jdmann@cdp.uucp (David Yarrow) (10/14/89)
/* ---------- "NYS REGENTS TO RETURN WAMPUM" ---------- */
/* Written 11pm 10/12/89 by David Yarrow(jdmann) in gen.nativeam */
Source: Syracuse Herald, Thursday, Oct 12 by Steven Billmyer & Erik Kriss
NYS REGENTS VOTE ON RETURNING WAMPUM
After years of talk, NYS has agreed to return 12 Indian wampum belts to
the Onondaga Indian Nation near Syracuse. Return of the bead belts, which
the State Museum has had for 90 years, is expected to be approved by the
state Board of Regents Friday.
"It's a good surprise," said Leon Shenandoah, chief of the Grand Council
of Six Nations, the Iroquois confederation that includes the Onondagas.
"It's very important because it's part of our ancient culture," he said.
"They're used in our ceremonies, our meetings." The Onondagas, who will use
the belts in ceremonies, are still looking for a safe place to keep the
belts, Shenandoah said.
The Board of Regents was expected to approve the transfer at their
meeting last month, but there were still some minor negociating points,
said Thomas Sheldon, deputy state education commissioner.
The belts, dating primarily from the 17th and 18th century, were
purchased by the State Museum in Albany for display, said Ray Gonyea, a
specialist in Indian culture for the museum. The belts has been stored in a
museum vault since the 1960s, when Indians first demanded the belts be
returned, he said.
They tell stories that are read and interpreted at Indian ceremonies.
Some commemorate the first meetings between Indians and Europeans. Four of
the belts were given to the museum in 1927 by John Boyd Thacher, a mayor of
Albany in the late 1800s.
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COMMENTARY: "Wampum" is made from small cylindrical beads of shell
woven into strings and belts. These wampam were made to record critical
events in the political and spiritual history of the Confederacy.
Wampum is also sacred, in part because of the way they are used. In
Councils, a speaker will hold strings of wampum and recite the law and
history they record, then proceed with his own comments. For many decades
these strings of shell have been held and orated over by generations of
Confederacy leaders.
Return of these 12 wampum belts is a major event in Onondaga history, and
a great celebration is planned. Actual delivery is expected in early Nov.
One, the Hiawatha wampum belt, commemorates the Confedearcy's founding by
Peacemaker and Hiawatha many centuries ago. It's the Onondaga equivalent of
a Declaration of Independence and Constitution, and also a Bible.
Another, the Two Row Wampum, records the first treaty between the Six
Nations Confederacy and a European nation - the Dutch of New Amersterdam.
Wampum were lost various ways in the previous century. Some were seized
by Canadian government in 1924 in efforts to crush and discredit the
Confederacy. Others were sold illegally by Indians entrusted with their
keeping. Some were actually stolen.
Last year, on May 8, 1988, Canada returned eleven wampum to custody of
the Council of Chiefs at Grand River, in Canada. Now, this year, NYS will
return the remaining belts to Onondagas. After nearly 100 years official
documents of the Confederacy are returning to their rightful place.
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- prepared by David Yarrow, the turtle, for SOLSTICE magazine
***** SOLSTICE: Perspectives on Health and Environment, is published
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