Economics Overview

General Information

The Narragansett tribe used beads that are known as “wampum” and “suckáuhock” which ultimately became their form to trade with the English. Before wampum was used for spiritual and cultural reasons but when the Europeans arrived, wampum was adopted as the main currency. The concept of currency came into play during the colonial time period but before that, the Narragansett used the barter system. Many Europeans took advantage of the Native Americans to gain an economic hold over them.

Economic Systems

Pre-Contact Native American societies used economic systems that were variations of "subsistence economies". People who are a part of those economies often live in the same geographic location where their ancestors lived for generations. In tribal economic systems normally everything that the tribe needs could be gathered or grown locally within the tribe's territories, so there wasn’t much need for trade or a monetary system. Peace-making and the formation of alliances are important to the traditional tribal economy.

Agricultural production was an important part of the Natives economic life. Before the Europeans arrived southern New England was very populated because of its variety of foods and fertile soil to grow corn, beans, and squash. The key to the environment was water and they had plenty from ponds to rivers. In nearby ocean and coastal ponds the Narragansett harvested fish such as cod, striped bass, bluefish, scup, sturgeon, pike, perch, and bream. There were also many animals who were available year round such as turtles, seals, shellfish, oysters, crabs, snails, lobsters, and clam. This abundance of animals could feed people for weeks. In the forest there were maple, oak, ash, birch, and pine trees. The wood was used for canoes, house poles, bows, axes, harpoons, spears, knives, pestles, clubs, handles, and firewood. It was also used to house their game animals such as turkey, bear, rabbit and deer. Game animals provided meat, skins, furs, and feathers to wear, bones for tools, and sinews for bowstrings and thread.

They ate wild fruit such as beach plums, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, cherries, wild onions, Jerusalem artichokes, hickory nuts, hazelnut, chestnuts, and acorns. Women turn sea grasses and hemp into mats, baskets, clothing, and line. In warm months the fields of corn, beans, and squash planted by the women would be full. When it got colder women harvested the corn and ground it into cornmeal which ideally would last until the next planting season. Their standard dish was corn mush stew containing meat, fish, vegetable, and fruit. “Farming cultivated the people’s sense of proprietorship in the land”. When it was peaceful the people’s economic cycle determined where and who they lived with. In the winter they lived inland surrounded by hills and woods close to the game animals. During the spring they moved to the coast where they could be near their cornfields, fishing stations, and shellfish gathering spots.1

The economic system between Native Americans and the colonists relied heavily on the trade of goods using the bartering system. In this system of trade, the Native Americans traded items such as:

animal skins and hides,
food including animal meat and or agriculture,
Knowledge,
Crucial materials and supplies,

In exchange settlers traded wampum and other types of currency for these goods.”

Wampum belt.

Image by Daderot, in the public domain

Buying and Selling

Pre-Contact intertribal trade was done to support their subsistence economies and maintain positive intertribal relations. The main reasons for the increased volume of trade with the arrival of Europeans were the level of European demand for North American furs and the level of Native demand for particular European trade goods. Therefore producing more wampum became another form for acquiring European trade goods. During trading expeditions of 1627 to 1632 is when the English became involved in the wampum/fur trade. Before Europeans entered the fur trade Natives would trade with each other items that they were familiar with. The benefits of trade to Europeans and Natives combined with issues of balance of power and economic control brought an expansion of the trade in the northeast throughout half of the 17th century.

The Narragansett traded corn, skins, coats, venison, fish, and more among themselves, and sometimes they would get in a group of 10 or 20 to trade among the English. Some specialized in the making of bows, arrows, or dishes while others in fishing or hunting, and women made pottery. They like wearing capes of English or Dutch cloth instead of their skins and furs because the cloth is warm and lighter. Red cloth was popular among Natives and it was manufactured in central England. The Narragansett love to save money and believe that the English men work to deceive them. People would go to all the markets and travel several miles and camp in the woods to save a few cents. They would create woven bags, sashes, and belts from dogbane, inner tree bark, and other fibrous materials. Deer, bear, moose, seal skins, and other animal furs were used to make clothing.

Narragansett Phrases

Monêash : MoneyNoónat: I do not have enough moneyNonamautuckquahéginash: DebtsMat noteaûgo: I have no moneyNummâche maúganash: I have already paid

Wampum

Where European trade goods were found the wampum at those sites was of tubular shape and size. Wampum was difficult to make because it was a laborious process and shells were difficult to get a hold of. They called white beads wampum and black beads suckáuhock. Before they had awl blades from Europe they used stone to poke holes in the shells. They hung strings of wampum around their necks and wrists and the beads were also used to make belts. On the seaside, they made wampum and suckáuhock and stored shells in summer, and in the winter they would make beads.

The amount of labor that was done by the Algonquian-speaking tribes of the New England and New Netherland coasts in the production of wampum from 1622 to 1660 contributed to the process of generating European wealth and power. Natives enjoyed making wampum and the benefits that came from trade. However, the two events that led to taking the fun out of wampum-making were the entrance of the English into the wampum trade and turning wampum into money that was used in New Netherland, New England, and by many others in Europe.

At this time the Narragansett were the second leading supplier of wampum to the Dutch. The Pequots were first because of their geographic location and they had become the dominant wampum-producing tribe in the region. The demand for wampum was increasing rapidly due to its usefulness to the Iroquois for making ceremonial wampum belts. When Wampanoags saw that the English valued wampum as a trade item they began to produce more. That provided the English with another form of acquiring wampum besides buying it from the Dutch.

1 Williams, R. (2019). A Key Into the Language of America (The Tomaquag Museum). Westholme.

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