The Two Row Wampum

 

Here is our neighbor Chief Jake Edwards, of Onondaga, at the United Nations in May during the Eleventh Annual UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. He is displaying the Two Row Wampum belt, the basis of trust in agreements of respect between native peoples living just to the south and east of what is now called Lake Ontario, and the Dutch and other traders and settlers who came, slowly at first and then in increasing numbers, to "explore", claim and profit from this same region. 

A symbolic enactment on the Hudson River during the summer of 2013, the 400th anniversary of the Two Row Wampum treaty, will remind us of the significance of the first people living here and what happened to them at the hands of the self-appointed new "owners". European advancement was completely reinforced by the Catholic Church, which recognized no religion but Catholicism nor the rights of any peoples with different beliefs. 

For more information about the Two Row Campaign, go to these pages, and to these pages about NOON, Neighbors of the Onondaga Nation, and to Syracuse Peace Council. 

The Onondaga Nation tells about the Two Row Wampum on this page.