History

Wampum was usually made from the Northern Quahog, a hard-shell clam known to biologists as Mercenaria mercenaria. The name "quahog" is a variation of the Native American name for the clam. The quahog got its Latin name in 1758, when Linneaus himself picked the word mercenaria, because he knew that beads of quahog shell were used for currency in 17th century New England, and that "mercenaria," the Latin word for money, seemed to be appropriate.

Three hundred years ago, wampum could buy enough land to start your own plantation. In fact, you could even use wampum to pay your taxes to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and pay your tuition at Harvard College. (Things seem to have have gone downhill since then. When Curt was signing up for a course in ocean systems at Harvard Extension School, he offered to pay the tuition with a strand of wampum. He was politely told that that the school does not take beads, but it does take personal checks, and credit cards.)

Wampum is typically a cylindrical bead, not a disk bead, and much of its value comes from the work that goes into drilling pieces of shell lengthwise, which is far more difficult than drilling from top to bottom. Although undrilled pieces of quahog shell are often sold as wampum, but they're really not wampum.

For the record, white wampum was also made from the central colums of whelk shells, which are also found in New England. Whelk is softer and easier to drill, but it is never purple. Also, whelk columns are pre-formed into a cylinder shape. The whelk might be the secret to how the Native Peoples produced as much wampum as they did. Much of the white wampum could have been whelk. However, the purple had to be quahog.

Wampum's Native Heritage

Rhode Island's Narragansetts, according to Roger Williams, were virtual minters of wampum. Not only did their tribal lands include a vast habitat for the "poquauhock" (origin of the word quahog), they were an industrious people who harvested the shell in the summer and made wampum in the winter. Their long-distance runners traveled hundreds of miles to get the best prices for their beads. They worked hard to make quality beads and bargained shrewdly to get the best price in a trade.

Native Americans wore single strands of wampum as ornament. They also wore belts on which purple and white beads were woven into pictorial messages (sophisticated icons). Because purple shell was harder to find, and harder to work, purple wampum was worth twice as much as white.

It's easy to regard wampum simply as a form of money. However, this perspective is too narrow, because wampum had a much greater significance in Native American culture. Wampum involved social and spiritual values as well. This is another dimension to wampum that you can tune into, even today.

The Rise, Fall, and Resurrection of Wampum

Sandy knots a strand of wampum at the Aptucxet Trading Post in Bourne, Massachusetts. This building is a replica of the original Pilgrim trading post, and it is built on the original site, where de Rasiere introduced wampum to the Pilgrims. One of the best places to visit on Cape Cod, the trading post is located just over the Bourne bridge. Follow the signs from the bridge.

Native Americans made and used wampum before contact with Europeans. Apparently, it was the steel needle, which they obtained in trade, that let them drill the small, straight holes typical of wampum produced in the 17th century and later.