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{{short description|Traditional shell bead of the Eastern Woodlands Indigenous tribes of North America}}
{{for|the borough in Western Pennsylvania|Wampum, Pennsylvania}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2020}}
[[File:Wampum ej perry.jpg|thumb|300px|right|Quahog (left) and whelk (right) wampum]]
[[Image:Tworowwampum.jpg|thumb|right|A representation of the original [[Two Row Wampum Treaty|Two Row Wampum treaty]] belt]]
[[File:Wampum Georgina Ontario.png|thumb|Modern examples and interpretations of wampum]]

'''Wampum''' is a traditional shell bead of the [[Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands]] of North America. The term first referred to white and purple beads made from the [[quahog]] or Western North Atlantic hard-shelled clam but has expanded to include white shell beads hand-fashioned from the North Atlantic [[channeled whelk]] shell.

In New York, wampum beads have been discovered dating from before 1510.<ref name="lsd">Dubin, Lois Sherr. ''North American Indian Jewelry and Adornment: From Prehistory to the Present''. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1999: 170–171. {{ISBN|0-8109-3689-5}}.</ref> Before European contact, strings of wampum were used for storytelling, ceremonial gifts, and recording important treaties and historical events, such as the [[Two Row Wampum Treaty]]<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.wampumchronicles.com/tworowwampumbelt.html |title=The Two Row Wampum Belt: An Akwesasne Tradition |last=Bonaparte|first=Darren |date=2005|website=The Wampum Chronicles |access-date=2019-12-12}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://wampumchronicles.com/disputedmythtworowwampum.html|title=The Disputed Myth, Metaphor and Reality of the Two Row Wampum |last=Bonaparte |first=Darren |date=August 9, 2013 |website=The Wampum Chronicles|access-date=2019-12-12}}</ref> and the [[Hiawatha#Hiawatha Belt|Hiawatha Belt]].

Northeastern Indigenous tribes also used wampum as a means of exchange,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://nakamotoinstitute.org/shelling-out/|title=Shelling Out: The Origins of Money|author=Nick Szabo|date=2002|website=nakamotoinstitute.org}}</ref> strung together in lengths for convenience. The process to make wampum was labor-intensive with stone tools. The coastal tribes had sufficient access to the basic shells to make wampum. These factors increased its scarcity and consequent value among the early European traders, who understood it as a currency and adopted it as such in trading with them.

Wampum artists continue to weave belts of a historical nature, as well as designing new belts or jewelry based on their own concepts.<ref name="perry" />

==Linguistic origin==
The term ''wampum'' is a shortening of ''wampumpeag'', which is derived from the [[Massachusett language|Massachusett]] or [[Narragansett language|Narragansett]] word meaning "white strings of shell beads".<ref name="perry" /><ref>{{OEtymD|Wampum|access-date=2011-10-15}}</ref> The [[Proto-Algonquian language|Proto-Algonquian]] reconstructed form is thought to be ''(wa·p-a·py-aki)'', "white strings".<ref>{{Dictionary.com|Wampumpeag|access-date=2011-10-15}}</ref>

The term ''wampum'' (or ''wampumpeag'') initially referred only to the white beads which are made of the inner spiral or [[Columella (gastropod)|columella]] of the [[channeled whelk]] shell ''Busycotypus canaliculatus'' or ''Busycotypus carica''.<ref name="lsd" /> ''Sewant'' or ''suckauhock'' beads are the black or purple shell beads made from the quahog or poquahock clamshell ''[[Mercenaria mercenaria]]''.<ref name="hosm">{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/stream/historyofswansea00wrig#page/20/mode/1up |title=History of Swansea, Massachusetts, 1667–1917 |date=1917 |publisher=Town of Swansea |editor1-last=Wright |editor1-first=Otis Olney |page=20 |oclc=1018149266 |access-date=11 June 2018}}</ref> ''Sewant'' or z''eewant'' was the term used for this currency by the [[New Netherland]] colonists.<ref>Jaap Jacobs. ''The Colony of New Netherland: A Dutch Settlement in Seventeenth-century America''. Cornell University Press, 2009. pg. 14</ref> Common terms for the dark and white beads are ''wampi'' (white and yellowish) and ''saki'' (dark).<ref>Geary, Theresa Flores. [https://books.google.com/books?id=6-zwiRYMdvgC&pg=PA305 The Illustrated Bead Bible.] London: Kensington Publications, 2008: 305. ISBN 978-1-4027-2353 -7.</ref> The [[Lenape]] name for [[Long Island]] is ''Sewanacky'', reflecting its connection to the dark wampum.

==Description and manufacture==
[[image:Thechanneledwhelkshell.png|thumb|right|The white beads are made from the inner spiral of the channeled whelk shell.]]

Wampum beads are typically tubular in shape, often a quarter of an inch long and an eighth of an inch wide. One 17th-century [[Seneca nation|Seneca]] wampum belt featured beads almost 2.5 inches (65&nbsp;mm) long.<ref name=lsd/> Women artisans traditionally made wampum beads by rounding small pieces of whelk shells, then piercing them with a hole before stringing them. Wooden [[pump drill]]s with quartz drill bits and [[steatite]] weights were used to drill the shells. The unfinished beads would be strung together and rolled on a grinding stone with water and sand until they were smooth. The beads would be strung or woven on deer hide thongs, sinew, milkweed bast, or basswood fibers.<ref name=perry>Perry, Elizabeth James. [http://www.elizabethjamesperry.com/about-wampum-art.php About the Art of Wampum] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131210224932/http://www.elizabethjamesperry.com/about-wampum-art.php |date=December 10, 2013 }}. ''Original Wampum Art: Elizabeth James Perry''. 2008 (retrieved 14 March 2009)</ref>

The introduction of European metal tools revolutionized the production of wampum, and by the mid-seventeenth century, production numbered in the tens of millions of beads.<ref name="Otto">[[Paul Otto (historian)|Otto, Paul]] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Mnmyi96lEE] "Henry Hudson, the Munsees, and the Wampum Revolution" (retrieved 5 September 2011)</ref> Dutch colonists discovered the importance of wampum as a means of exchange between tribes, and they began mass-producing it in workshops.{{when|date=February 2025}} John Campbell established such a factory in [[Passaic, New Jersey]], which manufactured wampum into the early 20th century.<ref name=lsd/> Eventually the primary source of wampum was that manufactured by colonists, a market glutted by the Dutch.{{Citation needed|date=July 2022}}

==Uses==

===Record-keeping and memory aids===
[[File:The belt of wampum delivered by the Indians to William Penn at the "Great Treaty" (1682).jpg|thumb|Lithograph of wampum belt given to William Penn at the "Great Treaty" in 1682]]
As [[William James Sidis]] wrote in his 1935 history:

<blockquote>The weaving of wampum belts is a sort of writing by means of belts of colored beads, in which the various designs of beads denoted different ideas according to a definitely accepted system, which could be read by anyone acquainted with wampum language, irrespective of what the spoken language is. Records and treaties are kept in this manner, and individuals could write letters to one another in this way.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Tribes and the States |url=https://www.sidis.net/TSContents.htm |website=www.sidis.net}}</ref></blockquote>

Wampum belts were used as a memory aid in oral tradition, and were sometimes used as badges of office or as ceremonial devices in Indigenous cultures, such as the [[Iroquois]]. For example, the 1820 ''New Monthly Magazine'' reports on a speech given by the late chief [[Tecumseh]] in which he vehemently gesticulated to a belt as he pointed out treaties made 20 years earlier and battles fought since then.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uDoaAQAAIAAJ |title=The New Monthly Magazine and Universal Register |date=1820 |publisher=H. Colburn |language=en}}</ref>

===Social purposes ===
[[File:Iroquois Chiefs from the Six Nations Reserve reading Wampum belts in Brantford, Ontario.jpg|thumb|right|Iroquois Chiefs from the Six Nations Reserve reading Wampum belts in Brantford, Ontario, in 1871]]
{{unreliable sources|section|date=July 2018}}

Wampum strings may be presented as a formal affirmation of cooperation or friendship between groups,<ref>{{Cite web|title=The George Washington Belt|url=https://ganondagan.org/Learning/Wampum#:~:text=Each%20of%20the%20figures%20are,States%20and%20the%20Haudenosaunee%20confederacy.|website=Ganondagan}}</ref> or as an invitation to a meeting.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Wampum Belt|url=https://archaeologymuseum.ca/wampum/#:~:text=Wampum%20strings%20can%20be%20used,the%20meeting%20will%20take%20place.|website=Archaeologymuseum|date = January 23, 2015}}</ref> In his [[Debt: The First 5000 Years|study]] on the origins of money, anthropologist [[David Graeber]] placed wampum as it was used by [[indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands]] before European colonization in a category of things with symbolic cultural value that were "mainly used to rearrange relations between people" rather than being used in exchanges of everyday items.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Graeber |first=David |title=[[Debt: the first 5,000 years]] |date=2011 |publisher=Melville house |isbn=978-1-933633-86-2 |location=Brooklyn (N.Y.)}}</ref>{{Rp|page=53}}

The [[Iroquois]] used wampum as a person's credentials or a certificate of authority. It was also used for official purposes and religious ceremonies, and as a way to bind peace between tribes. Among the Iroquois, every chief and every clan mother has a certain string of wampum that serves as their certificate of office. When they pass on or are removed from their station, the string will then pass on to the new leader. Runners carrying messages during colonial times would present the wampum showing that they had the authority to carry the message.<ref name="Haudenosaunee">{{cite web|url=http://www.haudenosauneeconfederacy.com/wampum.html|title=Haudenosaunee Confederacy|website=www.haudenosauneeconfederacy.com|access-date=6 April 2018}}</ref>

As a method of recording and an aid in narrating, Iroquois warriors with exceptional skills were provided training in interpreting the wampum belts. As the Keepers of the Central Fire, the Onondaga Nation was also trusted with the task of keeping all wampum records. Wampum is still used in the ceremony of raising up a new chief and in the Iroquois Thanksgiving ceremonies.<ref name="Haudenosaunee"/>

Wampum was central to the giving of names, in which the names and titles of deceased persons were passed on to others. Deceased individuals of high office are quickly replaced, and a wampum inscribed with the name of the deceased is laid on the shoulders of the successor, who may shake it off and reject the transfer of name. The reception of a name may also transfer personal history and previous obligations of the deceased (e.g., the successor of a person killed in war may be obligated to avenge the death of the name's previous holder, or care for the deceased person's family as their own).<ref name="Graeber">{{cite book |last1=Graeber |first1=David |title=Toward an anthropological theory of value: the false coin of our own dreams |date=2001 |location=New York: Palgrave |isbn=978-0-312-24044-8}}</ref>{{rp|120–122}}

<blockquote>... the Iroquoians (Five Nations and Huron alike) shared a very particular constitution: they saw their societies not as a collection of living individuals but as a collection of eternal names, which over the course of times passed from one individual holder to another.<ref name="Graeber"/>{{rp|120}}</blockquote>

Just as the wampum enabled the continuation of names and the histories of persons, the wampum was central to establishing and renewing peace between clans and families. When a man representing his respective social unit met another, he would offer one wampum inscribed with mnemonic symbols representing the purpose of the meeting or message. The wampum, thus, facilitated the most essential practices in holding the Iroquois society together.<ref name="Graeber"/>{{rp|124–127}}

===Currency===
When Europeans came to the Americas, they adopted wampum as money to trade with the native peoples of New England and New York. Wampum was legal tender in New England from 1637 to 1661. It continued as currency in New York until 1673 at the rate of eight white or four black wampum equalling one ''[[stuiver]]'', meaning that the white had the same value as the copper [[duit]] coin. The colonial government in New Jersey issued a proclamation setting the rate at six white or three black to one [[penny]]; this proclamation also applied in Delaware.<ref>Samuel Smith, ''The History of New Jersey'' p. 76</ref> The black shells were rarer than the white shells and so were worth more, which led people to dye the white and dilute the value of black shells.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.coins.nd.edu/ColCoin/ColCoinIntros/Wampum.intro.html|title=Wampum: Introduction|website=www.coins.nd.edu|access-date=6 April 2018}}{{Dead link|date=July 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

In the writings of [[Robert Beverley Jr.]] of [[Virginia Colony]] about tribes in Virginia in 1705, he described ''peak'' as referring to the white shell bead, valued at 9 pence a yard, and ''wampom peak'' as denoting the more expensive dark purple shell bead, at the rate of 1 shilling and 6 pence (18 pence) per yard. He added that these polished shells with drilled holes were made from the ''cunk'' ([[conch]]), while another currency of lesser value called {{Transliteration|alq|roenoke}} was fashioned from the [[Cockle (bivalve)|cockleshell]].<ref>Robert Beverley, ''The History and Present State of Virginia''</ref>

Wampum briefly became legal tender in North Carolina in 1710, but its use as common currency died out in New York by the early 18th century.{{Citation needed|date=July 2022}}

The use of wampum as currency spans back to 1622, when the Dutch implemented it into their trade. After the introduction of wampum into European currency, the European colonists quickly began trying to amass large quantities of this currency, and shifting control of this currency determined which power would have control of the European-Indigenous trade. The wampum's significance to the tribes that collected it meant that no one individual wanted to amass too much of it, however, European colonists did not care about its cultural significance, but it would always hold value to the indigenous populations. In this way, colonists could trade wampum for goods and sell those goods to Europeans for European currencies, therefore amassing wealth. This is one of the few examples of settler adaptation of indigenous practices for trade with indigenous people and also amongst themselves. However, the conversion of wampum to European currencies and the introduction of a monetary system was not something that the indigenous people had a desire to take part in, thus increasing tensions as trades held different economic value to each contributing party. However, when wampum was legal tender, it was one of the most important forms of currency in the region amongst settlers as well as between settlers and indigenous groups.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Park |first=K-Sue |date=2016 |title=Money, Mortgages, and the Conquest of America |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/lsi.12222 |journal=Law & Social Inquiry |volume=41 |issue=4 |pages=1006–1035 |doi=10.1111/lsi.12222 |s2cid=157705999 |issn=0897-6546|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

==Mass production and mechanization==
As early as the late 16th century, some shell beads from modern day New York showed signs of metal tool work. By the end of the 17th century, virtually all new wampum was produced using metal tools, and by the 18th century, glass beads had become predominant. The increased availability of wampum was linked to mass production efforts by [[Algonquin people|Long Island Algonquians]], who utilized metal tools obtained from Europeans to produce large quantities of beads for trade.<ref name="Peña">{{cite journal |last1=Peña |first1=Elizabeth S. |title=Wampum Diplomacy: The Historical and Archaeological Evidence for Wampum at Fort Niagara |journal=Northeast Historical Archaeology |date=2006 |volume=35 |pages=16-17 |doi=10.22191/neha/vol35/iss1/20 |url=https://orb.binghamton.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1065&context=neha |access-date=16 October 2025}}</ref>

In the 18th century, Dutch colonists in the [[Hudson Valley ]] established small-scale wampum manufacturing operations to supplement scarce coinage and facilitate trade.<ref name="Peña"/> In 1746, the Campbell family established a wampum factory at Pascack (now [[Park Ridge, New Jersey|Park Ridge]]) in New Jersey. Their operation supplied beads to the fur trade and government agencies. As demand increased in the early 19th century, the Campbells adopted mechanization to improve efficiency. During the peak years from 1835 to 1866, the Campbell family alone produced around one million black beads annually.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Cahill |first=Gerald F. |date=December 2000 |title=THE CAMPBELL'S WHO MADE WAMPUM |url=https://freepages.rootsweb.com/~jcahill/genealogy/wampum.htm |access-date=2025-10-16 |website=freepages.rootsweb.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Johnson |first=Eric D. |date=2022-09-01 |title=Industrializing Shell-Bead Production in Northern New Jersey: Reuniting Collections from Stoltz Farm (1770–1830) and the Campbell Wampum Factory (1850–1900) |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/s41636-022-00346-3 |journal=Historical Archaeology |language=en |volume=56 |issue=3 |pages=594–619 |doi=10.1007/s41636-022-00346-3 |issn=2328-1103|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=MacKenzie |first1=Clyde |last2=Allan |first2=Morrison |last3=Taylor |first3=D. |title=Quahogs in Eastern North America: Part I, Biology, Ecology, and Historical Uses |journal=Marine Fisheries Review |date=July 2002 |volume=64 |issue=2 |page=24 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259452711_Quahogs_in_Eastern_North_America_Part_I_Biology_Ecology_and_Historical_Uses |access-date=16 October 2025}}</ref>

The mass production and European involvement in wampum manufacturing contributed to widespread circulation but eventual devaluation. By the 19th century, [[Glass casting|glass paste]] beads produced in European workshops added to the confusion and effectively led to the disappearance of older, traditional wampum as a medium of exchange.<ref>{{Citation |last=Braudel |first=Fernand |title=Civilization and capitalism: 15th-18th century. Vol. 1: The structures of everyday life: the limits of the possible / Fernand Braudel. Transl. from the French, rev. by Siân Reynolds |date=2004 |edition=Nachdr. |place=Berkeley |publisher=Univ. of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-08114-7 |last2=Braudel |first2=Fernand}}</ref>

==Recent developments ==
{{Cleanup reorganize|date=July 2022}}

* The [[National Museum of the American Indian]] repatriated eleven wampum belts to Haudenosaunee chiefs at the [[Onondaga Reservation|Onondaga Longhouse Six Nations Reserve]] in New York. These belts dated to the late 18th century and are sacred to the [[Longhouse Religion|Longhouse religion]]. They had been away from their tribes for over a century.<ref name="lsd" /><ref name="Wampum">{{Cite web|date=2014-02-18|title=Wampum|url=https://www.onondaganation.org/culture/wampum/|access-date=2019-12-12|website=Onondaga Nation|language=en-US}}</ref>
* The [[Seneca Nation]] commissioned replicas of five historic wampum belts completed in 2008. The belts were made by Lydia Chavez (Unkechaug/Blood) and made with beads manufactured on the Unkechaug Indian Nation Territory on Long Island, New York.
* In 2017, a wampum belt purchased by [[Frank Speck]] in 1913 was returned to [[Kanesatake]], where it is used in cultural and political events.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Bruchac|first=Margaret|date=2018|title=Broken Chains of Custody: Possessing, Dispossessing, and Repossessing Lost Wampum Belts|url=https://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1185&context=anthro_papers|journal=Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society|volume=162|issue=1|pages=97–98}}</ref>
* The [[Shinnecock Indian Nation]] has sought to preserve a traditional wampum manufacturing site called {{lang|xpq|Ayeuonganit Wampum Ayimꝏup}} (Here, Wampum Was Made).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://jeremynative.com/onthissite/listing/ayeuonganit-wampum-ayimooup/|title=Ayeuonganit Wampum Ayimꝏup|date=October 5, 2019|website=On This Site, Indigenous Long Island|language=en-US|access-date=2019-12-12}}</ref> A portion of the original site, Lot 24 in today's Parrish Pond subdivision in [[Southampton, New York|Southampton, Long Island]], has been reserved for parkland.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.eastendbeacon.com/shinnecock-wampum-factory-site-preserved-by-southampton-town/|title=Shinnecock Wampum Factory Site Preserved by Southampton Town|last=Young|first=Beth|date=2014-09-13|website=East End Beacon|language=en-US|access-date=2019-12-12}}</ref>
* The Unkechaug Nation on Long Island, New York, has built a wampum factory which manufactures traditional as well as contemporary beads for use by Native artists such as Ken Maracle, [[Elizabeth James-Perry|Elizabeth Perry]], and Lydia Chavez in their designs of traditional belts and contemporary jewelry. The factory has been in existence since 1998 and has been instrumental in the resurrection of the use of wampum in contemporary native life.
* Traditional wampum makers in modern times include Julius Cook (Sakaronkiokeweh) (1927–1999)<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.wampumchronicles.com/juliuscook.html|title=Sakaronhiokeweh: A Tribute to a Mohawk Wampum Belt Maker|last=Bonaparte|first=Darren|website=The Wampum Chronicles|access-date=2019-12-12}}</ref> and Ken Maracle (Haohyoh), a faith keeper of the Lower Cayuga Longhouse.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.wampumshop.com/1573.html|title=Ken Maracle (Haohyoh)|website=The Wampum Shop|access-date=2019-12-12}}</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Numismatics|United States}}
<!-- Please keep entries in alphabetical order & add a short description [[WP:SEEALSO]] -->
{{div col|colwidth=20em|small=yes}}
* [[Economy of the Iroquois]]
* [[Great Law of Peace]]
* [[Hiawatha#Hiawatha Belt|Hiawatha Belt]]
* [[Quipu]] – Quechua recording devices made of knotting and dyed strings
* [[Shell money]]
* [[History of money]]
{{div col end}}
<!-- please keep entries in alphabetical order -->

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Wampum}}
{{EB1911 poster|Wampum}}
{{Wiktionary}}

*[https://web.archive.org/web/20111013195532/http://iroquoismuseum.org/ve11.html Wampum article], Iroquois Indian Museum
*[http://www.nativetech.org/wampum/wamphist.htm Wampum History and Background]
*[http://www.sidis.net/TSContents.htm "The Tribes And The States: 100,000-Year History of North America"]
*[http://www.europa.com/~telscope/busycnPr.jpg X-ray showing inner spiral and entire shell of the ''Busycotypus Canaliculatus'' – Channeled Whelk Shell] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170323061007/http://www.europa.com/~telscope/busycnPr.jpg |date=March 23, 2017 }}, Europa
*[http://www.coins.nd.edu/ColCoin/ColCoinIntros/NNWampum.html "Money Substitutes in New Netherland and Early New York"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210211161236/http://www.coins.nd.edu/ColCoin/ColCoinIntros/NNWampum.html |date=February 11, 2021 }}, ''Coins'', University of North Dakota
*[http://www.onondaganation.org/culture/wampum/ Wampum]—Onondaga Nation
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20171227235614/http://www.chiefs-of-ontario.org/sites/default/files/files/Treaty_of_Fort_Niagara_Wampum_Belts.pdf 1764 Treaty of Fort Niagara Wampum Belts]

{{Anishinaabe}}
{{Mi'kmaq}}
{{Beadwork}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wampum}}
[[Category:Native American relics]]
[[Category:Currencies of ancient Americas]]
[[Category:First Nations culture in Canada]]
[[Category:Native American culture]]
[[Category:History of the Thirteen Colonies]]
[[Category:Indigenous beadwork of the Americas]]
[[Category:Indigenous culture of the Northeastern Woodlands]]
[[Category:Iroquois culture]]
[[Category:Proto-writing]]
[[Category:Fur trade]]
[[Category:British North America]]
[[Category:French North America]]