SILVER CREEK - Rich Hamell will present a program on Iroquois wampum belts and their history at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Hanover Town Hall in Silver Creek.
This is the 200th and final event of the Hanover Bicentennial.
Wampum belts are treaty or covenant belts which had social, political, geographical, and spiritual power associated with them. They were most often given from one tribe to another or from a tribe to a government.
Hamell has made over 75 historically accurate reproduction belts. Dozens will be on display, such as the Hiawatha and Canandaigua Treaty belts. His Mohawk Two Dog Christian Belt has over 13,000 beads in it and is over 8 feet long.
He is a retired professor of geology and paleontology and has published articles related to those subjects. He began a study of wampum belts about five years ago because of his interest in Iroquois history. He now has a website, wampumbear.com, which features his belts.