What are Passamaquoddy arts and crafts like?
Passamaquoddy artists are known for their basketweaving and beadwork. Like other eastern American Indians, Passamaquoddies also crafted wampum out of white and purple shell beads. Wampum beads were traded as a kind of currency, but they were more culturally important as an art material. The designs and pictures on wampum belts often told a story or represented a person’s family. What other Native Americans did the Passamaquoddy tribe interact with? The Passamaquoddy traded regularly with all the other New England Indians, and they often fought with the powerful Iroquois. But their most important neighbors were the Penobscots, Abenakis, Maliseets, and Micmacs. These five tribes formed an alliance called the Wabanaki Confederacy. Before this alliance, the Passamaquoddy were not always friends with these other tribes–in fact, they sometimes fought wars against each other. But once they joined the Confederacy, the Wabanaki tribes never fought each other again, and are still allies today.
