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Dutch New Netherland
An eighteenth-century wampum belt.

An eighteenth-century wampum belt.

Wampum is a string or belt of beads that held both monetary and ceremonial value for Native American groups in the Northeast. Wampum beads were made from shells. In New Netherland, the Dutch traded European goods for wampum with the indigenous peoples who lived near the Connecticut River and Long Island Sound, where shells were in large supply. The Dutch then traded wampum, as well as other goods, with the Native Americans who lived near the Hudson River Valley in exchange for beaver furs. Wampum was also sometimes used as currency between Europeans in New Netherland. This particular example of wampum dates to the era of the American Revolution and belonged to the Seneca people of western New York.

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Citation Information
Citation: “Wampum Belt,” Digital Public Library of America, https://dp.la/item/feec47fb3ac0b340137e75db241bdc89.
Note: These citations are programmatically generated and may be incomplete.
Courtesy of National Museum of Natural History Anthropology Department via Smithsonian Institution.

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Item 3 of 15 in the Primary Source Set Dutch New Netherland

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An 1858 print depicting the encounter between Henry (Hendrick) Hudson and Native Americans.
A Dutch map depicting North America from present-day Canada to Virginia, circa 1655.
An eighteenth-century wampum belt.
The West India Company’s Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions, 1629.
A contract recording the sale of land along the Hudson River from Mahican Indians to Kiliaen van Rensselaer, 1630.
A series of drawings for the proposed coat of arms of New Netherland, 1630.
A print depicting the early settlement of New Amsterdam, published in 1651.
A map showing the original land grantees in New Amsterdam, 1897.
A 1660 map of the city of New Amsterdam called the Castello Plan.
An excerpt from A Description of The New Netherlands by Adriaen van der Donck, ca. 1653.
A transcript of the ordinance from the Director and Council of New Netherland granting “half freedom” to a group of enslaved men, 1644.
Excerpts from Voyages of the Slavers St. John and Arms of Amsterdam, 1659, 1663, documenting the Dutch slave trade to New Netherland.
An excerpt from the minutes of the court of Fort Orange and Beverwyck, circa 1652.
An excerpt from the Journal of Jasper Danckaerts on his arrival in New York, formerly New Amsterdam, in 1679.
An excerpt from the Journal of Jasper Danckaerts on his travels in present-day Brooklyn, formerly part of New Netherland, in 1679.

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