"The Sacagawea Golden Dollar Coin"

(keywords: cultural appropriation, commodification)

"

Obverse Design by Glenna Goodacre:

The Golden Dollar′s obverse, or heads, has Sacagawea portrayed in three-quarter profile. In a

departure from numismatic tradition, she looks straight at the holder. Glenna Goodacre, the artist of the

obverse, included the large, dark eyes attributed to Sacagawea in Shoshone legends. Goodacre used a

present-day Shoshone college student [...] as her model. On her back, Sacagawea carries Jean Baptiste,

her infant son. Six months pregnant when she joined the Lewis and Clark expedition, Sacagawea gave

birth to Jean-Baptiste early in the journey.

"

"

Reverse Design by Thomas D. Rogers:

Designed to successfully complement the obverse, the selected reverse features a soaring eagle encircled

by 17 stars. The 17 stars represent each state in the Union at the time of the 1804 Lewis and Clark

expedition.

"

(Source: http://www.coinfacts.com/silver_dollars/sacagawea_dollars/sac_dollars_by_date.htm

[12/5/2006])

Sacagawea´s Life

Sacagawea was born in 1788 to a tribe of Shoshone Indians, in what is now Lemhi County

(Idaho). At the age of 12, she was kidnapped by Hidatsa Indians and taken to what is today

Washburn (North Dakota). When she was 16, Toussaint Charbonneau, a French-Canadian

trader, took her as wife, although he was already married to another Shoshone woman.

In 1805, the Corps of Discovery, under Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, who

intended to explore the western territories between St. Louis (Missouri) and the Pacific Ocean,

recruited Charbonneau and Sacagawea, because they needed translators of the Native American

languages. In addition, Sacagawea offered them geographic information, told them which plants

could be used as food or medicine and served as a negotiator between the explorers and the

Native Americans. Moreover, the presence of an Indian woman and her child, who was born

during the journey, would indicate that the expedition was actually friendly and peaceful.

"

This map traces the Corps of Discovery′s historic journey (1804-1806) west (in red) and trip home (in blue)

"

(Source: http://www.pbs.org/lewisandclark/inside/index.html [12/5/2006])

Although Sacagawea was treated as an important member of the party, it was her

husband who was paid and given land for their work at the end of the expedition in 1806. Some

years later, Sacagawea gave birth to a daughter, but soon afterwards died at the age of about 25.

Sacagawea′s portrait on the dollar coin is not the only honour she received for

supporting the Lewis and Clark expedition. She is honoured by more statues, mountain peaks,

streams, lakes, landmarks, parks, public schools, songs, ballads and poems than any other

woman in American history.

Cultural Appropriation and Commodification

Cultural appropriation

is defined as "the adoption of some specific elements of one culture by a

different cultural group" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_appropriation [12/5/2006]).

Cultural elements are, for example, objects and artefacts, clothes, music and art, religious or

ceremonial practices, language, stories, myths and legends or knowledge and behaviour.

- 2 -

Cultural appropriation has usually a negative connotation, especially if the relationship

of the two cultural groups is not based on equality, i.e. when there is a dominant majority and a

subject minority culture, which is "subordinate in social, political, economic, or military status

to the appropriating culture" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_appropriation [12/5/2006]),

or when there is an ethnic or racial conflict between the two groups. This certainly applies to the

relationship between Western and Native American cultural groups.

As white people have taken different elements of Native American cultures without

permission and claimed it to be their own, one speaks of `cultural theft′ or exploitation and

abuse. However, the whites may rather call it `copying` or `borrowing′ from or `being

influenced′ by the Native Americans′ art, music or clothes, for example. Some of them even

argue that "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" (http://web.pdx.edu/~doughert/rosebud_

2002.htm [12/5/2006]) and enhances more respect for Native Americans and their culture.

"

Commodification

is the transformation of what is normally a non-commodity into a

commodity" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodification [12/5/2006]) ­ anything that can be

bought and sold. By this process monetary value is assigned to, for example, a person, an object,

an idea or a myth. They then appear on the international market in the form of commodities,

ranging from handicrafts, books, CDs to clothes or even cosmetic articles (for instance

"Pocahontas shampoo" or "Sacagawea honey"), just to mention a few.

Often the processes of cultural appropriation and commodification, which is "the physical form

of cultural appropriation" (http://web.pdx.edu/~doughert/rosebud_2002.htm [12/5/2006]), work

together: Cultural elements are not only being appropriated, but also commodified and placed

into the international market.

As people seem to be highly interested in Native American culture and as

commercialization plays a central role in capitalist economies, all kinds of cultural elements are

commodified and advertised as well as marketed in order to make profit. They are removed

from their original context, where they were part of people′s identity, and placed in the context

of the `modern′ world. Thus they lose their authenticity and "[...] take on meanings that are [...]

divergent from, or [...] less nuanced than those they originally held" (http://en.wikipedia.org/

wiki/Cultural_appropriation [12/5/2006]). They may even become "a `meaningless′ part of pop

culture [...] reduce[d] to a cliché [...]" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_appropriation

[12/5/2006]). The appropriated culture is rarely fully understood, but often misinterpreted and

therefore misrepresented and abused / misused.

- 3 -