by Margaret Bruchac
In December 2019, with support from Arts Council England (ACE), Dr. Margaret Bruchac and Dr. Laura Peers travelled to the British Museum, Pitt Rivers Museum, Saffron Walden Museum, Canterbury Cathedral, Horniman Museum, and Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology to survey surviving collections of historic wampum. ACE is collaborating with Wampanoag people from Mashpee and Aquinnah, through the organization Smoke Sygnals, to develop events to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower voyage. The Wampanoag have long been in search of Metacom’s (King Philip’s) wampum regalia taken in 1676, and ACE wanted to ensure a thorough search in British museums. North American Indigenous collections in England are not well catalogued, and some of the most significant items in royal repositories may have been lost in London fires. Yet, some remarkable examples of early materials survive.
While we have not yet found Wampanoag wampum, we have created a better inventory of surviving wampum in England as the basis for future research with other Indigenous nations, and hope to facilitate their re-connections with heritage objects in English museums. Preliminary reports on this research can be found on the Wampum Trail Facebook page. Peers and Bruchac are also planning a symposium to bring together Indigenous knowledge-keepers and UK museum professionals to discuss wampum history, materiality, and artistry.
