Wampum at the Onondaga Longhouse Six Nations Reserve in New York. These belts dated to the late 18th century and are sacred to the Longhouse religion. They had been away from their tribes for over a century. The Seneca Nation commissioned replicas of five historic wampum belts completed in 2008. Artists continue to weave belts of a historical nature, as well as designing new belts based on their own concepts. Wampum Wampum is a traditional shell bead of the Eastern Woodlands tribes of American Indians. It includes the white shell beads fashioned from the North Atlantic channeled whelk shell and the
Chimú culture obtain, the "Spondylus princeps", known as the “thorny oyster” for its characteristic spines, is a solid red color and can only be harvested by experienced divers. Thus, this shell is more highly desired and traded by the Chimú people. "Spondylus" shell had a wide variety of uses in Andean culture and took a variety of forms, ranging from whole shells to fragments to ground shell powder. This material was worked to create intricately carved ornaments, tools, and goods reserved for the nobles and deities. Shell fragments have been found as inlays for body ornaments and as beads for pieces of