Talk:Indian peace medal

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I am in the process of editing this article, and should have a complete draft ready for comment and criticism by the evening of March 17th, 2017. Thank you! Hgaba (talk) 14:40, 16 March 2017 (UTC)


 * Submitting drafts for approval is not how Wikipedia works. You should do incremental changes then wait for consensus. - Co rb ie V    ☊ ☼ 03:36, 18 March 2017 (UTC)

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Hgaba. Peer reviewers: Meghankreidy, Cmbyrd.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 00:24, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Annotated Bibliography for Planned Changes
Butler, Amos. “An Old Indian Peace Medal.” Indiana Magazine of History 31, no. 4 (December 1935): 317-323. Accessed February 12, 2017. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27786762.

This article begins with the author describing a peace medal that has been passed down within a family of a close friend. He then describes a historical arc of the discovery of his friend’s medal in particular, but also medals in general. He writes as though he is learning with the reader, and his text is quite accessible as a result. Butler also offers a detailed physical description of the medals in general that I plan on incorporating into my article towards the beginning. I also plan on using his article to show where the medals are today, as he describes the passing down of medals within families, organizations, and museums.

Engeman, Richard. “The Jefferson Peace Medal: Provenance and the Collections of the Oregon.” Oregon Historical Quarterly 107, no. 2 (Summer, 2006): 290-298. Accessed February 12, 2017. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20615640.

This article focuses on the Jefferson medal, and therefore helps fills my content gap concerning Louis and Clark’s usage of the medals. The Jefferson medal seems to be the most well-known peace medal, so I may include a sub-section devoted to Jefferson peace medals. The article includes a physical description of the Jefferson medals, their usage, along with an allusion to the journal entries of Louis and Clark on their expedition, documenting their gifting of the medals to Indian chiefs.

Johnson, Kendall. “Peace, Friendship, and Financial Panic: Reading the Mark of Black Hawk in “Life of Ma-Ka-Tai-Me-She-Kia-Kiak”.” American Literary History 19, no. 4 (Winter 2007): 771-779. Accessed February 12, 2017. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4497012.

Johnson outlines the opinion of Black Hawk, a Sauk chief, and his refusal to wear or accept peace medals from the US government. Black Hawk offers a criticism of these medals, diversifying the many ways in which these medals were accepted (or rather, not accepted) by Indian communities. After preliminary research I think I may like to add an entire sub-section to my Wikipedia article devoted to such criticisms, and also other demonstrations of Native resistance such as that of Black Hawk. Given how rich this source is, I may even devote an entire sub-section to Black Hawk.

Julian, R. W. “The First Indian Peace Medals of the United States.” Museum Notes 21 (1976): 257-259. Accessed February 12, 2017. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43566286

This article describes the context in which the first peace medals were issued in the United States: in 1785 to the Cherokee nation in accordance with the Treaty of Hopewell. According to Julian, records are unclear whether of not the issued medals were actually passed out. The article also debates the technique of making the physical medals, as the large size of the medals (74mm) seems to have been too big for a coinage press of that time. I may not be able to extrapolate on European usage of Indian peace medals, as I intended to in my Wikipedia Editing Worksheet, but I may describe the earliest usage of the medals by Americans instead.

Lubbers, Klaus. “Strategies of Appropriating the West: The Evidence of Indian Peace Medals.” American Art 8, no. 3/4 (Summer-Autumn, 1994): 78-95. Accessed February 14, 2017. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3109173.

This is another article that offers a critical perspective of the peace medals. It demands the reader asks themselves what “peace” really means, and who does this “peace” really belong to. It uses images of tribal leaders wearing the medals and the medals themselves to argue the bias nature of the awarding of these medals. For example, he analyzes the “Tomahawk and Pipe” theme common to Jefferson medals, and its eventual replacement with the two round, overlapping medallion approach seen in Benjamin Harrison medals.

Pickering, Robert. Peace Medals: Negotiating Power in Early America. Tulsa, OK: Gilcrease Museum, 2011.

Pickering is also critical of the medals. He sees “peace and friendship” as a romantic portrayal of Indian relations, and the medals as a technology of power used by the US government to assert superiority over native populations. He also demonstrates the symbolic power that the medals had to both American-Europeans and Native Americans. This book consists of many articles compiled by Pickering, each offering their own analysis of the medals. According to preliminary research, this text will be most helpful in filling my content gap concerning European usage of the medals, as it discusses British, French, and Spanish medals and negotiating strategies in America.

Pond, Ronald. “The Jefferson Peace Medal: A Cultural Phenomena Passed Down from Chief to Chief in Walla Walla Culture, Circa 1805-1986.” (dissertation, Washington State University, 2004). Accessed February 12, 2017. ProQuest.

This is a very long dissertation found on ProQuest. I am unsure whether or not it is published, because it does have copyright information but is nonetheless a dissertation. I am therefore unsure whether or not I may use it in my Wikipedia article. Regardless, the dissertation includes information on both the history of the tribes in the Pacific North West, the Presidential peace medals (specifically Jefferson), the Louis and Clark expedition, and how the medals were accepted and passed down by Walla Walla chiefs. This is a very comprehensive source, but I must remember that it focused on a few tribes in one particular region of the United States.

Prucha, Francis Paul. “Early Indian Peace Medals.” The Wisconsin Magazine of History 45. no. 4 (Summer 1962): 279-289. Accessed February 18, 2017. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4633775.

I used a brief section of this article to add to my Wikipedia article as part of the Wikipedia editing assignment in which we practiced citation styles. In other words, there is still a lot of relevant information in this article that I have not used. In this article, Prucha outlines many customs within the practice of giving medals. For example, the size of the medal corresponded to the relative importance or status of the recipient. He also describes the change in medals from Washington medals, to Jefferson medals, to Monroe medals. The latter part of his article is a quite detailed account of the issuing of medals under Monroe. Given that I can’t possible include all my research in the final article, I will not be including this information in my Wikipedia article as it neither aligns with my original goals nor does it complicate them in any pressing way.

Prucha, Francis Paul. Indian Peace Medals in American History. Bluffton, SC: Rivilo Books, 1994.

This text is already cited in the bibliography of the Wikipedia article, but not within the text itself. I hope this general, over-view book allows me to add proper in-text citations to information already in the article (because supposedly, this is the source of much of that information).

US Congress. House of Representatives. The Department of the Interior. Letter from The Secretary of the Interior Asking for an Appropriation for Medals for certain Indian Chiefs. 38th Cong., 2d sess., 1865. Ex. Doc. 47.

This short document contains two letters of communication between Committees and Departments in the House of Representatives, asking for an appropriation for medals that will be gifted to “influential Indian chiefs.” The first correspondence explains that it has been “customary” on the inauguration of each President to issue and distribute these new medals. I will use this document to describe how the medals were viewed by the US government. My Wikipedia article alludes to this already, but both dimension of perspective and citations are lacking currently.

US Congress. Senate. Committee on Indian Affairs. Medals for Certain Indian Policemen Who Arrested Sitting Bull. 60th Cong., 1st sess., 1908. Report. 461.

This report issues by the Committee on Indian Affairs documents the awarding of medals to a group of Indian men who helped arrest Sitting Bull. This further diversifies the various ways these medals were used by the US government to “keep the peace” (whatever that may entail). I might also use this document in accordance with critiques by Indians of the medals, as this report is an example of the government rewarding Indians arresting other Indians, largely for the benefit of the US government. I understand that I will have to be very careful as to not construct an argument within my article in doing so.

Hgaba (talk) 23:24, 18 February 2017 (UTC)

Preliminary Blueprint for Planned Changes
This blueprint reflects both my original blueprint outlined in my Wikipedia Editing Worksheet, and my current intentions given the research I conducted to compile my Wikipedia Literature Review.

Introduction

The intro of the Wikipedia article should include a physical description of the medals. This will have to be general, of course, as medals varied greatly in design. The intro should briefly allude to European usage of peace medals to negotiate with Native American populations, and then the American usage, as this is where most of the literature concentrates. I want to note that most medals featured the bust of the President in office when they were issued, and that Louis and Clark were known to distribute the Jefferson medals throughout their journey. I will quickly acknowledge the controversy that surrounds the medals, and how well they kept “peace.” And finally, the last line of my intro will allude to where they can be found today.

Early Medals

Here I will talk more about European usage and very early American usage of the medals. I will also include a description of the physical design of these medals, including a picture if I can find one.=

Presidential Medals

Presidential medals are the focus of a majority of the literature and research conducted on Indian peace medals. Here I can talk about how the US government used these medals (citing the Congressional documents I included above), and how their use differed from the use of earlier medals. I will also include a description of how the medals changed in physical appearance and quality. After a general over view, one paragraph will be devoted to Jefferson medals and Louis and Clark’s usage of Jefferson medals on their expedition. The final paragraph in this section will describe how the medals were positively accepted by native communities.

Criticisms of Peace Medals

This section of my article will discuss the many criticisms of the medals, and the controversy surrounding them. I will devote a paragraph in this section to Black Hawk and his refusal to wear or accept them.

Indian Peace Medals Today

The final section will discuss where the medals are today, along with how they are used or displayed. The article currently mentions that bronze replicas of the medals are issued by the United States mint as part of a presidential medal series (but with no citation). If I am able to find information on the Presidential Medal series, I will include it here.

Hgaba (talk) 23:19, 18 February 2017 (UTC)

True or false??
True or false: the Monticello nickel will return after a while. 66.32.249.191 21:49, 1 Jun 2004 (UTC)

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