THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY 



are mostly Christianized, and many of them are able to 

 read and write their own language by means of syllabic 

 characters. Their clothing is made from the skin of the 

 caribou and their household utensils are of bark and wood. 

 They travel by birchbark canoes in summer and snowshoes 

 in winter. 



In the center of the hall are special cases containing 

 wampum, moccasin and food plant exhibits. 



The wampum material illustrates its several related uses 

 by the tribes of North America. In its technical application 

 wampum consisted of cylindrical beads made from shell, 

 some of them white and others dark blue, the latter being 

 the more valuable. Woven in belts or strings it was used 

 to bind a treaty or a contract, and agreements between the 

 tribes were solemnized by the exchange of belts of wam- 

 pum. White wampum was emblematic of faith and purity. 

 When a nation was summoned to war it received a black 

 wampum belt with the figure of a hatchet in white. In 

 concluding a treaty of peace between the warring tribes, 

 the belts were exchanged as a ratification of the event. In 

 trading between the Indians and the whites, the fathom was 

 the name for the count, and the number of beads varied at 

 different times and places. Under the Massachusetts stand- 

 ard of 1640, the fathom counted 240. Connecticut received 

 wampum for taxes in 1637 at four beads to the penny, and 

 wampum was current with silver in the colony in 1704. 



The moccasin exhibit has been selected from a number 

 of type specimens to give an adequate exposition of the 



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