IROQUOIS MYTHS AND LEGENDS 



143 



As proof of this it is related that George Washington who, when 

 a youth of twenty-one, was intrusted by the Colonial Governor of 

 Virginia with a mission to the wilds of Pennsylvania, where the 

 Canadian French were penetrating and seeking to unite the natives 

 against us, found that an alliance had been formed and ratified by 

 an exchange of wampum. Persuaded by the remonstrances of the 

 young Washington the Indian sachems consented to withdraw 

 from the alliance but declared that the belt of wampum must be 

 returned before the agreement could be abolished and, until the 

 token of the warlike compact was returned to the sachems by the 

 French commander, the Indians would not proclaim their promise 

 to take no part in the impending struggle. 



The finest belt in the collection of the Onondagas, and, as an 

 example of construction, unsurpassed by any other in existence, 

 is the "George Washington belt" which, by Iroquois history, was 

 a covenant of peace exchange between the Indians and the gov- 

 ernment during the presidency of George Washington. 1 This belt 

 is 15 rows wide, each row includes 650 beads making a total of 

 9750 contained in this historical belt. The groundwork is con- 

 structed from the violet wampum ; in the center of the belt a house, 

 with a well defined gable roof, and an open door, is woven of the 

 white beads. From each side of the gable a "protecting" line 

 extends above the figures of two men who, as "guardians of the 

 door," in turn clasp hands with others of the same design until 15 

 pictographic men stand side by side, 7 on the right side of the gable 

 house and 8 on the left. The clasped hands, in accordance with 

 the traditionary belt woven by Da-ga-no-we-da, signify unity and 

 concord or "the unbroken chain of friendship." The gable house 

 represents the government hall of the ' ' paleface , ' ' and the open door, 

 the conventional sign of the Iroquois, implies the hospitality of 

 peace. The two figures at the immediate side of the gable house 

 emblemize the (Indian) " keepers of the east and west doors," the 

 limits of their territories, the other 13 pictographic figures symbolize 

 the 13 colonies. 



The Pennsylvania Historical Society has in its possession a 

 wampum belt, presented by a great grandson of William Penn, 

 believed to be the original belt that was delivered by the Leni- 

 Lenapi sachems to William Penn at the treaty held under the elm 

 tree at Shackamaxon in 1682. In this belt, composed of 18 strings 

 of wampum, the figure of a white man, represented by his costume 



^his belt is now the property of Hon. John Boyd Thacher of Albany. 



