246 ART IN SHELL OF THE ANCIENT AMERICANS. 



or confirmation. On such occasions they sit down around the chest, 

 take out one string or belt after the other, handing it about to every 

 person present, and that they may all comprehend its meaning, repeat 

 the words pronounced on its delivery in their whole convention. By 

 these means they are enabled to remember the promises reciprocally 

 made by the different parties ; and it is their custom to admit even the 

 young boys, who are related to the chiefs, to their assemblies ; they be- 

 come early acquainted with all the affairs of the State ; thus the con- 

 tents of their documents are transmitted to posterity, and cannot be 

 easily forgotten." ' 



It is to be presumed that if a treaty or a promise were broken, the 

 belt would be released from its oifice and in the same form, or worked 

 into another, could again be used. Otherwise the records, if properly 

 kept, would iu time become extremely cumbersome. 



The repudiation of a treaty and of the wampum which accompanied 

 it is recorded by Brice. It was at a council held at Miami, iu 1790, 

 between Mr. Gamelin and a number ot tribes. Mr. Gamelin iu begin- 

 ning his speech presented each nation with strings of wampum, but 

 "the Indians were displeased with the treaty, and after consulta- 

 tion returned the wampum, saying : 'From all quarters we receive 

 speeches from the Americans and not one is alike. We suppose that 

 they intend to deceive us. Then take back your branches of wampum.' 

 ThePottawatomies were better pleased with the speeches and accepted 

 the wampum." ^ 



Another good example which illustrates the manner of canceling 

 treaties, confirmed by wampum, is given by Mr. Gilpin : 



" When Washington, then but a youth of twenty-one, was intrusted 

 by the colonial governor of Virginia with a mission to the western 

 wilds of Peunsylvania, where the French from Canada were then pen- 

 etrating and had already established, as was believed, four posts with- 

 in our limits and were seeking to unite the natives in aUiance against 

 us, • • * he found that such an aUiance had indeed been formed. 

 He found that they had exchanged with the French, as its symbol, a 

 wampum belt on which four houses were rudely embroidered — the rep- 

 resentations of the posts which were to be defended, even at the risk 

 of war. luflnenced by his remou trances, the Indian sachems consented 

 to withdraw from the alliance ; but they declared that the belt of wam- 

 pum must be returned before the agreement could be abolished ; and 

 one of the sachems repaired to the French commander iu order to re- 

 store to him the token of the warlike compact, and to proclaim the in- 

 tention of the red men to take no part in the impending struggle."' 



Heckewelder relates that " it once happened that war messengers en- 

 deavored to persuade and compel a nation to accept the belt by laying 

 it on the shoulders or thigh of the chief, who, however, after shaking it 



' Loskiel : Missions of the United Brethren. Trans, by La Trobe, Book 1, p. 26. 



^ Brice: History of Fort Wayne, p. 118. 



3 Gilpin, in Memoirs of the Hist. Soc. of Penna. Vol. VI, p. 248. 



