The E-Sylum:  Volume 9, Number 33, August 13, 2006, Article 28

HEAP BAD MEDICINE: UTE CHIEF's LIFE-SAVING LINCOLN PEACE MEDAL

Dan Freidus writes: "It's not quite a "life-saving coin" but there's
a medal with an interesting story.  The ANS owns a silver Lincoln
peace medal which was supposedly worn by a Ute chief when he was shot.
Rather than seeing the medal as the reason for his survival, he saw
it as being responsible for his being shot.

The ANS record of this item is at Full Story
and you can see it in the ANS' exhibit at the NY Federal Reserve
Bank.  This section of the exhibit has an online version, too (though
the photo of this specific medal seems to have been omitted): Full Story

The ANS has owned the medal since 1917, a gift from J. Sanford Saltus.
The online record indicates that the box has an article about this
specimen, though when I worked on the exhibit I believe this medal
was already in a tray separate from the box so I have not seen the
article.  Perhaps that gives some info on the provenance between the
chief (around 1862, presumably) and Saltus."

[The ANS record notes that the medal was "sold by a Ute Indian in
Colorado who, in 1873, was in a skirmish with another tribe when a
bullet struck the medal which saved his life. He sold the medal calling
it "heap bad medicine" because it should have kept the bullet away from
him altogether."  -Editor]

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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