Known as wampum or sewant, these tubular shell beads came to serve as a medium of exchange among Europeans and Indians in colonial North America. Rather than silver coins, the Dutch typically used wampum to purchase not only beaver pelts from Indians but also real property and goods from other settlers.

Artist, writer, and re-enactor Arthur Kirmss explains the history of wampum and demonstrates how the shell beads were made, using reproduction tools and 17th-century techniques.