Native American Connections in the Washington Monument's Commemorative Stones

From National Mall and Memorial Parks, National Park Service.

The inner walls of the Washington Monument are set with commemorative stones given by states, cities, nations and organisations. Several have Native American connections.

The Cherokee Nation stone. NPS.

Stones from Native nations

• Cherokee Nation: a limestone stone at the 220-foot level, inscribed "Cherokee Nation 1850".

Stones from states

• Oklahoma: the Great Seal of Oklahoma, whose star's five points stand for five Oklahoma nations — at the top the Chickasaw (a warrior with bow and shield); upper left the Cherokee (a star in a wreath of oak leaves); upper right the Choctaw (a tomahawk, a bow and three crossed arrows); lower left the Creek (a sheaf of wheat and a plough); and lower right the Seminole (houses, a factory, and a hunter paddling a canoe on a lake).
• Pennsylvania: inscribed "Pennsylvania Founded 1681 by Deeds of Peace", with an image based on Benjamin West's late-18th-century painting of William Penn meeting the Lenni Lenape chief Tamanend. The two signed the Treaty of Shackamaxon, in what is now Philadelphia, in 1682; Penn sought religious freedom for all and paid Native Americans for the land his colonists occupied.
• Hawaii: carries the phrase "Ua Mau Ke Ea O Ka Aina I Ka Pono", the state motto, which was spoken by King Kamehameha III.
• Minnesota: cut from pipestone from the Native American quarries now protected at Pipestone National Monument in southwestern Minnesota — the stone Plains nations used to make pipes.
• New Mexico: bears a Native American symbol at its centre.

Other stones

• Corporation of the City of New York: based partly on a design from about 1654, it shows a Native American and an early Dutch immigrant, marking the importance of early trade, especially in beaver pelts.
• From Braddock's Field: George Washington served as an aide-de-camp to General Braddock in the French and Indian War, at the Battle of the Monongahela where Braddock was fatally wounded. Many historians argue that Braddock, despite his larger force, was at a disadvantage because he had no Native American allies.

The Improved Order of Red Men

Inspired by the Boston Tea Party — when white men disguised as Mohawk people dumped 342 chests of tea into Boston Harbor to protest Britain's tax on tea — the Improved Order of Red Men was a whites-only fraternity until 1974. The Park Service notes the contradiction of a group that borrowed Native names and customs while Native people themselves were being erased, a pattern repeated throughout history. Two of its lodges gave stones, each named after a Native nation:

• Anacostia Tribe No. 3, named after the Nacotchtank, or Anacostans, who lived along the Anacostia River, including in what is now Washington.
• Tuscarora Tribe No. 5, named after the Tuscarora, a nation of the Great Lakes region, including New York and Canada.

Sources

• National Park Service, National Mall and Memorial Parks, "Native Connections to the Commemorative Stones inside the Washington Monument." https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/native-connections-to-the-commemorative-stones-inside-the-washington-monument.htm
• Corrections: the source's garbled "The tips of the represents" is read as the points of the seal's star, its "aides to camp" as aide-de-camp, and its "Battle of Monongahela" as the Battle of the Monongahela.
• Rewritten in hubnx's own words.