thumb|Kiowa [[Chief Satanta|Chief Satanta (White Bear) wearing an Indian Peace Medal]]Indian peace medals refer to ovular or circular medals awarded to tribal leaders throughout colonial America and early United States history, primarily made of silver or brass and ranging in diameter from about one to six inches. Medals were often perforated and worn suspended around the neck of the recipient.
Early peace medals
thumb|Sioux chief [[Running Antelope wearing a peace medal on the 1899 United States five-dollar Silver Certificate]]
During the colonization of America, European nations issued the earliest peace medals to build alliances and negotiate with tribes, dating as far back as the seventeenth century. Medals were also used by European nations to curry favor and secure military alliances with tribes during wartime. The medals show an Indian man wearing a headdress, draped in a blanket. With his right hand he drops his tomahawk while simultaneously receiving a pipe of peace with his left from a figure of Minerva, symbolizing the young America. On the reverse is an eagle with wings extended and thirteen stars above its head, the arms of the United States. While the medals were issued in accordance with the treaty, the records do not confirm whether or not they were actually distributed to Cherokee leaders.
Presidential medals
While early peace medals issued by European nations and the US government frequently incorporate images of European and tribal figures in cultural exchange, peace medals issued during and after the presidency of Thomas Jefferson (1801 – 1809) are almost exclusively presidential medals, displaying the bust of the President in office at the time they were issued. Above the hands is an overlaying tomahawk and pipe, with the legend "Peace and Friendship." Above Jefferson's profile is his name, title, and date he took office, 1801. Jefferson medals consist of two thin silver discs joined by a silver rim and a wooden core. The medals were issued in three standard sizes: 55mm, 75mm, to 105mm in diameter.
The growing popularity of peace medals compelled regulation, and as a result, presidential medals, in comparison to early peace medals given alongside treaties, were increasingly awarded to select individuals. Additionally, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark famously distributed about eighty-seven peace medals, many of which were issued under Jefferson, to Indian leaders during their 1803-1806 expedition across the United States as demonstrations of goodwill from the government. In the 1960s, one of the five surviving Jefferson peace medals distributed by Lewis and Clark was found associated with human remains discovered at the Marmes Rockshelter in southeastern Washington state.
In 1829, Lewis Cass, the Governor of Michigan Territory and William Clark, Superintendent of Indian Affairs at St. Louis, issued a proposal to the US government: "Regulations for the Government of the Indian Department." The regulations they set forth were never formally adopted, but do represent the established norms of presidential medal distribution. Among other rules, the medals were to "be given to influential persons only." A considerable amount of portraiture made of Native American figures accentuating the medals worn around their neck serves as a testament to their importance. The imagery presented on the medals, of both royal and political figures, was understood as a symbol of access into the world of the White man. This world brought with it new trade goods and technologies of Europe and later the United States, notably the rifle. The distribution of peace medals both reinforced and furthered a political order within the tribes. Towards the end of his narrative, Black Hawk reflects on his tour of the federal mint in Philadelphia, the source of the United States' "medals and money." He relates the coins to the US peace medals; both are "very hand-some," and both are unreliable. In comparison to the first peace medals that display full Indian figures and little in the background, Lubbers notes that subsequent peace medals incorporate typical agricultural backdrops with a house, oxen, and farm land. Over time, the Indian figures take up less space in the compositions, which Lubbers attributes to a receding equality in rank between the White man and the Indian.
Indian peace medals today
By the 1840s, Indian peace medals had come to be known as a "presidential series" for which there was growing interest. The federal mint in Philadelphia started collecting dies for the previously issued medals. This began the practice of striking bronze replicas of medals for presentation to government officials or historical societies.
The American Numismatic Society in New York has the most extensive collection of Indian peace medals, containing an example of nearly every medal issued. The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. has a similarly large collection.