By Ray Brimble
When my kids were little, we loved to gather the colorful beans of the mountain laurel and the Mexican buckeye and giving them away for fun, not knowing until years later that we were participating the Native American custom of “Wampum”. In honor of Indigenous Peoples Day on October 12th, we wanted to share the history of Wampum with you today.
Wampum originated in what is now the northeast part of the United States, where the Iroquois had lived for thousands of years, together with several other tribes called the Five Nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy long before Europeans first arrived in New England. The Five Nations were powerful, peaceful and sophisticated and their system of governance, which included many democratic principles, has been called the world’s first democracy, and served as the basis for many of the values in our constitution today.
Wampum derived from the Algonquian word wampumpeag, was used to describe small highly polished seashells which were traded amongst the tribe and offered as gifts as a sign of trust, right relations and reciprocity. These practices evolved into the decorative use of these shells in very elaborate belts which were brought to honor significant events representing diplomacy, dignity and respect. In fact, the first treaty between the Five Nations and the original 13 colonies was marked by the presentation of an enormous wampum belt to George Washington, who had helped negotiate the treaty. The George Washington belt still exists and is revered as an important symbol of the trust and friendship between the original stewards of the land and the non-Native settlers.
Trading Wampum between tribes, individuals and for commerce was so common that Europeans believed that Wampum shells were akin to “money”. But to the Indigenous peoples, Wampum was more valuable than the European’s money and was not a transactional practice. Native tradition gave reverence to any items made with Wampum, because they believed that both the physical object, the shells, and the act of giving and acknowledgement between all people present was imbued with the spirit of the occasion, as well as the relationships of the partiers and the intent of the gesture.
The lands and region we now call Central Texas have been an epicenter for migration, trade routes and commerce for thousands of years. Indigenous communities collected the beans of Mountain Laurel trees, just like the ones my kids had been collecting for years. Local tribes such as the Comanche, Caddo and Tonkawa gifted items such as hides, pottery, bow wood and jewelry. The exchange of Wampum represents an honoring of another, a spiritual exchange beyond transaction, so that the gift giving and receiving was the offering of protection, friendship and healing. European observers often reported that gift giving was an extremely important feature of Native culture, but they did not seem to understand the cultural and spiritual nature of the custom. What they were witnessing, without realizing it, was a form of generosity as a mutually beneficial ecosystem.
Indigenous People’s Day is about recognizing the traditions and celebrating the contributions of Native communities and also learning from important history. Indigenous peoples are too often relegated to a distant past, with little recognition of the ways in which Native communities continue to steward practices for living with reciprocity within our society. Traditions, like Wampum continue today, serving as an affirmation of right relations, from the past of our shared humanity, to our future. As we work together to create new mutually beneficial ecosystems, we must consider what does it look like to be in right relations with our Native community and each other? Central Texas has a vibrant and diverse urban intertribal Native community. The City of Austin just passed a landmark resolution in May forming the first ever Native American and Indigenous Quality of Life Commission. The Native American Cultural Center located at the former Metz Elementary school offers regular events including weekly workshops, Elders Luncheons, Feast for All food sovereignty programs, a Walking/Running club and is the host of the Austin Powwow – a beloved Austin tradition. Join us on November 21, at the Travis County Expo center for the Austin Powwow, and you can meet Ralph Pacheco who makes fine jewelry by polishing and drilling holes in the Mountain Laurel beans. You can also learn more about how to get involved at austinpowwow.net.