Open Thread: Racism Reissued! “The Last $5 Indian Ever”
By Thea Lim
First the Cleveland Indians and Atlanta Braves refuse to move forward into ahem, postracial America and change their team names, and now The National Collector’s Mint is cheerfully moving backwards.
The National Collector’s Mint announces the private reproduction minting of the last $5 Indian Head Gold Piece ever minted by the U.S. Government. When President Theodore Roosevelt called for a new $5 gold coin design in 1908, few imagined the daring, innovative masterpiece that designer Bela Lyon Pratt would ultimately produce…It’s the rare 1929 $5 Indian Head gold piece recreated as a privately minted 24 KT Pure Gold Plated Proof. Designer Bela Lyon Pratt’s portrait of a strong Indian brave in war bonnet is incused into the gleaming obverse, along with 13 stars and the motto LIBERTY. On the reverse, the gleaming majestic eagle grasps an olive branch, symbolizing peace, against a frosted field.
Or maybe this is a perfect example of the delusion that characterises “post-raciality” – where we fetishise a culture of colour while denying actual members of that culture personhood. Like how this coin fetishises Native culture while North America continually denies both our genocidal history and Native land rights.
Peace against a frosted field my ass!
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
AJ Plaid wrote:
Damn, Thea. What can I say? You said what I thought anyway.
Posted 30 Jul 2009 at 12:45 pm ¶
Tracey wrote:
What’s your problem? It’s obviously a way of honoring Indian culture. Don’t you feel honored? Plus, it says liberty. Calm down PC patrol. (sarcasm of course).
Posted 30 Jul 2009 at 12:48 pm ¶
el wrote:
http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1918045
Posted 30 Jul 2009 at 2:05 pm ¶
Liza wrote:
Agreed. And the fetishization nearly always involves a man with a feather headdress, because all indigenous peoples of North America wear and wore those! I mean, nothing cools your head in the Southwest like wearing a feather headdress!
Posted 30 Jul 2009 at 2:31 pm ¶
Liza wrote:
(That was meant to be sarcastic.)
Posted 30 Jul 2009 at 2:32 pm ¶
Jehanzeb wrote:
I agree with you, Thea. And the fact that the word “liberty” is on the coin proves even more that Native history is constantly being ignored and altered in favor of White America’s version of history.
Posted 30 Jul 2009 at 3:09 pm ¶
ashlynn wrote:
I want to be at least mildly incensed as this, but I can’t stop cracking the hell up every time I read the line “A strong Indian brave…” will the silver dollar feature a happy darky next?! Well said, though, Thea.
Posted 30 Jul 2009 at 3:18 pm ¶
Jessica Yee wrote:
Even worse – when I saw this for the first time saying “get an Indian head” it reminded me immediately of scalping, and the price to get a “real Indian head”.
Posted 30 Jul 2009 at 3:32 pm ¶
Katie wrote:
Don’t forget the Washington Redskins!
Posted 30 Jul 2009 at 3:38 pm ¶
Sean wrote:
An inscription of “Liberty” above the head of a Native-American, in full headress does seem to carry the same apparent irony of “Thanksgiving” every 4th Thursday in November.
Posted 30 Jul 2009 at 4:01 pm ¶
.elise.anne. wrote:
agreed with all the above.
also, notice the coin is gold….righ right, cuz the first nation people got liberty with gold…oh yeah and pursuit of happiness and LIFE too……or not.
if this land hadn’t had the rumors of having the flippin gold maybe my people would’ve left before massacring and enslaving everyone else……or not…
Posted 30 Jul 2009 at 4:07 pm ¶
DaisyDeadhead wrote:
What Katie said. I find the name outrageous.
Posted 30 Jul 2009 at 5:23 pm ¶
Rob Schmidt wrote:
Let’s note that a private mint, not the US government, is putting out the coin. The US is actually doing good things with its Sacagawea dollar: changing the reverse side annually to honor some aspect of Native culture.
http://www.bluecorncomics.com/2009/03/new-sacagawea-dollar-released.html
Posted 30 Jul 2009 at 7:54 pm ¶
Jen wrote:
Stupid question from a foreigner: That sort of head dress – is it something that is particular to one tribal group?
Posted 31 Jul 2009 at 2:07 am ¶
Rob Schmidt wrote:
Are we all clear that the The National Collector’s Mint is making copies of an actual 1929 coin? This private company didn’t invent the coin, with its Indian head and the word “Liberty” made out of gold. All it did was decide to copy an 80-year-old US coin for collectors.
We could talk about the stereotypes in the Indian Head Penny, the buffalo nickel, and other coins with Indians on them. But again, most of these coins are almost a century old. The US isn’t issuing these coins today as if it’s oblivious to the stereotypes.
Rob the former coin collector
Posted 31 Jul 2009 at 5:38 am ¶
Abu Sinan wrote:
If the US wants to “honor” the American Indian the first thing they should do is comply with ALL treaties made with the various Indian nations.
Posted 31 Jul 2009 at 9:11 am ¶
Louis Cruz wrote:
I would add that Turtle Island, Indigenous histories are intricately woven with the histories of communities of colour; that we are a multi-racial, land-based, multi-cultural social group; and that our unique ways of being are invisibilized by dominant discussions of “race” and “culture” yet it is our attempted genocide that is at the root system of “america’s” sense of liberty.
Louis Cruz, Mi’kmaq/Acadian/Irish
Posted 31 Jul 2009 at 11:48 am ¶
Ray wrote:
Thank you, Rob. This is why I’m not offended by this.
Posted 31 Jul 2009 at 1:41 pm ¶
Misspelled wrote:
@Rob and Ray — Yes, of course the National Collector’s Mint are interested in it on a strictly historical basis, as an arcane relic of Americana. That’s probably why they describe the design as a “daring, innovative masterpiece” as if it were brand-new and gush about the “strong Indian brave” depicted.
Sorry, but this is exactly why stereotypical imagery reintroduced from the past shouldn’t get to go unexamined just because it’s all adorable and retro and oh, we’re so past that now. We’re not. Some people can be pretty fucking racist in their nostalgia. “Don’t worry about the sanitized portrayal of slavery in this movie; everyone knows it was horrible the way blacks were dscriminated against, we don’t need to rub it in, and besides, that little black boy looks so cute in his straw hat and knee pants, doesn’t he?”
Posted 31 Jul 2009 at 2:23 pm ¶
Rob Schmidt wrote:
Incidentally, the Sacagawea dollar is gold-colored and has the word “Liberty” on it. The US issued a dollar version of the buffalo nickel to benefit the National Museum of the American Indian (http://www.bluecorncomics.com/2008/11/buffalo-dollars-benefit-nmai.html). This coin also has an Indian chief and the word “Liberty” on it. Should we protest these coins too?
Posted 31 Jul 2009 at 4:50 pm ¶
Rob Schmidt wrote:
The National Collector’s Mint’s text is new and perhaps worth criticizing. The coin is old and probably not worth criticizing.
I examine historical Native stereotypes all the time, Misspelled. I use them to show what people were thinking at the time. But I don’t get offended or outraged as if the old stereotypes are brand-new.
Let’s reiterate that the chief on the coin is a simple stereotype, not an insulting caricature like Chief Wahoo or Little Black Sambo. Do you get upset when someone publishes a book of old, stereotypical Western paintings or photographs? I don’t. As the saying goes, those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.
Posted 31 Jul 2009 at 10:16 pm ¶
Rob Schmidt wrote:
Jen, the headdress is typical of the Plains Indians, who are one of many Native American cultural groups. Unlike the Indian Head Penny, which shows a white girl in a headdress, I don’t think this image is phony. But it’s stereotypical because it uses a Plains chief to represent all Indians.
This is one of the most common Native stereotypes, if not THE most common. People around the world think of Indians as chiefs in headdresses. Almost no one thinks of them as doctors, lawyers, teachers, plumbers, accountants, scientists, astronauts, et al. Therein lies the problem.
My main quibble is the amount of time spent on this 1929 coin. While we’re talking about it, the city of Oxford, Alabama, is tearing down a sacred mound. Jessica Simpson misused the phrase “Indian giver.” Movies continue to cast non-Natives as Natives. Pat Buchanan said white people built America. Etc. These are the issues that deserve our attention.
Posted 31 Jul 2009 at 10:37 pm ¶
Neville A. Ross wrote:
Maybe not, but nobody should be re-releasing them either.
Posted 01 Aug 2009 at 3:45 am ¶
m. wrote:
@ Misspelled:
Right on.
Posted 01 Aug 2009 at 8:24 pm ¶
Misspelled wrote:
Rob. Forget that it’s a coin for a second. Look at the picture and read the language the Collector’s Mint used to describe it. They clearly see nothing wrong with the image and find it romantic and charming.
I know that it’s an old stereotype and I know that the particular image itself is old. But you’re arguing that that makes it a quaint anachronism, calling it a “historical” stereotype as opposed to a current one and claiming it represents “what people were thinking at the time,” as if there weren’t evidence literally right in front of you that “what people were thinking at the time,” they’re still thinking. They’re re-releasing this coin and advertising it with that language, using that stereotype as a selling point, because they know that the honor-the-noble-savage angle has wide appeal. How is that not at least as relevant as whitewashing in movies or Jessica Simpson keeping racist slang alive? For that matter, how does the persistence of those kinds of racism not make it even less likely that the mint is acting in good non-racist faith by selling this thing?
Oh, and thanks for the apparent conflation of “looking at history and remembering there was such a thing as racism back then, too” and “ignoring history.” That made all kinds of sense.
Posted 01 Aug 2009 at 8:46 pm ¶
mk wrote:
@rob_schmidt
“those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.”…
Agreed. But surely there’s a way to remember and learn from history that doesn’t involve celebrating painful stereotypes?
Posted 02 Aug 2009 at 12:56 am ¶
Cynthia Smith wrote:
I’m sorry Rob, why do you have the ultimate say on what issues we get to discuss? I’m a Native woman, and I’m offended by this commercial and by this coin. I think that gives me enough right to discuss it, to any degree and extent I want, along with all the other issues that I choose.
Just because you have a blog and a lot of “Indian friends” does not make you the expert, nor the “decider” about our issues – which is how you constantly come off – so stop it.
Posted 02 Aug 2009 at 11:41 am ¶
Thea Lim wrote:
@Rob
I don’t think there is any confusion (at least there never was on my part) that this is not issued by the US government but by a private group.
Yet this is still – no matter who is issuing it – the re-release of an incredibly problematic piece of history that, as many commenters have noted, reinforces racist, imperialist and genocidal notions that we are supposed to be moving past, instead of re-celebrating. It doesn’t matter who is releasing it, it is still being released. Saying there’s nothing wrong with it is like saying that racism is only problematic when it comes from the government.
Please refrain from positioning yourself as a Native expert, considering you yourself are not Native.
Also please note that comments like
violates our moderation policy #8. As a long time reader of this blog you should know that.
Posted 02 Aug 2009 at 5:29 pm ¶
JC wrote:
@Rob – Are you Native American? If not, then you have no right telling the Native Americans what they should or should not be offended by. In fact I think you’re white because that’s the mindset of many liberal whites – that they know or better about issues affecting PoC.
Sometimes I don’t know whats worse – Conservative Whites who see you as the enemy or non-human, or Liberal Whites who see you as children or idiots. Two sides of the same racist coin.
Posted 04 Aug 2009 at 5:58 am ¶