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
Wampum contact, strings of wampum were used for storytelling, ceremonial gifts, and recording important treaties and historical events, such as the Two Row Wampum Treaty or The Hiawatha Belt. The term "wampum" (or "wampumpeag") initially referred only to the white beads which are made of the inner spiral or columella of the Channeled whelk shell "Busycotypus canaliculatus" or "Busycotypus carica". "Sewant" or "suckauhock" beads are the black or purple shell beads made from the quahog or poquahock clamshell "Mercenaria mercenaria". "Sewant" or "Zeewant" was the term used for this currency by the New Netherland colonists. Common terms for the dark and