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.

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.

Therefore we have at a minimum of:

• 20 Bead necklaces on 2 cards.
• 3 lb. beads, probably seed beads in short measures. Mostly yellow and white.
• 6 Bunches of red garnets with 10 measures to a bunch.
• 2 Bunches of brown which I would guess to be amber and probably shaped the same as the red garnets. Because they are priced differently each bunch of 10 measures would be different sized beads or one had short measures, or they were different beads. My guess would be the different lengths because they packed them all as garnets.
• 10 Bunches of yellow beads, larger than the Chief’s bead and probably 10 short measures per bunch.
• 25 Bunches of white beads, larger than the Chief’s bead and probably 10 short measures per bunch. In the recapitulation they said they packed 120 small maces, but it totals 230 by my calculations or 23 bunches.
• 10 Bunches of blue beads probably 10 fathoms per bunch.
  Some of which were Chief’s beads.
• 10 Bunches of yellow beads probably 10 fathoms per bunch.
• 10 Bunches of white beads probably 10 fathoms per bunch.
• 6 Bunches of red beads probably 10 fathoms per bunch.
• 1 Bunch of green beads probably 10 fathoms per bunch.
• 8 and 1/2 lb. of red beads.
• 2 cards of beads possibly samples of beads new to the market.

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 Clark’s journal.

Clark’s 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.
(The English penny at that time weighed one ounce and the American penny of 1792 was 264 grains down to 168 grains by 1795. Again the weight indicated was probably about an ounce. For those who think he is talking about a modern pennyweight, note he mentions they are moderate in size. I doubt that 1,000 to 1,400 beads to an ounce would be moderate in size).

Clark’s entry of Saturday 22nd November 1805 gives us some indication they were low on the Chief’s 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.

Lewis’ entry of January 17th 1806: ...one of the party was dressed in t[h]ree very eligant Sea Otter skins which we much wanted; for these we offered him many articles but he would not dispose of them for any other consideration but blue beads, of these we had only six fathoms left, which being 4 less than his price for each skin he would not exchange nor would a knife or an equivalent in beads’ of any other colour answer his purposes, these coarse blue beads are their f[av]orite merchandiz, and are called by them tia Commashuck’ or Chiefs beads. the best wampum is not so much esteemed by them as the most inferior beads. (If the Corps had as many as 100 fathoms of blue beads when they started out, six is a very slim supply for the trip home.)

By April 1806, the Corps was in a difficult situation. On more than one occasion they were trading items to get some beads back.

Ordway’s entry Sunday 20th April 1806: ...we Sold old Robes Elk Skins &C. for white beeds.

Ordway’s entry Thursday 24th of April: ...we hired 2 more of Some of the flat heads who are going with us. the Indians would not purchace our canoes, as they find we are going to leave them. but when we went to Split them they gave us 6 fathem of white beeds for them...

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 Collin’s 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.

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 Chief’s 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, I’m 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.

In the journals, the white beads are often mentioned as second in value to the blue beads. They don’t seem to refer to them as being different in any way other than color. It wouldn’t 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.

In our research on the beads used West of the Mississippi, we noticed the only place we found one small red faceted bead was the Nez Perce museum in northern Idaho. Knowing that Lewis and Clark thought very highly of this tribe, our thinking is that rather than carry any of the beads they had left on their return trip, they might have given them those beads. After scouring the archives at the museum, no more than the few they had on public display showed up. Then we went to some of the small museums of the Flathead, north of Missoula, Montana. Nearly all of them had antique clothes with these small faceted red and amber beads hanging from them. As I recall, this is the only area that we found these particular beads in the Western U.S.

Peter Francis Jr., founder of the Center for Bead Research in upstate New York, stated that this type of bead was made until about 1780. There is a good possibility these helpers of Lewis and Clark were given whatever the Corps didn’t want to carry home. Much more research will have to be done.

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. I’m sure that the merchants were glad to unload the garnets if they were brought into the States in the late 1700’s. 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 I’m 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 wouldn’t 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 wouldn’t 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.

It was interesting to travel southeast Alaska and find that most of the natives and people there called the Cut Cobalt Blues the Chief’s 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.

Also in the Nez Perce museum after the Lewis and Clark period, most of the clothes are covered with these cobalt beads. There is the possibility that in the Northwest and up the Columbia that the sky blue bead became less important in the period after Lewis and Clark and that the cobalt bead did actually become the Chief’s bead. This would account for all of the early confusion as to what the Chief’s bead that Lewis and Clark referred to really looked like.

A special thanks to Ron Laycock of the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation Board
for his help and access to his library on Lewis and Clark.

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