US Mint announces coin will honor Ely Parker of Tonawanda Seneca Reservation

Parker served as one of General Grant’s secretaries and rendered surrender documents at Appomattox to end Civil War

US Mint: Ely Parker will be featured on the back of the 2022 Native American $1 Coin.

Ely Parker, a Union officer who was born on the Tonawanda Seneca Reservation in Indian Falls, will be featured on the 2022 Native American $1 Coin, the U.S. Mint announced.

The coin commemorates Parker, a U.S. Army officer, engineer, and tribal diplomat, who served as military secretary to Ulysses S. Grant during the U.S. Civil War.

When Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox, Virginia, on the morning of April 9, 1865, Parker rendered the formal surrender documents in his own hand.

The front of the coin will continue to feature the central figure “Sacagawea” carrying her infant son, Jean Baptiste.

The reverse side features Parker depicted in Army uniform, with a quill pen and book, along with a likeness of his graceful signature, as symbols of his experience as an expert communicator, the U.S. Mint said.

The inscriptions “TONAWANDA SENECA” and “HA-SA-NO-AN-DA” recognize his tribe and the name given to him at birth. Additional inscriptions include “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA” and “$1.”

The Native American $1 Coin Program is authorized by Public Law 110-82 to recognize the important contributions made by Native American tribes and individual Native Americans to the history and development of the United States. The public law mandates a new reverse design with an image emblematic of one important Native American or Native American contribution each year.