As the increased manufacture of wampum beads made them more common wampum spread inland as far as the Great Plains and southward to Virginia. Wampum production wasn't limited to the Native Americans.

Paula Peters and Linda Coombs gently unravel the community wampum belt they helped create, revealing 3,570 wampum beads, which bind together to give life to powerful totems like the whale, turtle ...

Wampum, beads, both light and dark are incredibly delicate and require significant time and attention in order to create. This is an old art form and the techniques, even how to make the beads.

The recently commissioned Two Row wampum belt, with the tools used to make it, that has been put on display at the New-York Historical Society. Credit: Wampum Magic/Lydia Chavez ...

Wampum are small, cylindrical beads made of shell; the beads are woven in contrasting designs of purple and white. Invitations, messages, and commitments were recorded in wampum strings.

An Akwesasne artist making contemporary wampum belts says he thinks of strands of purple and white wampum beads as Morse code.The tubular beads made from quahog shells were used ornamentally or ...

An Akwesasne artist making contemporary wampum belts says he thinks of strands of purple and white wampum beads as Morse code. The tubular beads made from quahog shells were used ornamentally or ...

An Akwesasne artist making contemporary wampum belts says he thinks of strands of purple and white wampum beads as Morse code.The tubular beads made from quahog shells were used ornamentally or ...