Undated (Circa 1890-1893) Benjamin Harrison Indian Peace Medal. The Only Size. Silver. 76.7 mm,3.75 to 4.05 mm thick. 3,463.7 grains. Obverse Signed C.E. BARBER F. Julian IP-48.

The Benjamin Harrison medals marked a departure from the oval style medals that had been adoptedfor the Rutherford Hayes, James Garfield, Chester Arthur and Grover Cleveland administrations. Thiswas reportedly a reaction to requests from a delegation of four Oto and Missouri Indians whovisited Washington in 1890. They specifically asked for round medals bearing the portrait of thesitting president.

According to the account published by Francis Paul Prucha in his Indian Peace Medals inAmerican History, the Oto and Missouri visitors were so adamant about the specific shape andsize of the medals that they offered to pay the costs of the medals themselves. This was likelytheir answer to resistance from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, who would have realized thebureaucratic difficulty of altering the adopted style of the official medals and probably attemptedto dissuade them. Nonetheless, the request was made through proper channels to the Mint, and Mintofficials complied.

The Director of the Mint requested of the Office of Indian Affairs that they propose a newdesign for the reverse of the medals. A sketch was supplied which was intended to illustrate"progress" in the Native American's adaptations to a way of life including "a civilized house andoccupation," though it was considered only a rough attempt to provide an idea of what would bedesirable. A design by Charles Barber was proposed, found agreeable to all concerned, and adoptedon May 12, 1890. On October 25, 1890, the first of the round medals, five in number, were forwardedto the Oto and Missouri Indians who had made the original request. In November, 1890, 18 moremedals were sent to be distributed to members of the Cheyenne and Arapahoe who had agreed to sellvast lands in Indian Territory to the United States.

As noted in Prucha, "some of these medals had the names of the recipients engraved on thereverse." Five of the seven known medals are engraved to the recipients or to names of othermembers of the Cheyenne and Arapahoe. The present medal is among them, engraved with prominence,THREE / FINGERS, in letters arcing across the upper portions of the two large circles in thereverse design. Three Fingers, a Cheyenne Chief well documented in the historical photographicrecord, is not listed among the known original recipients. However, careful study of the medalitself reveals an earlier engraving, largely effaced. In the field below FINGERS can be seen thefaint letters of BUFFALO, and just after, very faint remnants of MEAT. It seems, therefore, thatthis medal was originally Buffalo Meat's medal, one of the documented recipients.

It is unclear as to why the name was altered, but the medal obviously became the property ofThree Fingers at some point. There are superb photographic portraits of him wearing this medal. Themen were contemporaries, and are photographed together in images taken in Washington, in 1895. Inone of them, they appear alongside Wolf Robe, another recipient of the Harrison medal. ThreeFingers is reported to have died in 1917 at the age of 58, and is buried at the City Cemetery atKingfisher, Oklahoma. Buffalo Meat is a much better documented character. He was born in 1847 or1849, depending upon the source, and also died near Kingfisher, of tuberculosis, in 1917.

The 1895 photograph of Buffalo Meat, Three Fingers and Wolf Robe is interesting in the subtleclues it yields. Buffalo Meat is dressed in European attire, a black suit, bow tie and broadbrimmed black hat. Three Fingers and Wolf Robe are in native Cheyenne attire and only Wolf Robewears his Harrison medal.

To read the complete article, see:
Newly Discovered Magnificent and Rare Benjamin Harrison Indian Peace Medal in Silver, Presented in1890 to Buffalo Meat will Make its Auction Debut in the Stack's Bowers 2015 New York AmericanaSale (www.stacksbowers.com/NewsMedia/Blogs/TabId/780/ArtMID
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