The Iroquois Women and Wampum

Iroquois Women

Iroquois women wore only a deerskin skirt that fell to her knees or ankles in the summer. Optionally should would wear leggings that tied about the knee. When it's cold, women wore shirts and long fur robes. Their hair was had long hair that was hung down loose. The Iroquois women and men found body hair unattractive, so they both plucked it out. Women decorated themselves with bracelets, necklaces, and earrings made from feathers, bones, clay, copper, and shells.

Wampum

May 17, 2012

Wampum was a symbolic, ritual object to the Iroquois. It was exchanged during important peace and war pacts and treaties between tribes. Wampum included a string or dense web of sinew or hemp fibers that is up to five inches thick that held the decorative beads. It was worn around the waist or over the shoulders and chest as a scarf.
They made the wampum from strings of purple, white, and black shell beads that were woven in symbolic patterns into belts and girdles. The colors represented different things. The white symbolized peace, and black meant sorrow. Purple signified seriousness, and it was the most valuable color. European settlers traded glass beads for wampum with the Iroquois, so the Iroquois started to use wampum for their advantage for the first time.

Posted by Jane Daoheuang.

A picture of a Haundensaunee woman and her child.

Picture of a Wampum belt.

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