Wampum

[OntarioArch]

How do you identify Indian made wampum from white man made wampum? Tool marks?

 

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[DizzyDigger]

Have you done any web research?

I think this link may be helpful..

https://indiancountrytoday.com/arch...erica-s-first-currency-76Ql3IPA2kKpBqfHiggjXw

 

[H.P.]

Native drilling, opposed to metal tools. .....diff subj.cool way beads wer woven into belts,

 

[OntarioArch]

This IS my web research. The article cited doesn’t answer the question.

 

[H.P.]

Yes tool marks, the difference is told by the marks made by either stone, reed etc. drilling as opposed to European drilling with metal tools..being able to tell the difference is another question.

 

[DizzyDigger]

This IS my web research. The article cited doesn’t answer the question.

Meant no offense..it's just that at times we have newer members
that will simply toss a question out without actually trying to look
it up for themselves. No worries, you're doing your due diligence..

I didn't read that whole article, but I did think it might be helpful to your search.

Cool info to learn. My wife does incredible bead work, and I've often looked at the
various semi-precious gemstones she uses, and wonder how anyone could get
a hole drilled in that tiny bead using modern equipment, let alone having to
do it with a crude, homemade tool.

I can only imagine how many hours of work a Native American had to
do in order to create one of those woven beaded belts..it's no wonder they
traded it as a form of money.

 

[Charl]

Wampum became a medium of exchange for a few decades in the 17th century. The white tubular beads were produced from whelk shell columns. The purple tubular beads were produced from the shell of the quahog, the hard shell clam. Production of wampum was basically controlled by the Narragansett and, to a lesser degree, the Pequot. These tribes supplied wampum to many Northeastern tribes.

One important thing to keep in mind is the natives themselves switched to metal tools to produce wampum. It was more efficient and allowed them to produce more beads.

These partly reduced whelk shells were found at a whelk shell processing station at one of my interior sites in Rhode Island:



These two beads are from an Iroquois site in upstate New York. The smaller one was made the traditional way, and the larger one by using metal tools. One reason the Iroquois, such as the Mohawk, seldom raided the Narragansett of Rhode Island is because the Narragansett were essentially the mint makers during that period when wampum was used as money by both the native groups and the English.



Here’s the idea where producing white tubular beads from whelk columns are concerned:



Quahog for purple, whelk for white:



Sometimes, the whelk columns were reduced even further, not to create beads, but to create tools like shell awl-like tools:

 

[OntarioArch]

Most interesting, Charl. An upcoming auction has “Native American produced wampum”.....and that listing just piqued my curiosity about how to differentiate the Makers. Is it fair to say that for cylindrical beads, with nice symmetry and clean cuts, it may just not be possible to know who held the metal tool that produced it?

 

[Charl]

Most interesting, Charl. An upcoming auction has “Native American produced wampum”.....and that listing just piqued my curiosity about how to differentiate the Makers. Is it fair to say that for cylindrical beads, with nice symmetry and clean cuts, it may just not be possible to know who held the metal tool that produced it?

British soldiers sometimes made wampum. The Dutch made it. So, I guess it would not be possible to know. If found on a whelk processing site, and I have never found finished beads on such sites, one could safely assume native made. Since the auction listing states Native American produced, you would need to know the provenance I imagine, the reason behind their description.

 

[uniface]

Could have been NA produced last month by mass production.