Description

Item 3030 This glass bead wampum 5 row bracelet is a recreation of bracelets worn by early east coast native people. The beading measures 6 1/2″ with six 6″ straps with copper beads for securing on the ends. The bead pattern is called “five Nations”  which comprises of the Mohawk (Keeper of the Eastern Door), Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca (Keeper of the Western Door).

Wampum beads originally from the Quahog round clam shell of the eastern Canada, New England coast; used for communications and treaties amongst North American native tribes, and later in 1600s and 1700s, with Europeans. When supply of Quahog dwindled, Europeans imported glass wampum from Czechoslovakia, which Natives used in same manner as Quahog shell wampum.

The glass beads used to create this choker is imported from Czechoslovakia. The leather is tanned using a traditional Native American smoking method, which makes it soft and pliable. It is hand crafted, including the tanning process,  by Don Standing Bear, a member of the Metis community of Canada.

Belts or strings of wampum beads were not only used as ornamentation, but often told a story and as a pledge of truth of the words being spoken when such belts were held or worn.

Today, there are few native craftspeople recreating Wampum work. Each Wampum Don Standing Bear produces has a meaning and he encourages the new owner to honor and respect these meanings as you bring some of the traditional lifeways of the eastern native peoples into your life.