Change Amid Continuity, Innovation within Tradition: Wampum Diplomacy at the Treaty of Greenville, 1795

The Treaty of Greenville (1795) was noteworthy for the extensive use of wampum by both Western Confederacy leaders and the American negotiator, Anthony Wayne. Analysis of the rhetoric of the negotiations and the wampum article used reveals structural correspondences with traditional Iroquoian diplomacy. Evidence suggests that the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy, while not officially in attendance, exerted significant influence on the treaty process. Amid this continuity, however, the Native negotiators put wampum to innovative uses. Examination of specific wampum presentations offers an interpretation of a surviving belt and insight into a design now known as the Two-Row Wampum.