Fayette County, Ohio - The Miamis the Miami, Piankeshaw, and Wea Bands, 1881 (part 2 of 2)

Wampum, prior to and many years subsequent to the advent of the Europeans, was the circulating medium among the North American Indians, It is made out of a marine shell, or peri^vinkle, some of which are white, others violet, verging toward black. They are perforated in the direction of the greater diameter, and are worked into two forms, strings and belts. The strings consist of cylinders strung without any order, one after another, on to a thread. The belts are wide sashes, in which the white and purple beads are arranged in rows and tied by little leathern strings, making a very pretty tissue. Wampum belts are used in state affairs, and their length, width and color are in proportion to the importance of the affair being negotiated. They are wrought, sometimes, into figures of considerable beauty,' the Indians, not only as money, jewelry or ornaments, but as annals and for registers to perpetuate treaties and compacts between individuals and nations. Tliey are the inviolable and sacred pledges which guarantee messages, promises and treaties. As writing is not in use among them, they make a local memoir by means of these belts, each of which signifies a particular affair or a circumstance relating to it. The village chiefs are the custodians, and communicate the affairs they perpetuate to the young people, who thus learn the history, treaties and engagements of their nation. Belts are classified as message, road, peace or war belts. White signifies peace, as black does war. The color therefore at once indicates the intention of the person or tribe who sends or accepts a belt. So general was the importance of the belt, that the French and English, and the Americans, even down as late as the treaty of Greenville, in lY95,u8ed it in treating with the Indians