Chevron Trade Beads

Hudson’s Bay Company trade beads were seen as symbols of friendship and given to Indigenous people as gifts, to forge alliances or treaties, and to permit passage.

To some chiefs, especially on the West Coast, beads were seen as important status symbols. To show off their wealth, chiefs would sometimes discard the beads by throwing them into the water.

The chevron bead is perhaps the most prized. These beads were multicoloured, multi-layered glass, mainly red, white, and blue in colour, and ground on both ends to form a melon shape.