Indian Peace Medal

Indian peace medals refer to ovular or circular medals awarded to tribal leaders throughout colonial America and early United States history, primarily made of silver or brass and ranging in diameter from about one to six inches. Medals were often perforated and worn suspended around the neck of the recipient. Controversy remains surrounding the use and impact of peace medals in furthering diplomatic relationships between Native Americans and the federal government. Many Indian peace medals today are archived in museums, libraries, and cultural centers.

During the colonization of America, European nations issued the earliest peace medals to build alliances and negotiate with tribe, dating as far back as the seventeenth century. 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. A number of silver medals issued under Kings George the First and Second have been excavated in Pennsylvania, the reverse of which show a Quaker figure offering a peace pipe to an Indian figure. Medals were also used by European nations to curry favor and secure military alliances with tribes during wartime. For Native Americans, the early medals represented a pledge to supply and trade commodities such as kettles, beads, ornaments, clothes, and weapons. In return, they would supply much of the raw materials that Europeans' overseas trade depended on, including animal hides, furs, and feathers.

Like many European medals, early US medals incorporated Indian figures on their design. What are thought to be the earliest peace medals issued by the US government carry the date 1789, the year of President Washington’s inauguration, along with the inscription G. WASHINGTON. PRESIDENT above. The medals show an Indian man wearing a headdress, draped in a blanket. 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. On the reverse is an eagle with wings extended and thirteen stars above its head, the arms of the Unites States. US medals issued from 1792 to 1795 are similar in design, but replace the figure of Minerva with George Washington himself.

Medals were an expression of promise: that the Unites States was invested in furthering peace and diplomacy with the Indians who called this land home. Consequently, the awarding of peace medals often accompanied a formal treaty or negotiation. 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. While the medals were issued in accordance with the treaty, the records do not confirm whether or not there were actually distributed to Cherokee leaders.

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