Shinnecock Indian Nation western Connecticut, the lower Hudson River Valley, through present-day New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania. Like the other Native peoples of Long Island, the Shinnecock made "wampumpeag" (wampum), shell beads strung onto threads that were used as currency, for record-keeping, for aesthetic purposes, and to symbolize a family. These shell beads have been found at Native American-inhabited sites as far west as the Rocky Mountains, showing their value in a trade. Although other New England tribes produced "wampumpeag", the Indians of Long Island are reputed to have made the best. Paumanac, one of the many names given to Long Island, means
Shell money central California used the marine bivalve "Saxidomus" sp. to make shell money. On the east coast of North America, the members of the Iroquois Confederacy and Algonquian tribes, such as the Shinnecock tribe, ground beads called wampum, which were cut from the purple part of the shell of the marine bivalve "Mercenaria mercenaria", more commonly known as the hard clam or quahog. White beads were cut from the white part of the quahog or whelk shells. Iroquois peoples wove these shells in belts. In parts of West Asia, "Cypraea annulus", the ring cowry, so-called because of the bright orange-colored ring