Indian peace medal
[1] Controversy remains surrounding the use and impact of peace medals in furthering diplomatic relationships between Native Americans and the federal government.
During the colonization of America, European nations issued the earliest peace medals to build alliances and negotiate with tribes, dating as far back as the seventeenth century.
[1] Medals were given to North American Indians by the British, French, and Spanish in the eighteenth century as sentiments of peace, often in conjunction with national flags and other gifts.
[1] A number of silver medals issued under Kings George the First and Second have been excavated in Pennsylvania, the reverse of which show an American Indian figure offering a peace pipe to a Quaker.
[4] For Native Americans, the early medals represented a pledge to supply and trade commodities such as kettles, beads, ornaments, clothes, and weapons.
[1] In return, they would supply much of the raw materials that Europeans' overseas trade depended on, including animal hides, furs, and feathers.
With his right hand he drops his tomahawk while simultaneously receiving a pipe of peace with his left from a figure of Minerva, symbolizing the young America.
[5] Medals were an expression of promise: that the United States was invested in furthering peace and diplomacy with the Indians who called this land home.
One of the first known uses of peace medals by the US government dates back to the Treaty of Hopewell, the culmination of Colonel Joseph Martin's mission to the Cherokee nation in 1785.
[11] Additionally, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark famously distributed about eighty-seven peace medals, many of which were issued under Jefferson, to Indian leaders during their 1803-1806 expedition across the United States as demonstrations of goodwill from the government.
[12] In the 1960s, one of the five surviving Jefferson peace medals distributed by Lewis and Clark was found associated with human remains discovered at the Marmes Rockshelter in southeastern Washington state.
[14] A considerable amount of portraiture made of Native American figures accentuating the medals worn around their neck serves as a testament to their importance.
[16] Black Hawk, a Sauk chief, represents a number of tribal leaders who were critical of US peace medals and their actual use in advancing relations between the federal government and Native Americans.
Black Hawk wrote in his autobiography, "Life of Ma-Ka-Tai-Me-She-Kia-Kiak" (1833), that he never accepts or wears a US peace medal, though he openly wore those given to him by the British, particularly during the War of 1812.
"[17] Towards the end of his narrative, Black Hawk reflects on his tour of the federal mint in Philadelphia, the source of the United States' "medals and money.
