The U.S. Mint will release a $1 coin in 2026 honoring Polly Cooper, an Oneida woman whose actions helped sustain George Washington’s army during the brutal winter at Valley Forge in 1778. The coin’s design depicts Cooper offering corn to Washington, a symbolic recognition of her tribe’s critical, yet often overlooked, support for the Continental Army.
The Oneida and the Revolution
Polly Cooper led a delegation of 47 Oneida warriors on a difficult journey to deliver bushels of white corn to starving American soldiers. Crucially, Cooper also taught the soldiers how to prepare the corn properly to avoid illness, a detail often left out of historical accounts. This intervention prevented further suffering and likely saved lives.
The Oneida Nation’s decision to side with the Americans was not without cost. Unlike many other tribes, they allied with the rebels, making them a target for British retaliation and internal conflict within the larger Haudenosaunee Confederacy. By the end of the Revolutionary War, roughly one-third of the Oneida population had been lost.
A Complex Legacy
The U.S. government’s recognition of Cooper comes through the Native American $1 Coin Program, established in 2007 to honor Indigenous figures and events. The program has featured Maria Tallchief, Jim Thorpe, and other notable Native Americans. However, some previously approved designs – including those commemorating suffragettes and civil rights activists – were scrapped under the Trump administration.
This recognition is bittersweet. As Dartmouth College professor Colin Calloway notes, the narrative often obscures the fact that the desire to seize Native land was a major driver of the American Revolution. In the decades following the war, millions of acres of Oneida territory were stolen by New York State and private speculators, forcing many Oneida to reservations in Wisconsin and Canada.
The Oneida’s story, like that of Sacagawea, risks being sanitized into a myth of peaceful coexistence that ignores the brutal reality of colonization.
Despite this historical context, the coin serves as a powerful acknowledgement of the Oneida’s sacrifice. Ray Halbritter, a representative of the Oneida Indian Nation, emphasizes that the Oneida’s contribution was fundamental to American independence. The nation calls itself “America’s first ally,” though that alliance came at a devastating price.
The release of this coin, while overdue, highlights a critical part of the American story that has long been marginalized. It reminds us that the nation’s founding was built not just on ideals, but on complex and often tragic relationships with Indigenous peoples.
