The Two Row Wampum
Near Syracuse, New York
According to Haudenosaunee tradition, in sixteen thirteen a delegation of Haudenosaunee people met with Dutch representatives near what is now Albany, New York. The Mohawk had noticed the newcomers entering their territory. They dispatched diplomats, not warriors, to negotiate a relationship.
What came out of that meeting was woven into a belt.
The Two Row Wampum, or Guswenta, is a beaded belt of white and purple shells. Two parallel rows of purple run side by side on a background of white. The white background, the Haudenosaunee explain, represents the river of life and three principles: friendship, peace, and forever. The two purple rows represent two vessels traveling that river together, a Haudenosaunee canoe and a European ship, each carrying its own people, its own laws, its own customs.
The principle is elegant and radical: the two peoples will travel together, side by side, but neither will steer the other's vessel. You will not force your laws on us. We will not force ours on you. We share the river. We do not share the government of each other's lives.
The Haudenosaunee have never considered this treaty dissolved. They still carry the belt. They cite it when they speak of their sovereignty today. The belt's logic underlies every subsequent treaty they made with European and American governments, including the Covenant Chain with Britain in sixteen seventy-seven and the Treaty of Canandaigua with the United States in seventeen ninety-four.
As Keepers of the Central Fire, the Onondaga Nation are the custodians of wampum records for the entire confederacy, including this one. The belt is not a museum piece to them. It is a living diplomatic instrument.
