled whelk shell Busycotypus canaliculatus or Busycotypus carica. Sewant or suckauhock beads are the black or purple beads made from the quahog or Western North Atlantic poquahock clamshell Mercenaria mercenaria. Pieces are cut from the white and purple parts of the shell. The pieces are rounded, sanded, and drilled to make a bead. It takes a lot of time and effort to make a bead, and, therefore, wampum is highly valued.
Indigenous groups used and still use strings of wampum to invite other Nations to council meetings, tell stories, as ceremonial gifts, and to record treaties and historical events. Wampum also symbolizes Haudenosaunee titles. The shell patterns form a living record of the Haudenosaunee.
In New York, archaeologists have recovered wampum beads that date before AD 1510. Wampum is still used today in certain Haudenosaunee ceremonies.
One example of a Haudenosaunee wampum belt is the Two Row Wampum (Gä•sweñta’) (https://www.onondaganation.org/culture/wampum/two-row-wampum-belt-guswenta/).
In 1613, the Mohawks noticed new and different people coming into their territory. These people were the Dutch. In their discussions, they address each other as “Brothers,” demonstrating that they were equals. The two groups made an agreement for how to treat each other and live together. This was put down in the two-row wampum belt (see photo below). The belt has two purple rows running parallel. These represent two boats. One boat is the canoe with the Haudenosaunee way of life, laws, and people. The other is the Dutch ship with their laws, religion, and people. The boats float next to one another on the river of life. Each nation respects the ways of the other and will not interfere with the other. Neither will “steer the other’s vessel.” “Together we will travel in Friendship and in Peace Forever; as long as the grass is green, as long as the water runs downhill, as long as the sun rises in the East and sets in the West, and as long as our Mother Earth will last.” To make this relationship last, they agreed to friendship; peace between the two people; and that the agreement would last forever. Today, the Haudenosaunee see the belt as a living treaty; that each nation will respect the ways of the other
Vocabulary: wampum, Haudenosaunee, columella, quahog treaty
Procedure: Discuss with learners what wampum and wampum belts are. Show examples.
Ask them how far they think someone in their area would have to travel to get the shell for the wampum and what other ways the shell could have been obtained (e.g., trade). Using a map of the US or Google Earth, have learners measure the distance in miles.
Ask them what else would be needed to construct a belt (leather, sinew) and how these materials would be acquired. Present them with the following:
A belt is made to commemorate an event. Using the template below (https://americanindian.si.edu/sites/1/files/pdf/education/HaudenosauneeGuide.pdf), have learners create a 2-inch pattern that uses white and purple beads. How many white beads and how many purple beads did you need? If you were to complete the belt by repeating the 2-inch pattern you created, how many beads do you think you would you need? Have learners calculate the number of beads needed. Ask learners if their estimate was correct. The belt template can be as long as you want. Learners can either determine the number of beads to complete the length of the template they are given, or they can determine how many white and purple beads are needed to make a 1-foot long belt; a 4- foot long belt; a 6-foot long belt; etc. As an alternative, learners can work with real beads (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucOUS8DeiWs). In addition to estimating the number of beads, learners can estimate the time it would take to complete their belt.
Assessment Activities: During the lesson, instructors will monitor youth to ensure they are all actively participating. Youth will create a pattern for a wampum belt. At the end of the lesson, youth will restate their estimate of the number of beads needed to make a belt of a certain length, and report whether their estimate was correct.
Wrap up: Class will end with a restatement of the learning outcomes. Ask youth how and why wampum belts were and are made. Was their estimate for the number of beads needed (or the time needed) correct? Why or Why not?
NYS Standards: NY-6.RP.3 – Use ratio and rate reasoning to solve real-world and mathematical problems.
