wampum

 
Pronunciation: /ˈwɒmpəm/

noun

[mass noun] historical
  • small cylindrical beads made by North American Indians from shells, strung together and worn as decoration or used as money: strings of wampum a belt consisting of thousands of wampum

Origin:

from Algonquian wampumpeag, from wap 'white' + umpe 'string' + the plural suffix -ag