Meaning & use
seawan
Last updated
Strings of polished shell beads used historically as currency, ornament, or ceremonial exchange by Native American peoples of the northeastern United States; also called wampum.
See it in a sentence
Early Dutch traders in New Amsterdam accepted seawan as a form of payment alongside coin.
The belt was woven from seawan gathered from quahog and whelk shells.
A note on using this word
"Seawan," also spelled "sewan," comes from an Algonquian word and is a historical variant now mostly encountered in accounts of early colonial trade.
Words with a similar meaning
wampumsewan
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