War Beads are made by combining red and black beads; the colors are deeply symbolic for Native Americans.    While some colors had different meanings for different tribes, the color black was almost universally recognized as the color of death.    Red was the color used to designate triumph or success as well as to symbolize blood.    In combination, these colors represented warfare and for those who wore these beads, it was a symbol that they had accepted death – their own and the death of their enemies.    Warfare among all tribes of First Americans was a most serious undertaking, never taken lightly.    To prepare for war, the warriors had gone through a period of introspection, purification, prayer, and fasting.    Once they put on War Beads, their commitment to the bloody work at hand was total; therefore the beads became an outward symbol of their deep inner dedication to their grave decision.    The rest of their tribe put on the same color beads in a show of support for their warriors.

Also, among these same tribes living along and east of the Mississippi River, it was not uncommon to present a strand of War Beads to those upon whom war had been declared.    This was done to make it perfectly clear that war was about to take place unless an immediate compromise was made.

   The matte black round glass beads are modern day reproductions of generic black beads traded during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.    Matte black beads add somber significance to the War Beads.

The beads themselves were made in Venice, Italy, on the island of Murano where beads have been made since about the 15th century, and then carried off in the holds of ships to ports all around the world, to every continent save Antarctica, to be used in trade.   These particular beads were found in Africa – where during the same time period the beads were used in the same way they were used here in this country.

Today, there is an active business of buying these old beads in Africa to be re-sold here in North America.   One of the hallmarks of an African trade bead is the natural fiber (raffia) used to string the beads into strands.   Bead merchants in Africa buy old beads, clean them and re-string them in strands for re-sale.

Some of these beads came from shipwrecks off the coast of Africa, some were washed up on shore where they were salvaged, some came from almost-forgotten warehouses where they lay in wooden chests and casks waiting to be re-discovered and, of course, many came from private owners willing to trade their old beads for modern goods.

Although millions of pounds of beads were brought to North America, very few remain in circulation today.   It is curious that beads made in Europe have gone to Africa, stayed there for more than a century, and then were traded to North America to be sold once again.