The United States Mint announced the design and released images of the 2023 Native American $1 Coin which honors ballerina Maria Tallchief and American Indians in ballet.
Native American dollars feature annually changing reverses that celebrate contributions made by Indian tribes and individual Native Americans to the history and development of the United States.
The 2023 dollar prominently shows Maria Tallchief. (Tallchief is also featured on the one of the five 2023 American Women quarter dollars.) Recognized as America’s first prima ballerina, Tallchief is depicted in balletic pose. In addition to Tallchief, and as described by the Mint, the dollar also offers:
"A nod to the ‘Five Moons’ is presented in the lunar motif, while the four ballerinas in the background are symbolic of both Tallchief’s American Indian ballerina contemporaries and the generations of dancers they inspired."
International recognized, the Five Moons included Maria Tallchief, her younger sister Marjorie Tallchief, Yvonne Chouteau, Rosella Hightower, and Moscelyne Larkin — all American Indian ballerinas from Oklahoma.
Around the image are inscriptions of UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, $1, MARIA TALLCHIEF, and AMERICAN INDIANS IN BALLET
Created by Artistic Infusion Program (AIP) Designer Benjamin Sowards and sculpted by U.S. Mint Medallic Artist Phebe Hemphill, the design was selected from among 7 candidates.
Authorized under Public Law 110-82 and introduced in 2009, the U.S. Mint’s Native American $1 Coin Program has celebrated:
- 2009 – Three Sisters Agriculture
- 2010 – Great Tree of Peace and the Iroquois Confederacy
- 2011 – Great Wampanoag Nation
- 2012 – Trade Routes
- 2013 – Treaty with the Delawares
- 2014 – Native Hospitality Ensured the Success of the Lewis and Clark Expedition
- 2015 – Contributions of the Kahnawake Mohawk and Mohawk Akwesasne communities to "high iron" construction work
- 2016 – Contributions of the Native American Code Talkers in World War I and World War II
- 2017 – Sequoyah, inventor of the Cherokee Syllabary
- 2018 – Sports legend Jim Thorpe, a member of the Sac and Fox tribe
- 2019 – Mary Golda Ross, the first known Native American female engineer, and a space-walking astronaut symbolic of Native American astronauts
- 2020 – Elizabeth Peratrovich for her contributions to the passage of the 1945 Anti-Discrimination Law by the Alaskan territorial government
- 2021 – Honoring the service of American Indians in the U.S. military
- 2022 – Honoring Ely Samuel Parker, a U.S. Army officer, engineer, and tribal diplomat
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Common Obverse Design
Obverses (heads side) of Native American $1 Coins share the same portrait of "Sacagawea" as designed by sculptor Glenna Goodacre. The familiar image has been around since the Sacagawea golden dollar debuted in 2000. Inscriptions around Sacagawea read LIBERTY and IN GOD WE TRUST.
An edge inscription indicates the year of issue, mint mark, and the motto "E PLURIBUS UNUM."
Upcoming U.S. Mint 2023 Dollar Products
Native American dollars have not been released into circulation since 2011. The U.S. Mint manufactures them solely for its numismatic products sold here.
The first U.S. Mint products with 2023-dated Native American dollars will be available for order on Feb. 6. Options will include 25-coin rolls, 100-coin bags, and 250-coin boxes containing circulating quality dollars produced at U.S. Mint production facilities in Denver and Philadelphia.
The annual Native American One Dollar Coin series continues to feature some of the most striking Reverses available in all of current American coinage. These exceptionally artistic images range from the classic to the modern, the old fashioned to the cutting edge, and the uncomplicated to the complex, all of it comprising an exceedingly imaginative, innovative and memorable series of depictions of the countless significant contributions of Native Americans to our nation’s collective history.
One day a Native American will be elected President of the U.S./A member of the First Nations will be elected Prime Minister of Canada.
What an exceptionally uplifting and shiningly positive vision, Antonio. If only there were more people who could see the world with your benevolent assessment!