Ahead of its meeting today in Washington, D.C., the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee (CCAC) has released the candidate design images for the 205 Native American Dollar. The 2025 Native American Dollar will honor Mary Kawena Pukui, a Hawaiian scholar, author, composer, hula expert, and educator.
Mary Abigail Kawenaʻulaokalaniahiʻiakaikapoliopele Naleilehuaapele Wiggin Pukui (20 April 1895 – 21 May 1986), known as Kawena, was a Hawaiian scholar, author, composer, hula expert, and educator. Pukui was educated in the Hawaiian Mission Academy and taught Hawaiian at Punahou School. Pukui was fluent in Hawaiian and collected and translated folk tales, proverbs, and sayings from the age of fifteen. She worked as an ethnological assistant and translator at the Bernice P. Bishop Museum from 1938 to 1961.
She was named a “Living Treasure of Hawaiʻi” by the Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawaiʻi in 1977. In 1995, she was inducted into the Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame. In March 2017, Hawaiʻi Magazine ranked her among the most influential women in Hawaiian history.
The final design for the 2025 Dollar will be announced sometime in 2024. As a reminder, the 2024 Native American Dollar, which will commemorate the 100th anniversary of Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 (also known as the Snyder Act), will be available in January 2024.