History of the United States in 100 Objects -- 17: The Hiawatha Belt

--Made of leather, sinew thread, and wampum (quahog shell) beads, ca. 1400s --In possession of the Onondaga Nation, central New York This most ancient and precious ceremonial wampum belt, created by the Ondondaga tribe to record the proclamation of the Great Law of Peace at the founding of the Iroquois Confederacy (or more properly, the Haudenosaunee), was the subject of more than a century of legal wrangling, confusion, and controversy, even appearing at one point at the Chicago World's Fair, before finally returning to its home in upstate New York. Image: photo of the Hiawatha Belt, ca. 2015, by Stephanie Mach. See my recent article "Into the Fairy Castle" here: https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2021/08/into-the-fairy-castle-the-persistence-of-victorian-liberalism/ Please support historiansplaining podcast and hear all lectures, including the previous Myth of the Month on the "Founding Fathers" -- www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632