The Two Row Wampum belt was the first treaty the Five Nations (later Six Nations) made with non-First Nations people.  This treaty outlined the conditions in which the two groups were to co-exist with each other in North America.  According to Tehanetorens Fadden the two purple rows, “symbolize two paths or two vessels, travelling down the same river together.  One, a birch bark canoe, will be for the Indian People, their laws, their customs, and their ways.  The other, a ship, will be for the white people and their laws, their customs, and their ways.  We shall each travel the river together, side by side, but not in the same boat.  Neither of us will make compulsory laws or interfere in the internal affairs of the other.  Neither of us will try to steer the other’s vessel.”

Taken from Tahonetorens Fadden, Wampum Belts of the Iroquois (Summertown, Tennessee, 1999), 74.