Michael Galban asked his 8-year-old son to hold one end of a 5-foot-long wampum belt while he held the other.

The beaded belt, he explained to his audience of about two dozen history buffs, was a copy of one created in 1794 to mark a peace treaty between the centuries-old Iroquois nation and the new United States.

Terms of the Treaty of Canandaigua, which created Indian reservations across upstate New York, remain in effect, he said.

The pact, signed by President George Washington's representative, Timothy Pickering, and Iroquois chiefs, including Cornplanter and Blackfish, called for annual payments in cash or goods to the tribes.

"Each year a pencil-pusher in Washington still has to send treaty cloth to Onondaga," Mr. Galban said.

The Onondaga Reservation, near Syracuse, remains the administrative center of the Iroquois nation.

Mr. Galban, a member of the Washoe-Paiute tribes, and his wife, Tonia Loran-Galban, a Mohawk, are interpreters at New York's Ganondagan State Historic Site.

Along with Indian clothing expert James O'Neil, they presented talks on "Native American Culture and Diplomacy" to open a "Hinge of History" series sponsored by Fort Pitt Museum Associates. They spoke Saturday in the museum auditorium.

"We're taking a look at the different people and forces that met on this piece of land [Pittsburgh's Point] when it was arguably the key to control of North America," Associates President Donn Neal said.

Mr. Galban talked about the roles wampum beads and stone calumet pipes played in Native American diplomacy in an area stretching from New England to what is now Illinois.

Among their other uses, wampum served as a record of negotiations, he said. The beaded belt marking the Canandaigua Treaty, for example, features 13 linked figures, representing the original 13 states. They are standing over a long-house representing the Haudenosaunee people, the name the Iroquois call themselves.

The Iroquois are matrilineal, meaning membership in tribes and clans is passed along through the mother, Tonia Loran-Galban said.

Another important role women play can be seen in their selection as clan mothers, she said. Selected both for their patience and compassion and for their skills in diplomacy, clan mothers help to nominate tribal chiefs and give traditional names to babies.

Mr. O'Neil discussed how Native American clothing changed as a result of contacts between indigenous people and French and British fur traders and settlers.

The attire worn by eastern woodland Indians -- including the tribes that settled or hunted around what is now Pittsburgh -- gave them what contemporary observers called a "bearing noble and proud," he said.

Deerskin moccasins and short breechclouts, or loincloths, were combined with woolen leggings and blanket-like matchcoats, he said. Living off the land and carrying their own weapons, powder and shot, the British called them "the ultimate light infantry troops," Mr. O'Neil said.

Future programs in the series, which coincides with the 250th anniversary of the naming of Pittsburgh, will look at the roles of the French, the British and American colonists in the struggle for the Forks of the Ohio.

"I'm glad to see events like this taking place here," said museum director Chuck Smith.

The institution has remained open during the reconstruction of Point State Park, but it is difficult to approach. Visitors must walk around and under the concrete ramps of the Fort Duquesne Bridge that separate the museum from the rest of the Golden Triangle.

The organization's next seminar will be June 7. The topic will be "When the French Ruled the Forks: The Heyday of Fort Duquesne."

More information on the associates and on upcoming programs at the museum are available at www.fortpittmuseum.com. Click on "Fort Pitt Entrance." The Web site includes a separate link for "Fort Pitt Associates."