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are run through the center of each bead with one strand brought over the warp hide strip and the second fiber strand brought under the warp hide strip. They continue to the next horizontal row in the same process. Once they reach the selvage or horizontal edge the fiber strand is wrapped over the warp hide thong and through the wampum bead on the next row. On row #145 and #146 a commercial thread has been used to secure loose weft fibers and beads its adjacent hide thong. Warp: The beads are placed horizontally in 12 rows between 13 horizontal warp hide strips. Each bead has an upper and lower warp separation of a 2 mm wide hide strip that serves as a spacer and hold the bast fiber string. Silk ribbon, textile interface and cotton thread: A piece of decorative silk ribbon is folded over each of the PR edges that measure 11.50 cm high x 1.75 cm wide. On the PR end a 3.5 cm extension of ribbon is folded vertically towards the center of the ribbon from the bottom and secured with hand-stitches of cotton thread. The PL end has 3.5 cm extensions of ribbon on both the top and bottom which are folded vertically towards the center of the ribbon and secured with hand-stitches of cotton thread. There is a support layer of undyed, plain weave, beige natural fiber textile interface under each side of the silk ribbon sandwiching the ends of the warp hide thongs. Dimensions: belt belt belt length width depth 99.00 cm 10.00 cm 1.50 cm Materials: Background Information: shell beads, hide thongs, vegetable fiber, silk textile, fabric, thread League Belt of the Iroquois, Property of Chief Johnson of Grand River, Ontario and obtained from his grand-daughter, E. Pauline Johnson. Previous owner: John Smoke Johnson. Association with collector, Joseph W. Keppler. Collected 1/1/1906 by George Gustave Heye. Wampum belts were woven of cylindrical beads with a special technique on long strands of sinew, leather, vegetable fiber, or string. The various vegetable fibers on which wampum was strung included slippery elm (Ulmus fulva) fiber, dogbane (Apocynum cannabinum. L.) or black "Indian hemp" sometimes called amyroot, swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata), and the hairy milkweed (A. pulchra) also called white "Indian hemp," toad flax (Linaria linaria), and Indian mallow (Abutilon-avicennae) popularly known as velvet leaf. Designs woven in the belts included hollow squares, hexagons, diamonds, overlapping triangles, crosses, diagonal lines or bars, circles, hearts, pipes, houses, and human and animal figures. The designs were arranged in symbolic patterns. Their meaning was given by the maker of the belt or was said to have been "talked into it" when a treaty was made. Thus stories told by the designs served as reminders of tribal events. The belts were shown on regular ceremonial occasions and the significance of the designs explained, a ceremony known as "reading of the archives." Some of the wampum belts were made only for temporary use, after which they were dismantled. Important belts were preserved and were entrusted to a hereditary keeper, versed in their interpretation, and thus their significance was retained (Lyford 45-49). The following information explains how the wampum belt may have been used by E. Pauline Johnson gave poetic and theatrical recitals. She was toured nationally and international in the late 19th C. and early 20th C., and was billed as an Indian Princess. "In order to dress to suit her new title, in the fall of 1892 Pauline "fixes herself up in Indian togs," as Yeigh has suggested. The costume she designs is a mid-calf-length dress of buckskin lined with red flannel and fringed at the hemline....... She finishes the dress with a round neck trimmed with a fringe of buckskin and decorated with a dozen silver brooches made from hammered coins. Later, when the Hudson's Bay Company presents her with twelve matched ermine tails, she will fasten them around the neck of her dress with these brooches. At her waist she wears her father's hunting knife, several wampum belts, and a Huron scalp she inherited from her grandfather. With the dress she wears buckskin leggings and mocassins. The red woollen cloak which hangs from one shoulder is made from the blanket that was spread on the ground for Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught, when he was made an honourary chief of the Six Nations in 1868. Since then it has served as a cover for the Johnson's piano. For the rest of her recital career she will wear this costume for the "Indian Cat #: 008386.000 Page 3 of 7