A wampums iconic white beads are indeed made from shells.
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The characteristics of a wampum belt is it is made out of white and purple beads and made of certain kinds of seashell's. Each string or belt holds a different message. The use of wampum stings or belts suggested the seriousness of the message and the sincerity of whoever made it. A wampum keeper was responsible for caring for the wampum and reading it. The reader would pass this hand over top of it ,bead by bead using the texture top remind him of the event or treaties it recorded. Wampum keepers were chosen by the clan they trained at a young age younger then 12 to remember the information on the belts and tell it in a dramatic and poetic way. Iroquois women made the wampum belts.
You mean wampum belts, not wampum which simply refers to the shell beads from which belts were made (the Wampanoag word Wampumpeag = small white shell beads).Wampum belts were not produced until after contact with Europeans, so it is likely that they were influenced by European writing and documents; since they natives could not write they recorded important events such as treaties or agreements in pictorial (pictographic) form on wampum belts.The link below takes you to an image of Tsawanhohi holding a wampum belt, 1825:
lived in eastern USA and CANADAthey tended to live near waterthey created the dream catcher: catches bad spirits in your dreamsplayed a game similar to lacrossethey clustered their houses around a central squarethey got their food by hunting, fishing, and gathering fruits, berries , and nutsthey made traps for small animalsthey made nets and traps for fishduring hard times , when there was almost no food they'd chew their clothes or boil their mocassins in soupTHIS IS IMPORTANT: wampum was important to their culture.wampum belts and necklaces were made from wampum beads, which are actually white and purple shells. it was used as money between white men and Indians.they were also used as a form of communication between Indian tribes.wampum belts were made in pictures to show why it was made. one always wore a wampum belt while visiting another tribe.
They were made out of variety of things. Shells, bone and wood.
They made baskets adorned with beads and shells