Wampum

Every morning as we leave our apartment at the old schoolhouse we see this wampum sign sitting in the lawn across the street.  The Wampum is important to the Iroquois people.  Hundreds of years ago, back before any Europeans even knew about the new world, five Iroquois tribes, the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, and Mohawk, agreed to stop warring amongst themselves.  They buried their weapons of war  (sound familiar?) under a great pine tree and covenanted never to fight amongst themselves again.  The original Wampum was a wide leather belt made of white and purple shells.  This belt reminded them of their promise.  Later, the Tuscarora tribe joined their confederacy, so later on it was called the six nation confederacy, but this symbol of the Wampum is found everywhere here on the reservation as a reminder of their past.  You can find it on their advertisements, their clothes, public buildings and even on their homes.