American Indian Wire Copper & Brass

American Indian wire copper & brass. In the 17th century, American Indians of New England created ornaments which are coiled or folded from a thick brass or copper wire. A Wampanoag Indian  brass wire 'artifact' from Rhode Island, having a fleur-de-lis design, is typical of such metal work in wire (Groce 1980). This wire artifact appears to be a 17th century cloak fastener, or a American Indian-made facsimile (Hume 1969). However, the American Indians which this ornament belonged may not have used it as a cloak fastener, and may have worn it as a pendant instead.

The European manufacture of some wire ornaments possessed by Indian in the 17th century can not be entirely ruled out. However, many wire objects, including bracelets, earrings and rings associated with American Indians archaeological sites, have traditional Indians forms and decoration.

Bracelets of metal wire are usually made of copper or brass, bent back and forth forming a broad surface (Beauchamp 1903). Such a bracelet of coiled copper wire found was found in Fleming, New York (Beauchamp 1903). There exists, a similar Tunica bracelet (11.6 mm wide), from Lousiana, made by bending very thin wire that was folded into concentric ovals. The wire is held together in three places by iron bands running across the width of the bracelet (Brain 1979).

Orchard (1975) describes and illustrates a necklace and a breast-ornament of copper from one of the Salish tribes of British Colombia which is made from several long brass beads of wire which has been hammered flat and twisted spirally. Similar spiral ornaments were worn as ear ornaments by the Seneca in New York (Wray et. al. 1987). Iroquois Indian finger rings from New York were also formed from spiraled copper wire (Beauchamp 1903), or using thin rolled tubes of brass (Wray et. al. 1987).