Oneida Woman Who Helped Save Washington’s Army Honored On $1 Coin | EUROtoday

EDGEWOOD, N.M. (AP) — The reverse aspect of the U.S. Mint’s 2026 Sacagawea $1 coin will characteristic Polly Cooper, a lady from the Oneida tribe identified for serving to George Washington’s Continental Army throughout the Revolutionary War.

The launch of the coin this week coincides with celebrations of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. It acknowledges Cooper’s position in a 1778 reduction expedition from Oneida territory in what’s now central New York to the insurgent troops’ winter encampment in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, the place they have been dealing with a meals and provide disaster.

“Polly Cooper symbolizes courage that is not just found on the battlefield but in compassion and willingness to help others, which is just a part of Oneida culture and hospitality,” stated Ray Halbritter, a consultant of the Oneida Indian Nation of New York.

Cooper and a delegation of 47 Oneida warriors carried bushels of white corn on the lengthy, chilly trek to feed the ravenous troopers. According to Oneida oral custom, Cooper intervened to forestall Washington’s hungry troopers from consuming the white corn uncooked, which might have made them sick. She taught them methods to put together hulled corn soup.

The coin options Cooper providing a basket of corn to Washington, a design that Halbritter stated his neighborhood labored on intently with the U.S. Mint. The different aspect depicts Sacagawea, a younger Native American girl who was an important information for the Lewis and Clark expedition.

It’s the most recent launch below the Native American $1 Coin Program, established by a 2007 act of Congress to commemorate particular person Native Americans and tribes.

Past cash have featured Osage prima ballerina Maria Tallchief; Jim Thorpe of the Sac and Fox Nation who was an Olympic champion and multi-sport skilled athlete; and landmark historic occasions just like the signing of the 1778 treaty with the Delaware, the primary of over 400 treaties negotiated between the United States and Native nations, though not all have been ratified.

Oklahoma Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, stated this system highlights those that helped set up a rustic grounded in freedom and self-determination.

Meanwhile, some coin designs beforehand approved in anticipation of the 250th anniversary have been scrapped by President Donald Trump’s administration, together with cash that will have featured suffragettes who pushed to present ladies the fitting to vote and civil rights icon Ruby Bridges.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury, which oversees the U.S. Mint, didn’t reply to a request for remark.

The Oneida Indian Nation of New York calls itself “America’s first ally.” It broke with the Haudenosaunee Confederacy in allying with the Continental Army “at great sacrifice,” Halbritter stated. The alliance made the Oneida a goal for retaliation by the British and different Haudenosaunee nations. By the top of the Revolution, as a lot as a 3rd of the tribe’s inhabitants had perished.

“In the long run, the Oneida don’t fare any better than tribes that sided with the British,” stated Dartmouth College professor Colin Calloway, an professional on Indigenous historical past throughout the revolutionary period.

Calloway stated a need to separate Native individuals from their land was one pressure that “catapulted” Americans into revolution, and that hundreds of thousands of acres (hectares) of Oneida territory have been seized by the state of New York and personal land speculators within the many years following the struggle. This ultimately led to the displacement of many Oneida to reservations in Wisconsin and Ontario, Canada.

Like widespread historic narratives round Sacagawea and the primary encounters between Wampanoag individuals and the pilgrims, Calloway stated Cooper’s story could possibly be co-opted to indicate a “benign, reciprocal relationship” that by no means really existed between American settlers and Indigenous individuals.

Still, the coin commemorates what Oneidas think about their pivotal position within the nation’s battle for independence.

“The whole country reaps the benefit of Polly Cooper’s conduct because we won the conflict and the United States was born,” Halbritter stated.