Native America

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Narrator

Marcus Hendricks makes wampum beads. He is a member of the Mashpee Wampanoag. (light music) The Haudenosaunee acquired wampum beads from his people and other Atlantic coastal communities. Wampanoag means People of the First Light, People of the Dawn. They witnessed the first horizon of a sun coming up. (light music) -

Narrator

The first step to making wampum is gathering shellfish in his ancestral waters off Cape Cod. When I come out onto the water, there's a connection to my ancestors, a relationship that goes through my blood and my veins. -

Narrator

The shells of quahog are the raw material for wampum. (light music) You wanna look for a good thickness in a quahog. (light music) -

Narrator

The fire is both the first step in a gratitude offering and prepares the quahog to be opened. I was taught really young to take the time to give thanks and say a few prayers to the Creator. We do that anytime we're harvesting anything from Mother Earth. -

Narrator

Marcus uses traditional methods to transform the shell into wampum beads, refining raw shell until it can be strung together into a wampum belt. Each bead took a lot of hours, a lot of manpower. Each strand probably would've taken a year to make. -

Narrator

When strung into a belt, wampum empowers the person holding it as a representative of their people. (vocalist sings in foreign language) They are made for ceremonies to depict stories and treaties between tribes, so if I was to go visit another nation, I would bring the belt to show that there's a close bond between the nations.