Meet Polly Cooper, who walked over 200 miles in the snow to feed Washington’s starving army
Polly Cooper, a woman from the Oneida tribe, played a crucial role in the American Revolutionary War by leading a group that delivered food to George Washington's starving Continental Army at Valley Forge. Despite her significant contribution, her story has largely been preserved through oral tradition rather than official colonial records.
Why it matters
It highlights the often-overlooked contributions of Indigenous women to American history and the importance of oral tradition in preserving cultural narratives.
Her picture is still circulating in millions of pockets every day, and yet her story remains largely untold. Flip the U.S. Mint’s 2026 Sacagawea $1 coin, and you will see her: Polly Cooper, a woman from the Oneida tribe who helped George Washington’s Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. Chances are, you still have these coins without realising it is the woman on them. This is the woman who kept an army alive when it was falling apart. She asked for nothing in return, perhaps the very reason she has faded from the pages of history.She walked 200 miles in the snow to feed an army In April 1778, a group of 47 Oneida warriors departed Kanonwalohale (located in present-day Vernon, New York), with something more valuable than weapons: food. The Continental Army was collapsing under cold and hunger.
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