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Indian Head Nickel |
Return to: Fr Stan's Notes |
| The Native face on the U.S.
"buffalo" or "Indian Head" nickel, minted from
1913 to 1938, is a composite of three men from threeTribes. The
designer was James Earle Fraser. He used Iron Tail, Two Moons and
Big Tree as models for the composite likeness that appeared on the
obverse or "heads" side of the coin. On the reverse side
Fraser depicted an American bison, old Black Diamond, then living in
Central Park Zoo in New York City.
Iron Tail (Sinte Maza) was an Oglala who lived ca. 1850 to 1916. He fought under Sitting Bull at the Battle of the Little Big Horn in 1876. cf. Oglala Lakota College Archives. Two Moons (Ishi'eyo) was a Northern Cheyenne who lived from 1847 to 1917. He, too, fought at the Battle of the Little Big Horn. cf. McClure's magazine 1898. Big Tree was a Seneca who, in the 1920's, acted in many silent movies, including "The Frontiersman". cf. Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins. Also Who Was Who in Native American History and the Encyclopedia of Native American Biography. |
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