Virtual Bead Loom
Beads Past and Present 1
Native American beadwork was created before Europeans arrived. Here we see a loom that was used to create wampum belts. Wampum beadwork was often used to record messages and historic events. This belt is called "The Great Chain," or "Covenant Belt." It is a belt presented by the U.S. government to the Iroquois ("EAR-uh-kwoy") in 1794 at the Pickering Treaty at Canandaigua, N.Y. The human figures are each linked by a wampum belt. They form a chain of friendship between the thirteen states and the Iroquois confederacy. The Iroquois confederacy was an important influence on the thinking of the founders of the US constitution. In 1751, for example, Benjamin Franklin tried to shame the colonists into forming a union by saying "It would be a strange thing... if Six Nations of [indians] should be capable of forming such a union... and yet that a like union should be impractical for ten or a dozen English colonies...".
