In 1778, Polly Cooper traveled 186 miles with an Oneida delegation to bring white corn to George Washington's starving troops at Valley Forge. 248 years later, the woman preserved mainly through oral tradition is honored on the 2026 American $1 coin

Polly Cooper Native American $1 coin : On April 25, 1778, a young Oneida woman named Polly Cooper left Kanonwalohale in the cold spring snow. She traveled more than 186 miles with a delegation that included 47 Oneida warriors, carrying white corn to George Washington's hungry Continental Army at Valley Forge.

Cooper's name did not appear in a colonial account of the delegation. Instead, her story was preserved through Oneida oral tradition, which remembers how she taught soldiers to prepare the corn and stayed behind to help them.