Wampum, from the word “Wampumpeag” for white shell beads, was manufactured by coastal Native people for many centuries -- and play a role in a PBS documentary filmed partially in Salem.

Handcrafted history Narragansett jewelry a growing business at The Purple Shell G. Wayne Miller [email protected] 0:05 ...

Wampum is something we take for granted. Those small, tubular, white and purple marine shell beads, so important during the seventeenth century and after, seem to be a story already well told. Indeed, ...

Wampum art, which she makes from shells, has had historical significance dating back to the time when European colonists first encountered Native Americans.

The belt is made up of over 1,000 white and purple beads carved from hundreds of quahog shells. - Gladys Widdiss: Donald Widdiss' mother, who made pottery by hand and dried it in the sun.

The story Powless' father told him decades ago held that the agreement was enshrined years after the initial encounter with a wampum belt that includes two rows of purple clam shell beads. The ...

Wampum was the widely accepted and preferred method of payment between Native American tribes most notably Iroquois, Narragansett, and Hiawatha for years prior to the settler's arrival.

Wampum as Currency; Colonial Laws GoverningMr. Simon W. Rosendale of Albany. Ex-Attorney General, recently discovered the Colonial ordinances on the subject of wampum, and found them to he so ...

Wampum belts could measure as much as 6 feet long and contain 6,000 or more beads. The early Europeans misinterpreted the importance of wampum, perceiving it to have primarily monetary value.