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The Aquinnah Belt Wampum Beads and Shell Articles |
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| The Wampum Belt
represented on the cover of my newest CD release, "Beautiful
Road" was produced by myself, my late husband Charlie Witham,
and our friend Joan Lelacheur for the people of Gay Head (Aquinnah,)
MA. Sponsored by the Aquinnah Arts Council and the Friends of the
Aquinnah Belt, it was especially designed to represent, for the citizens
of Gay Head, the history of the town and the unity of the people who
live there Before European contact, wampum beads, made from the purple and white parts of the hard shell quahog clam, were used as a means of documentation and communication by the Native peoples of the northeastern United States. |
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| As they had no written language at that time, the beads were hand crafted and woven into message strands and belts; the symbols formed being mnemonic devices for their oral history. Many belts were produced, depicting marriage ceremonies, treaties, land use agreements, etc. The use of the wampum bead meant that the event documented was of great importance. | |
| They
became valuable as a trade item in the early days of European colonization
because of their extreme significance to the Native Americans. The
settlers had no other coinage with which to conduct business. In 1970, after one hundred years of the craft of wampum beadmaking laid dormant, Charlie, Joan and I became aware of them and their traditional use and beauty. As no one was making beads at the time, we taught ourselves how to make them by trial and error out of the shell that grew in the waters where we live. |
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| As our expertise in the making of the beads grew, so did the public demand for them. It became vitally important to us to create something to commemorate the Wampanoag Tribal history so rich in our hometown of Aquinnah as well as the community that has developed there in recent years. Thus the Aquinnah Belt was conceived and executed by us. | |
| If you would like more information on wampum beads, the Aquinnah Belt, or other wampum beads and shell pieces, feel free to write to me via this web site. I will happily share further historical information, articles written on wampum and pictures of other styles of beads I have made with wampum shell. | |
