The Program
Ever since the Golden Dollar was first made in 2000, an eagle has soared on the back of the coin. Now, thanks to the Native American $1 Coin Program, there will be a new design there every year!
Produced hand-in-hand with the Presidential $1 Coins, the Native American $1 Coins will continue for a number of years not yet specified. The designs will honor Native Americans and their contributions to the growth of the United States. The image of Sacagawea, the Shoshone who helped Lewis and Clark on their historic voyage of exploration, will remain on the front during the program.
On the back, a different image will appear each year to highlight Native Americans and their contributions. These coins will use the same standard inscriptions, edge lettering, and metal content as the Presidential $1 Coins.
2009: Three Sisters of Agriculture
Agriculture has always been important in Native American cultures. Without Native American fruits, nuts, and vegetables, the first groups of European colonists probably could not have survived. Both through trade and by directly sharing information, American Indians helped provide the food that the early colonists needed. What’s more, vegetables native to the New World were soon brought to Europe and became common there.
Native Americans practiced gardening techniques that are still part of agriculture today, such as rotating crops, cross-breeding plants, developing watering methods, and companion planting. Three Sisters agriculture is a good example of companion planting, where more than one type of plant is grown in an area.
In Three Sisters agriculture, three particular crops are grown together: corn, beans, and squash. This technique probably began in Mexico, where maize was developed as corn.
In this planting relationship, the corn stalks support the bean vines. The beans add nitrogen to the soil, which feeds the corn. Squash vines grow along the ground, with large leaves that shade the ground, keeping it from drying out and discouraging the growth of weeds, which would steal nutrients from all the plants.
These plants don’t compete for nutrients and space. In fact, the corn, beans, and squash can actually produce more fruit when grown together than they can separately. That’s what makes them such good companions!
2010: Great Law of Peace
The theme for the 2010 Native American $1 Coin is "government." One example of Native American government that helped form our nation is a certain peace treaty that early colonists found interesting enough to write home about.
Before Columbus first sailed to America, five Native American nations formed the Haudenosaunee Confederation, also known as the Iroquois Confederacy. According to legend, the five tribes, which had similar languages, had often been at war with one another. The Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca lived in what is today upstate New York.
The confederation was founded by two men. One was called "Peacemaker" and the other was an Onondaga named Hiawatha. They got the tribes to literally "bury the hatchet" under a pine tree. The Great Law of Peace is symbolized in the Great Tree of Peace. You can find out more about that story in the January 2010 Coin of the Month.
The Great Law of Peace is recorded on an ancient beaded belt known as the Hiawatha Belt. The Great White Pine, in the center of the chain, represents the Onondaga nation and the treaty itself. The four rectangles represent the other four tribes. The bundle of 5 arrows symbolizes strength in unity.
Colonists saw in the Haudenosaunee a successful way to rule nations without kings or queens, like the confederacies that ancient Greek writers had written about.
Some early explorers and missionaries in the New World wrote about equality and democratic self-government among some Native Americans. These writings reached Europe and sparked ideas for European thinkers like Sir Thomas More, Montaigne, and John Locke.
So the way some Native American tribes governed themselves was an example of democratic government for our new nation. The White Pine tree with an eagle sitting on it, a Native American symbol of the Great Law of Peace, was adopted by colonists during the American Revolution for their own cause of democracy.
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