The belt is made with 14 warps of thinly cut leather thongs. The weft is made of vegetable fibre thread, onto which dark blue and white pony beads are strung. At one end, some of the the long warps are decorated with red, white and black porcupine quills, terminating in very small metal cones.

There are two beads between each warp, each pair either dark blue or white. The belt is therefore 13 double beads, or 26 single beads wide. The vegetable fibre wefts, about 350 in total, have been sewn through the warp thongs. At one end, wrapped quillwork decorates loose warps and 15 metal cones are attached to their ends. Remnants on the other end suggest metal cones may have once been attached to the warps.

The design is organized according to 11 complex diamond-shapes fields. In the centre is a large diamond, which is quartererd into alternately black and white triangles. There are 4 crosses, 3 diamonds and then 4 crosses. The geometric patterns resemble those found on burden straps.

In his book 'Thunderbird and Lightning' J.C.H. King suggests that the grouping of beads into pairs may have been done to produce the appearance of a wampum belt.

The British Museum object catalogue suggests a date range of 1700-1830.

Found unnumbered in the British Museum's departmental collections. The means of acquisition are unknown. The British Museum object catalogue states that this belt may have come from the Sloane and Royal Society collections, an 18th century accession to the British Museum, or a 20th century accession, such as the Blackmore collection, which was not fully documented.

JCH King, 'Thunderbird and Lightning." British Museum Press, 1982. pp.66-7.

Unknown artist, message belt. Currently in the British Museum, Am1978,Q.40. Item photographed and described as part of a GRASAC research trip December 2007; GRASAC item id 25068.

This record was created as part of a Great Lakes Research Alliance for the Study of Aboriginal Arts and Cultures (GRASAC) research trip to the Pitt Rivers Museum and British Museum, December 8-22 2007, funded by a grant from the International Opportunities fund of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).

Researchers present: Heidi Bohaker (HB), John Borrows (JB), Lindsay Borrows (LB), Alan Corbiere (AC), Darlene Johnston (DJ), Henrietta Lidchi (HL), Stacey Loyer (SL), Janis Monture (JM), Bruce Morito (BM), Ruth Phillips (RP), Anne De Stecher (AS), Cory Willmott (CW).