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Lewis and Clark Indian Trade Beads | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Available From Mouw Beads | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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It
is our intent to make available to our customers, Antique Trade Beads
of the period and type that were used by Lewis and Clark and with the
Indians or Natives of the North American Continent. These beads were manufactured
primarily in Europe and Asia. A few were made in Mexico and by the Mandan/Arikara
Indians in the United States. Glass trade beads from Asia probably became
available to the Europeans from the time of Marco Polo in the 13th century.
This trade would have been greatly inhanced when Portugal established
trade with China in the mid 1500's. We feel this needs mentioning because
the blue wound bead from China became important world wide from this time
until shortly after Lewis and Clark's expedition. The green wound beads,
probably from the same area, were very important to Columbus and later
to Cortez. I suppose the point we are trying to make is, that a bead can
travel many routes and spend time in many places.
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The Beads of Lewis and Clark
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Bailing Invoice of Beads
In the bailing invoice of Sundries for Indian Presents we again see there are no beads in the bundle # 30 and #13 for the chiefs. In bag #33 they placed 2 bead Neck Laces. 10 Maces White Round Beads for girls. (In the Journals miscellaneous memoranda, the editor thinks Mace is a phonetic spelling for mease, a provincial English word meaning measure. The fathom is mentioned a few times and also brace and breth which are all probably 6 feet in length.) 3 Maces Sky Blue Round Beads for girls, 3 Maces yellow, 3 Maces red, 14 Maces Yellow seed, and 5 Maces Mock Garnets all intended for girls. The same amounts of beads were placed in six other bags; #15, 42, 45, 36, 16, and 26. In bags #18 & 14 they placed 3 bead Necklaces, 10 Maces White Rd Beads, 2 Maces Blue, 2 Maces Yellow and 3 Maces Mock garnets. In #24 & 3, 2 Bunches of Blue beads, 2 Bunches of Red, 10 Small Bunches White Seed Beads, and 17 Maces Mock Garnets. 1 extra bunch of beads. 1 card of beads. In #3 they added one Bunch Yellow beads. |
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Different Sizes, Different Lengths, Different Beads
In the recapitulation of the 14 bags and one box, we can figure out more about the bunches and seed beads. They list 8 bunches or 80 maces of mock garnets. This would mean there are probably 10 fathoms or 10 short measures of beads to each bunch. We also see there is one bunch of green beads and six bunches of red beads not mentioned before. With 8 bunches of mock garnets, we would have to include the 2 bunches of brown mentioned in the purchases. From our research I would suspect those beads to be amber colored. Knowing the size of the blue beads from the journals later on and those being listed as the small beads on the invoice, we can guess that the 3 lb. of beads were probably the seed beads. The seed beads seemed to come in short maces as did some of the white round beads. In the purchase from Denchla, the 10 bunches of larger yellow beads and the 25 bunches of larger white beads actually cost less than the smaller beads so we could assume they probably came in the shorter measures, whatever that was. The two bunches of brown cost respectively 40 and 60 cents a bunch. This probably means there were different sizes, different lengths or different beads in each bunch.
Wampum shows up in the recapitulation in the form of 12 moons, one of which was included in a trade offer along with other merchandise for some horses on April 20th, 1806, as recorded in Clarks journal. |
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Chief's Bead
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President Thomas Jefferson Writes About Blue Beads
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Clark's 1806 Journal Entry on Beads
Clarks entry of Tuesday 14th January 1806 includes: The nativs are extravigantly fond of the most Common Cheap Blue and white beeds, of moderate Size, or Such that from 50 to 70 will way one pennyweight, the blue is usually prefured to the white; those beeds Constitute the principal Circulating medium with all the Indian tribes on this river; for those beeds they will dispose of any article they possess--. the beeds are Strung on Strans of a fathom in length, & in that manner Sold by the breth. |
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Blue Beads For Sea Otter Skins
Clarks entry of Saturday 22nd November 1805 gives us some indication they were low on the Chiefs Beads even before they started to return: in the evening Seven Indians of the Clot Sop Nation Came over in a Canoe, they brought with them 2 Sea otter Skins for which they asked blue beads &c. and such high prices that we were unable to purchase them without reducing our Small Stock of merchendize, on which we depended for Subcistance on our return up this river-- mearly to try the Indian who had one of those Skins, I offered him my Watch, handkerchief a bunch of red beads and a dollar of the American Coin, all which he refused and demanded ti-a,co-mo-shack{} which is Chief beads and the most common blue beads, but few of which we (happen to) have at this time. |
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Indian Woman (Sacagawea)
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The Corps Traded Items To Get Beads Back
By April 1806, the Corps was in a difficult situation. On more than one occasion they were trading items to get some beads back. |
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Beads For Food
By June, food had become a real problem. Lewis entry Sunday June 22nd 1806: ...we dispatched Whitehouse to the Kooskooske near our old encampment above Collins Creek in order to procure some Salmon which we have understood the natives are now taking in considerable quantities near that place. we gave Whitehouse a few beads which Capt. C. had unexpectedly found in one of his waistcoat pockets to purchase the fish. |
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Total Weight of the Beads
This might be a good time to discuss the total weight of the beads that the Corps carried. In the recapitulation by the Purveyor (Letter 57 in Jackson) the 78 bunches of beads are listed as 20 under the weight listing. The six fathoms of Chiefs beads they had left would have weighed from 6 to 8 ounces apiece. If we are right on which beads are the mock garnets, the 10 bunches would have weighed over 20 lb. by themselves. Even if all 78 bunches had been seed beads, Im sure they would have weighed well over 20 lb. Each bunch of Chinese wound beads would have weighed from 4 to 5 lb. If any of the measures were the Czech Vaselines, they would have weighed even more. A few times in the journals they mention the large blue beads as being the ones desired. Which we could guess would be in comparison to blue seed beads. Clark also referred to them as moderate in size. At any rate, I find one mention of 20, being ounces, pounds or tons, does not in my mind overcome all of the other information which we have. |
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Chinese Wound Blue Beads
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Other Color Beads
In the journals, the white beads are often mentioned as second in value to the blue beads. They dont seem to refer to them as being different in any way other than color. It wouldnt be a great leap to guess that some of the other colors including white, yellow, green, dark blue, red and even including transparent beads of these colors could have been part of the inventory. The Chinese made them all. The natives were turning down entire bunches of red beads in the winter of 1805-06 and braces of yellow beads as late as April 1806. Always they wanted blue beads. |
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Czech Beads
Peter Francis Jr. informed me that after 1780, the faceted Czech beads had tapered holes. The reason being it took two people to handle the mold equipment which produced the faceted beads with the straight holes. The tapered hole mold could be manipulated by one person. This might give us some insight into the modern beads which Lewis and Clark might have considered. Im sure that the merchants were glad to unload the garnets if they were brought into the States in the late 1700s. Especially if they had laid around for a few years without selling. Peter Francis Jr. also distinguishes between the Czech blue wound beads made after 1810 and the earlier Chinese beads. The Czech beads were a little more uniform and Im sure, upon testing, we will be able to find some difference in their composition. One bead that would have been interesting at that period was a transparent red bead with eight sides and five rows with a tapered hole. Also another bead, the red so-called Vaseline with tapered holes, 8 facets and 3 rows, the middle row being more narrow. At that time the actual Vaseline colored beads of the same construction could have easily been included with the yellow beads. I guess that the two cards with bead necklaces would probably be a more fancy bead than the rough Chinese. I wouldnt be surprised if the 2 cards of beads had beads that they wanted to use to see what type of interest they created for future trips. It wouldnt even be out of the question that this was the first introduction of the so-called Russian Cobalt Blue bead. This bead seems to show up as a major trade item after 1810. We need more research on the mock garnets and the other Czech beads which they might have carried. |
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Cobalt Beads
It was interesting to travel southeast Alaska and find that most of the natives and people there called the Cut Cobalt Blues the Chiefs bead. I talked to one native from Queen Charlotte Island who told me his family had coffee cans full of this gorgeous bead. When he was small he said he used to take a handful and throw them one at a time into the river just to see the splash. |
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Thank You
A special thanks to Ron Laycock of the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation Board |
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Bead Grades / Suggested Retail Pricing | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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( *Investment Grade ) Antique Beads ~ more rare than diamonds© On Grades 8 and 9, please contact us for carat size availability. |
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Sorry, no Retail Sales. For information on becoming a dealer, Contact Us: Mouw Beads - P. O. Box 501 - St. Ansgar, IA 50472 Ph: 321-427-8164 - Email: mouwbeads@mouwbeads.com |
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