The wampum is a cylindrical shell-bead that the Iroquois used to 
decorate their belts. As ornaments these elaborate belts were 
symbols of wealth and position, but in the hands of a "keeper of the 
wampum," they were the equivalent of historical records and 
documents. Pictured above is the Washington Covenant Belt. The 
figures on it signify the thirteen colonies and the six Indian nations 
of the Iroquois. It was given to the Iroquois either at a conference in 
Albany in1775, or at their treaty with the United States at Fort 
Harmar in 1789. Albany merchants coveted the lands of the 
powerful Iroquois Confederacy, and the Iroquois nations had sided 
with the British in the French and Indian War and in the War of 
Independence. In reprisal, the Americans burned down their towns 
and cornfields. The defeat of the Iroquois was finalized in a series of 
treaties between 1784 and 1822, compelling them to cede all but 
6,100 acres of their lands to the state of New York.