Narrator: Before a shell is broken for wampum, quahogs, or hard-shell clams, are acquired from ocean waters. The art of making wampum beads comes from Native Americans along the northeast coast.

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 ...