Tee Yee Neen Ho Ga Row
Jan Verelst, London, 1710
Oil on canvas
National Archives of Canada

In 1710, Queen Anne received four leaders of the Iroquois Confederacy at the royal court and, in honor of the event, commissioned portraits of the "Indian Kings."

Tee Yee Neen Ho Ga Row holds a belt of wampum. The Dutch developed wampum as a common currency between colonists and Native Americans during the early seventeenth century. Beads, made from the white and purple clamshell and given to Native Americans in exchange for furs, were strung into necklaces and belts. Frederick Philipse was a noted speculator in wampum. The use of wampum spread throughout New York and New England. Conferring upon it symbolic status, Native Americans commemorated treaty signings and other ceremonial events with belts of wampum.