Lifesaving Lincoln Peace Medal

Here is another a little research story, about a Lincoln Peace Medal, that is too good to pass up.
          In 1918 Mr. J. Sanford Saltus presented a number of coins and medals to the American Numismatic Society, including “a Lincoln Peace Medal showing the mark of a bullet. This medal saved the life of a Ute Indian wearing it.” (Proceedings of the American Numismatic Society for the Sixtieth Annual Meeting, 1918)
          When I came across mention of this medal in 2003, I contacted the American Numismatic Society by email. Robert Wilson Hoge, Curator of American Coins and Currency, replied. He said the particular Lincoln Peace Medal was at that time on exhibition at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. He sent the following description of the piece:

Pierced. Crater from impact of bullet (bullet still intact). Original issue, solid silver (second striking, second rev.) Thickness: 4.3mm. Sold by a Ute Indian in Colorado who, in 1873 was in a skirmish with another tribe when a bullet struck the medal which saved his life. He subsequently sold the medal, calling it “heap bad medicine,” because he felt it should have kept the bullet away from him altogether.

Presidential Gifts

In this photo, Ouray holds the silver tipped cane presented to him by President Lincoln during an 1863 White House visit.  He wears a Ute delegation sash from the trip to Washington City and the Lincoln Peace Medal presented after the October 1863 treaty council at Conejos.

Lincoln Peace Medal

A Lincoln Peace Medal

This Lincoln Peace Medal is like the one presented to Ouray by Lincoln’s secretary, John G. Nicolay, at the conclusion of treaty talks at Conejos, Colorado Territory on October 6, 1863. Ouray had received a silver-tipped cane from President Lincoln during a visit to Washington earlier that same year.

Image courtesy the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian NMAI E-Newservice.

Lincoln’s Secretary in Colorado

John G. Nicolay on left with President Lincoln and John Hay taken November 8, 1863 by Alexander Gardner in his Washington studio. Image from the Library of Congress collection.

President Abraham Lincoln sent his secretary, John G. Nicolay,  as his personal representative to the 1863 treaty council with the Utes at Conejos, Colorado Territory. Nicolay arrived in September and spent a month touring the Territory. He arrived at Conejos on  October 1, 1863 to lead the team of government representatives that included Territorial Governor John L. Evans, Dr. Michael Stech, Superintendent of Indian Affairs for New Mexico, plus Indian Agents Simeon Whiteley and Lafayette Head.
          Fifteen hundred Tabeguache Utes (Ouray’s band) turned out for the treaty council. Only three Mouache chiefs and one Capote chief attended. The Weeminuche and the northern Ute bands did not participate. A treaty was concluded on October 7, 1863. It was primarily an agreement with the estimated 4,000 Tabeguache Utes, who gave up their lands east of the Continental Divide.
          After the agreement was made, Nicolay presented silver peace medals bearing President Lincoln’s image to seven chiefs, including Ouray. These were men Nicolay counted as most cooperative.
          The treaty Nicolay negotiated was ratified, with amendments, by the U.S. Senate on March 25, 1864, and accepted by the Utes on October 8, 1864.

          Arnold Schwarzenegger was the voice of Lincoln’s Bavarian-born secretary, John G. Nicolay, in the 1992 ABC documentary Lincoln (Richard Zoglin, “Trying To Hype History,” TIME, December 28, 1992).
          Helen Nicolay wrote a biography of her father: Lincoln’s Secretary (Longmans, Green and Co. 1949; reprinted Greenwood Press, 1971).

Lincoln Bicentennial

This year the nation celebrates the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth. Did you know Colorado’s Ute Chief Ouray met Lincoln in person?

          In the spring of 1863, Ouray and a group of Ute chiefs or headmen traveled to Washington City with their Indian Agent, Lafayette Head. They wanted a treaty that would define Ute land and protect it from the gold seekers and settlers who began invading Ute land in large numbers in 1859.
          During that trip the delegation met President Lincoln at the White House. Ouray was identified as the leader of the group and Lincoln presented him a silver-tipped cane, his typical gift to Indian chiefs. Ouray insisted that all the chiefs of the various Ute bands must be involved in a treaty decision. Lincoln agreed to send government representatives to Colorado Territory the following October for a great treaty conference.

Counting Indians

The 1860 census of Colorado Territory did not count Indians. The 1863 Report of the U.S. Secretary of Interior estimated 9,800 Utes in Colorado Territory. Based on reports from Indian Agents there were about 500 Muache, 800 Capote, 2,000 Weeminuche, 2500 Grand River (Northern Utes) and 4,000 Tabeguache.

           American Indians were first counted as a separate group in the 1860 U.S. census but only if they “paid taxes” or lived among white settlers. In the 1890 Census, Indians living in American Indian Territory and on American Indian reservations were also counted. It was not until the 1940 Census that ALL Indians were counted as part of the U.S. population. Source: Measuring America The Decennial Census from 1790 to 2000

Immigrant Gold Seekers

An 1862 report on the Eighth Census included data on occupations of passengers arriving in the United States between 1820 and 1860. A total of 39,087 miners arrived in that 40 year period. The vast majority (96% or 37,523) arrived in the 1850s. No doubt many were bound for the gold fields. Source: The Preliminary Report of the Eighth Census, Census Office, Department of Interior, Washington, May 20, 1862, page 17

Chipeta is a WILLA Finalist!

Chipeta: Ute Peacemaker  was named the Finalist in the WILLA Literary Awards competition for the Children’s/Young Adult Fiction and Nonfiction category. The announcement was made late yesterday by Women Writing the West.

Gold Rush Population

How many people lived in Colorado in 1860?

The Colorado gold rush began in 1859.  The 1860 U.S. Census reported 34,277 people living in what would soon become Colorado Territory.  For a census taker, counting miners spread out in rugged, roadless territory was a near impossible challenge. No doubt many people were missed. Some sources report as many as 50,000 people arrived in the gold fields in 1859. However, those who failed to strike it rich often returned to their homes in the East. In the 1860 count less than 15% of residents lived in towns. The people of Colorado Territory were young: 55% were between ages 15 and 24 and 38% between 25 and 44. Only 5% of residents were women and only 4% were children. Of course, no one counted the Indians.

Artist Writers

While browsing in my local library’s new book section, I spotted Donald Friedman’s The Writer’s Brush: Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture by Writers (Mid-List Press, 2007). Most of us recall illustrations by authors Beatrix Potter, Lewis Carroll, Kahlil Gibran and Ludwig Bemelmans. Did you know Pearl Buck was a sculptor? William Carolos Williams painted landscapes? Patricia Highsmith and Colleen McCullough also painted?

          Perhaps I was struck by this combination because I was an art major in college and did not start writing seriously until I was well past 40. After I returned Friedman’s book to the library, I picked up a recent issue of TIME magazine and found a “10 Questions” interview with Janet Evanovich. She, too, was a college art major!