“ Wampum was also used for personal adornment, and belts were made by embroidering wampum upon strips of deerskin. These belts or scarves were symbols of authority or power and were surrendered on defeat in battle. Wampum also served a mnemonic use as a tribal history or record. “The belts that pass from one nation to another in all treaties, declarations and important transactions are very carefully preserved in the chiefs' cabins, and serve not only as a kind of record or history but as a public treasury. ”

“ According to the Indian conception, these belts could tell by means of an interpreter the exact rule, provision or transaction talked into them at the time and of which they were the exclusive record. A strand of wampum, consisting of purple and white shell-beads or a belt woven with figures formed by beads of different colours, operated on the principle of associating a particular fact with a particular string or figure, thus giving a serial arrangement to the facts as well as fidelity to the memory. ”