Many of the same traditional designs are produced using bead and ribbon applique that were originally done with moose hair decoration, porcupine-quill embroidery and painted designs. It may be hard to understand the reasons Natives wanted and accepted glass beads and other 'trinkets and baubles' from Europeans in trade. In order to understand the high 'value' placed on these goods by Natives, glass beads have to be examined from within the specific cultural context. For example, an item s value may be weighed in terms of its exchange value as a commodity, in contrast to an item s symbolic religious value. Beads were symbolically 'valuable' and very much desired by Native Americans for what they represented to Natives .
Beads are traditionally part of ritual exchanges.
Beads are valued more for the symbolic associations of the form, material, color and other aspects, than for what an item is 'worth' in raw commodity exchange. Europeans figured that glass beads and other baubles were valuable merely because they were perceived as coveted luxury or prestige items. Glass beads and other trade items were undoubtedly new to Native Americans, but the attributes of their forms, materials and colors were not foreign. What was new to Natives about the trade items was the source, Europeans, and the huge increase in availability of items with otherwise rare qualities. In the Northeast, round, polished, glassy beads are associated with seeds, berries, shells and crystals, life, light, sight, and related concepts.