Our class studies the culture and history of the Wampanoag People of Massachusetts. The Wampanoag People used wampum belts made of shell beads to record important stories, agreements, events, and treaties. Some Wampanoag people today continue the tradition of making beautiful purple and white beads and jewelry from quahog shells.

For this project, our families worked with us so that we could learn in a traditional Native American way, by listening to and telling the stories of our families and elders. Abenaki storyteller Joseph Bruchac tells us, "We all have lots of stories about who we are, where we came from, and how our lives became what they are. It can be said that each of us has four sources for these stories; our ancestry, our family, our home, and our own lives." Each student explored these sources with their families and chose a special story to share both orally and in writing.

Students also created wampum belts to record their stories. They chose and designed symbols to represent the most important ideas in their stories. They worked together to learn how to weave beads into belts. As they wove, they also learned about each other's stories, families, and cultures. These shared memories and truths of who we are became the warp and weft holding the individuals in the class together like the beads in their belts.