456 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Speak of the practice of coloring belts red when the afifair concerned 



war. This was not the only tint employed. In 1757 at a council 



in Pittsburg a Wyandot " spoke again upon a belt of black and 



white wampum, the white painted green." Loskiel says, p. 27: 



Neither the color nor the other qualities of wampum are a matter 

 of indifference, but have an immediate reference tQ those things 

 which they are meant to confirm. The brown or deep violet, called 

 black by the Indians, always means something of severe or doubt- 

 ful import, but the white is the color of peace. Thus, .if a string or 

 belt of wampum is intended to confirm a warning against evil or an 

 earnest reproof, it is delivered in black. When a nation is called 

 upon to go to war, or war declared against it, the belt is black or 

 marked with red, called by them the color of blood, having in the 

 middle the figure of an hatchet in white wampum. 



Heckewelder says, p. 109-10: " White and black wampum are the 

 kinds they use; the former denoting that which is good, as peace, 

 friendship, good will, etc., the latter the reverse; yet occasionally 

 the black also is made use of on peace errands, when the white 

 can not be procured; but previous to its being produced for such 

 purpose, it must be daubed all over with chalk, white clay, or any- 

 thing which changes the color from black to white. . . Roads 

 from one friendly nation to another are generally marked on the 

 belt by one or two rows of white wampum interwoven in the black, 

 and running through the middle and from end to end. It means 

 that they are on good terms and keep up a friendly intercourse 

 with each other. 



A black belt with the mark of a hatchet made on it with red paint 

 is a war belt, which, when sent to a nation together with a twist or 

 roll of tobacco, is an invitation to join in a war." Sometimes the 

 clay may have signified grief. The most remarkable departure 

 from this rule was in 1756 when the French sent a string of wam- 

 pum to condole the losses of the Five Nations and a white belt for 

 the death of some of their sachems. Another instance was in 1699, 

 when at Albany " the death of Aqucendero chief Sachim of Onnon- 

 dages son was condoled according to their custome by giving of 

 some white Wampum to the Sachems which was kindly accepted." 



Some attention to color is seen in Sir William Johnson's address 

 to the warriors at Onondaga in 1756. He said: ''With t-iese 



