Following is a transcript of the video. Narrator: Cracking a quahog shell with a deer antler is the first step in creating wampum beads and jewelry. But today, Native American artist Allen Hazard ...

Made by the original people of the Northeast, wampum is created from beads carved from shells and denotes spiritual, cultural and legal relationships. For instance, some wampum was used to ...

NARRATOR: The Haudenosaunee story of creating the first American democracy is encoded in this, a tapestry of sacred shell beads called a wampum belt. HILL: If you look at the structure of it ...

The story Powless' father told him decades ago held that the agreement was enshrined years after the initial encounter with a wampum belt that includes two rows of purple clam shell beads.

"We didn't go to the waters because we were looking for wampum," he says ... the prettiest pieces of shells — deep purple was most prized — fashioning them into beads and decorations.

Wampum belts were used by many Indigenous ... The belts are woven together with small purple and white beads made from quahog shells. "It was like a historic document to us, a living document ...

Maybe you're new to Rhode Island and don't know what a quahog is. Or maybe you've lived here for a while but are too afraid to ask.

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 ...

While the different patterns of a wampum belt, which is usually draped over the shoulder, can be read, the colors of the beads can also be an indicator of where the shells come from. Museum ...