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
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