Your Way or Mine?
By Group 2 – NEH Crossroads of Empire – Old Fort Niagara – July 10 – 15, 2011
Deborah Cook
Karen Leslie
Jacqui Schilling
Marcia Binda
Judy Beebe Zoeller
What Is Wampum?
• Wampum are long cylinder beads in white and
purple made from shells of clams.
• Early Atlantic Indians used wampum for trade
and decoration.
• Iroquois used wampum to bring peace, bind
peace, and take the place of blood.
• Wampum strings served as credentials or
agreements and became something sacred.
From: Wampum Belts of the Iroquios by
Tehanetorens
Making Wampum
http://www.nativetech.org/wampum/wamphist.htm
The Huron Wampum Belt commemorates the 1683
agreement between the Hurons and Jesuit missionaries
for the construction of the first wooden church on
Huron Lands.
Adapted from The Native Americans. Edited by B. & I.
Ballantine. 1993.
The Great Chain, or Covenant Belt, is generally thought to be a belt presented
by the U.S. government to the Iroquois in 1794 at the Pickering Treaty at
Canandaigua, N.Y. The human figures, each linked by a wampum belt, form a
chain of friendship, representing the alliance between the thirteen states and the
Iroquoian confederacy.
Adapted from The Native Americans. Edited by B. & I. Ballantine. 1993.
The Fort Stanwix Treaty Belt was exchanged at the
signing of the Treaty between the Six Nations and the
United States at Fort Stanwix (Rome, NY) October 22,
1784. At this treaty the Six Nations was guaranteed the
right of occupancy forever in the immemorial domain of
the Iroquois League. The United States further promised
to prevent anyone, including any state, from taking their
lands or from interfering in the internal affairs of the Six
Nations.
Fort Stanwix Treaty
Friendship Belt
This belt commemorates the Peace Treaty of November
1756. After the completion of the Woods’ Edge Ceremony,
the Iroquois and Governor William Denny both offered
condolences. Both sides accepted the others’ kindness. After
this, a day of non-official meeting took place to discuss
plans of a treaty. Official negotiations took place the next
day and the treaty was signed.
Other Examples of Wampum
Make Your Own
Virtual Wampum Belt
• Go to the following link and make your
own wampum belt. Make sure you can
explain the significance of your belt design.
• http://www.nativetech.org/beadwork/wamp
umgraph/index.html
Make Your Own Wampum Belt
Using available materials create your won
wampum belt. Make sure you can explain
the significance of your belt design.
Suggested materials may include but not
limited to:
Beads
macaroni
straws
String
fishing line
mosaic tiles/paper
“Thanksgiving Address” and
Reader’s Theater
Art Reenactment
• Use artwork to bring history alive by
becoming a part of the painting and using
keen observation skills.
• Ask several students to replicate the
positions of key people in a piece of
artwork.
• By asking leading questions lead students
to more deeply observe and understand.
First Contact
•
•
•
•
“Chute d’eau de Niagara”
Samuel Champlain wrote about these falls in 1603.
Assign one student to represent the one of the Europeans
at the top of the falls, and one to be the native people at
the bottom of the falls.
Questions you could ask of each volunteer student or of
the class.
• What are you seeing in this picture?
• What are you feeling in this picture?
• Where are the Europeans? Where are the natives?
Why to you think they are in these places.
Adoption of Mary Jemison
“Mary Jemison was 15 at the time of her
abduction. She was taken from her home in
Gettysburg, PA. She was marched to Fort
Duquesne with other members of the family
where she was adopted by two Seneca sisters.
Years later when released from her so called
captives, she chose to remain with the Seneca
people, and married and raised a family. She was
a highly respected member of the tribe. Mary died
at 1833 at the age of 91.”
•
From Robert Griffing art website
The Adoption of Mary Jemison
• Choose five students to replicate positions in the
painting. (Mary, a sister, an on looking woman, a
elder man, and the little boy.
• What is each person thinking?
• Why do you think the elder man is in the back?
• What do you think is happening today, and what
might be happening in the future?
• What other things do you notice?
• What do you think is the story?
Portage
•
•
“Native Americans traveling the waterways of North America were
constantly confronted with nonnavigable sections of river where
canoes and baggage had to be transported over land, around falls and
rapids. Sometimes the portage was as treacherous as the river itself.
Carrying their heavy burdens, Indians and Europeans often fell to
their deaths trying to negotiate rocky terrain and steep cliffs.”
Robert Griffing
The Great Treaty
• “The Canadaigua Treaty is between the
Haudenosaunee ( Six Nations Iroquois
Confederacy) and the United States of America –
one of the first treaties the United States entered
into. This treaty, drafted in Canadaigua, New
York, which created a lasting peace of friendship
between the Six Nations and the United States,
was signed November 11, 1794.
•
Robert Griffing
Bibliography
•
“NativeTech: American Technology and Art.” 14 July. 2011. http://www.nativetech.org/wampum/wamphist.htm
•
“Impressions of Niagara.” Castellani Art Museum. 14 July.2011.
http://purple.niagara.edu/cam/Niagara/impr18c.html
•
Thanksgiving Address. http://www.nativevillage.org/Inspiration-/iroquois_thanksgiving_address.htm
•
Fort Stanwix Treaty. http://www.cayuganation-nsn.gov/LandRights/Treaties/TreatyofFortStanwix
•
Taylor, Alan. The Divided Ground. New York: Random House, 2006
•
Peacemakers for the 21st century. (www.teachablemoment.org/elementary/peacemakers.html).
•
Lord Nelson’s Gallery. Robert Griffing (artist). http://www.lordnelsons.com/gallery/frontier/griffing/84.htm