These fine belts were often given as pledges of faith and agreement at the
making of treaties. Some which were kept in the tribe were made to help in
remembering the terms of the treaty. Thus, when an orator was speaking, he
would hold up a wampum belt, and in making a point of special importance
would call attention to some figure in the belt, which would serve ever
after to remind every one present of what he had said. Among the Onondagas
(Iroquois) there was an officer known as the “keeper of the belts,” whose
business it was to know all these figures and the different ideas
connected with them, and to make them known to the people from time to
time.
There is a common little sea-shell found in the Pacific Ocean called the
dentalium. It is pretty, clear white, very smooth, and shaped much like a
wee elephant’s tusk. The natives of the coast are fond of it as ornament,
and among them strings of dentalium shells serve for money just as wampum
did in the east. They were secured usually by a peculiar mode of fishing.
Thus we are told at Forward Inlet a number of split sticks or twigs were
tied together into a bunch; this was tied to the end of several poles
lashed together so as to reach the bottom in deep water. It was driven
down into the mud, and then brought up with the shells caught or tangled
in it. The value of the shells depended on their length. Little ones were
good enough to be worn as ornaments, but the larger they were, the more
value they had as money. Powers, speaking of the Hupa (California)
Indians, says: “The standard of measurement is a string of five shells.
Nearly every man has ten lines tattooed across the inside of his left arm
about half way between the wrist and the elbow; and in measuring
shell-money he takes the string in his right hand, draws one end over his
left thumb-nail, and if the other end reaches to the uppermost of the
tattoo lines, the five shells are worth $25 in gold, or $5 a shell. Of
course it is only one in ten thousand that is long enough to reach this
high value. The longest ones usually seen are worth about $2, that is $10
to the string. Single shells are also measured on the creases on the
inside of the left middle finger, a $5 shell being one which will reach
between the two extreme creases. No shell is treated as money at all
unless it is long enough to rate at 25 cents. Below that it degenerates
into _squaw money_, and goes to form part of a woman’s necklace.”
Shell beads are much prized among the Pueblo Indians, and are sometimes in
size and shape very like true wampum. At other times they are thin, flat,
rather broad pierced disks. These Indians also delight in ornaments made
out of haliotis or “abalone” shell. This shell is a large single valve,
shaped a little like the ear of some large animal, and hence sometimes
called “ear-shell.” The outside is rough and unattractive, but the
interior is pearly and of rich colors,—purple, green, blue, red, crimson,
often many of these bright colors showing in a small space. Where the
rough outside of the shell is ground away the whole material is found to
be pearly and rich in color. This shell is cut into elliptical, oblong, or
fancifully formed plates which are pierced and hung by a cord. Men used to
make long journeys to the Pacific Coast to secure shells. Even from the
eastern pueblos on the Rio Grande such journeys were customary, and many
of the men at Cochiti delight to tell of their journey, perhaps the most
important event of their lives. They loaded their burros with things to
trade and with supplies, and then struck across a country, desert and
hostile, in the hope of bringing back a great load of the precious shell
material.
For another precious material they had not far to go. Turquoise was highly
prized. This is a hard, fine-grained blue, bluish green, or green stone,
that is found at several localities in New Mexico. It has been mined for a
long time near Los Cerillos, and the old diggings and the old stone tools
with which they were worked may still be seen. Modern Indians still work
the same precious veins, and bits of the rough stone may pass from hand to
hand in trade. In drilling the shell and turquoise beads to-day a little
drill is used which is called a pump-drill. An upright stick bears a point
of hard stone or iron at the bottom. This passes through a hole in a
little flat board an inch or so wide and six or eight inches long; strings
or thongs pass from the ends of this board to the top of the upright
stick. On the upright stick, not far from the lower end, is fastened a
thin, wide disk of wood, three inches across. This serves as a fly-wheel
to regulate the whirling of the stick. When this little machine is
properly adjusted, it is made to whirl by pressing down on the crossbow,
and then releasing the pressure, pressing down again, etc. It works very
well, and drills the hard turquoise and the softer shell neatly. These
beads and ornaments of shell or turquoise are so highly prized that they
easily serve the purposes of trade. So much do the Navajo desire the
turquoise that they readily exchange for it their beautiful blankets, neat
silver-work, or finest ponies.
Blankets have always been greatly prized by all Indians, whether they be
made out of skins, bark, or wool. The white man has taken advantage of
this fact, and to-day his blankets are to be found everywhere. In some
places they have become the real money and have regular set values. In
British Columbia, most of the tribes reckon all values in Hudson Bay
blankets. These blankets are traded out by the Hudson Bay company and are
of various sizes. These sizes are always indicated by some black lines
worked into the blanket along the edge. The largest size is called a “four
point,” the smallest a “one point” blanket. One size is considered the
standard; it is the “two-and-a-half point” size. When any one speaks of “a
blanket,” a two-and-a-half point blanket is meant. Skins of different
animals are said to be worth so many “blankets.”
The Tlingit and Haida Indians of Alaska and Queen Charlotte Islands used
to feel very proud if they were owners of “coppers.” They did not smelt
copper, but they used to beat it into various forms. The form most prized,
called “a copper,” was of no use, but indicated wealth. “Coppers” were
flat sheets of equal thickness throughout except at the edges, which were
thicker than the body; there was also upon them a raised pattern something
like a T; sometimes also a face was scratched upon their upper part. Such
coppers were formerly worth ten slaves each. Lately, however, the whites
have taken to making them for trade, and they have become so common that
they are much less prized. Still, until quite lately, they were worth from
forty to eighty blankets, or from sixty to one hundred and twenty dollars.
WILLIAM HENRY HOLMES.—Geologist, archæologist, artist. At present
he is at the head of the anthropological work of the United States
National Museum. Has written important works: among them, _Art in
Shell of the Ancient Americans_ and _Archæological Studies among
the Ancient Cities of Mexico_.