n response to our invitation for suggestions and questions for Museum Monday features, we were delighted that Becky Rollinson asked if wampum was used as currency by the tribes on the Outer Banks.
The word “Wampum” actually comes from the Narragansett (from Rhode Island) and literally means ‘white shell beads.’ It refers specifically to small cylindrical beads made out of shell. Wampum beads are made in two colors: white, wampum, from a variety of whelk and purple, sukauhock, from the growth rings on the inside of the quahog clam. Because of the scarcity, the dark purple beads were considered worth twice as much as the beads in white. While the use of wampum is most often associated with the Haudenosaunee (commonly called Iroquois) in the North and the story-telling belts that they made, the use of wampum stretched all the way down to the southern Creek tribes in Alabama.
But what about the Outer Banks in particular? If you have ever walked along the beaches of Hatteras Island, you will see little ocean-polished shells in that signature quahog purple. On a good day, you may be fortunate enough to also find a few whelks. Even today, we still have clam shells freely washing up on the shore to make wampum beads!
The Algonquin tribes (which included the tribes on the Outer Banks) did use wampum. While the common use for wampum was as a currency, it was also used to denote availability for marriage, to amass wealth, record history, and was offered at the start of inter-tribal negotiations.