In 1831, the Algonquins, Nipissings and Mohawks lived on the same territory, in Kanesatake. They take the time to make, with infinite care, a long belt of fine pearls assembled with deer strips and plant material. These patient artisans will offer the fruit of their labor, a very long belt of pearls measuring almost more than two meters, to none other than Gregory XVI, the new pope of the Roman Church. This completely unique piece, made up of thousands of carefully arranged pearls, is kept in the Vatican cellars. She returns this year to Quebec for the first time, on the occasion of the largest exhibition ever organized around wampums, these vibrant symbols of sacred agreements which punctuated life until the beginning of the 19th century.e century, of certain indigenous societies here.
Objects of primary importance, wampums were used to seal alliances and to affirm the position of those who possessed them, but also to root a civilization of speech in a relationship of beauty and prestige which gave wishes a unique material form. Thousands of wampums were made and exchanged. Only a few dozen made it to us. Most of them are brought together as part of “Wampum, pearls of diplomacy”, the exceptional exhibition that the McCord Stewart Museum is presenting until March 2024.
“The British and French quickly understood that furs could only come out of the wood if wampum beads entered it first,” explains Jonathan Lainey, curator at the McCord Stewart Museum, specialist in wampum. So much so that the colonizers made them themselves to offer them as a guarantee of their good intentions towards the Aboriginal people.
In 2022 in Paris, the Musée du Quai Branly brought together, for the purposes of an exhibition, the few wampums it owned. Some were kept in Lille, Besançon or Chartres. “One of them is among the rarest we know of. It dates from the end of the 18th century.e century. It includes Latin scripts. It was a gift made by the Hurons to the Immaculate Virgin,” says Jonathan Lainey. At most a dozen wampums of this kind were made. Paz Núñez-Regueiro, curator at the Musée du quai Branly and responsible for the collections in the Americas, specifies that it was an offering to the Virgin Mother. In response to this offering, Chartres offered, the following year, a silver reliquary. For the first time, the two objects are located side by side in Montreal.
“We had the idea of bringing together in Montreal, following the initiative of the Musée du quai de Branly, almost everything known about wampum,” explains Mr. Lainey. European museums lent the 18 examples of wampum they owned. In all, the McCord Museum has around forty on view, in addition to various period objects: beaded cuffs, muskets, puzzles, armlets, silver brooches, royal medals, pectoral pendants…
The lip of the pearls
Real wampums, sometimes enhanced with porcupine quill borders, are always made from beads shaped from specific shells: sea snails, clams, whelks. From the lip of the bivalves, pearls predominantly white or purple are drawn. Metal tools, brought by the Europeans, will facilitate this work. “On the coasts of New England, there will be real mass production of these shell beads,” assures the curator at the McCord Stewart Museum.
The French, who do not have access to this seaside, are tempted by the manufacture of counterfeit products, well aware that these pearls are of prime importance for sealing agreements with the indigenous world. But their glass, terracotta or porcelain beads fail to deceive those mainly concerned.
The wampum belts testify to a particular rooting in the territory located east of the great lakes, to the point of being at the base of the unifying story of the nations, in the Haudenosaunnee confederation. The practice does not spread to all people. Thus, neither the Innu nor the Inuit used wampum. “When we have to do portages like these, it’s not practical to bother with objects like this,” summarizes the very eloquent Jonathan Lainey.
The British King George III had a wampum decorated with an ax made to offer it to the Wendat people. It is one of the most famous that has come down to us. “This wampum testifies to a military agreement. It will be kept for a long time. It will even be presented to the court of his successor, George IV, many years later, to bear witness to an alliance to be respected. » In 1825, in fact, Nicolas Vincent Tsawenhohi, the Wendat chief, crossed the Atlantic carrying this piece of history in his luggage. Before the British crown, he and his delegation intend to plead that this object testifies to their rights regarding the lordship of Sillery.
At the foundation of the country
These wampums are the foundation of the country where we set foot, assures Mr. Lainey. However, we talk little about them and we still know little about them. When we talk about it, the specialist explains with a laugh, it is sometimes done in strangely inspired terms. “I have heard incredible mystical stories about wampum that actually shrink them to an extreme extent. »
For centuries, these objects were exchanged continuously. “Hundreds of wampum were exchanged. How come we only have a few left? This renewed interest in wampums could perhaps help bring others to the surface, hopes Jonathan Lainey. “Five years ago, a lady living in Madagascar, a collector, told us that she owned a wampum. It would be really nice to discover others that are unknown to us. »
Why did wampum stop being used? “We found them made until the War of 1812”, “ bloody belt » predominantly red, signs of war, he replies. Then, the balance of power available to the Aboriginal people declined. “The military weight is no longer there. And the use of writing supplants that of wampum. »
Why have so few of these exceptional objects been preserved? “It is possible that several were recycled in the manufacture of new ones,” says Jonathan Lainey. When the word was honored, they were not kept, except in exceptional cases. Curator Paz Núñez-Regueiro also observes to what extent these are very fragile objects.
Wrongly, it was long believed that wampums constituted a sort of currency, which explains why the collection of the Royal Canadian Mint has preserved them. Powerful collectors will snap them up, starting in the 19th century.e century, at a time when the traditional structure of these communities collapsed under colonizing pressure. Lawyer David Ross McCord, the museum’s founder, will go out of his way to acquire more than ten of them.