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Chiefs from the Six Nations Reserve at Brantford, Ontario, reading Wampum belts, circa 1870s.
Credit: National Archives of Canada
This nineteenth-century photograph shows Iroquois Indians examining wampum belts, the beaded devices used by Weiser and other colonial agents to communicate with Indians at treaty councils. No one could expect to engage in diplomacy with the Iroquois without being able to present and interpret wampum belts in councils.