Beads and More Trading Traditional Cache
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(micro)
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While North American Indians typically made beads from local materials, they eagerly sought imported stones, shells and metals to make rare beads that would be prestigious.
The best known shell bead was wampum: small, cylindrical, centrally drilled white and purple beads made primarily of the quahog clamshell. Strung on leather thongs or woven into belts with sinew thread, wampum was sometimes worn as decoration but developed for greater significance as currency and was used for objects commemorating major political and ceremonial events. Since North American Indians had no written languages, woven wampum belts developed as a device for recording important events. Signaling peaceful, warlike, or other intentions between tribes or the colonists, the belts were made using beads of one color; with symbolic designs in another color. White represented peace, promise, and good intentions, whereas purple conveyed hostility, sadness, or death. A white belt might therefore express an alliance or peace; a purple one announced war. Choose your colors carefully as you trade beads.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Sbe rnfl npprff cnex ba Gbjare, jnyx fbhgu. Jura lbh trg gb gur jnyy fgneg lbhe frnepu. Fgnl bhg bs gur ohfurf naq njnl sebz gur qhzcfgre. Vg'f zntargvp.