1 Dollar 'Native American Dollar' Spread of Three Sisters Agriculture

The 2009 Native American Dollar was the first issue under the Native American $1 Coin Act of 2007, which mandated an annual series honoring the contributions of Native Americans — effectively displacing the Sacagawea reverse that had run unchanged since 2000. The Three Sisters subject references the companion planting system of maize, beans, and squash practiced extensively across the Eastern Woodlands and Haudenosaunee agricultural tradition, where each crop supports the others structurally and nutritionally.

Mintage for 2009 collapsed relative to earlier Sacagawea dollars, partly because the Federal Reserve had accumulated a massive surplus of $1 coins it couldn't push into circulation — a problem that would eventually prompt Congress to suspend dollar coin production for circulation entirely in 2011.