The Oneida Woman Who Saved an Army
The story of Polly Cooper and the Oneida Nation
Washington at Valley Forge (1777–1778) (1911) by Edward Percy Moran The White House
The winter of starvation
It was the winter of 1777–1778, and the Continental Army was dying. At Valley Forge, George Washington’s troops were decimated not by British musket balls, but by typhus, smallpox, and a brutal, hollow-bellied hunger. The soldiers were eating their own shoes.
Oneida Chief, His Sister, and a Missionary (1861/1869) by George Catlin National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
While the local farmers often refused to sell to the starving rebels because they feared British retaliation or devalued Continental currency, the Oneida Nation chose a different path.
Joseph Brant (Thayendanegea) (1774) by J.R. Smith U.S. National Archives
They were part of the Iroquois Confederacy, which had pledged neutrality, but many Oneida leaders believed in the cause of liberty.
The long trek
In the spring of 1778, a group of Oneida people led by Chief Skenandoah set out on a grueling hundred-mile trek through the snow and mud from Central New York to Valley Forge. Among them was a woman named Polly Cooper.
You Might Have Tracked the Army from Whitemarsh to Valley Forge by the Blood of Their Feet. Smithsonian's National Museum of American History
They didn't come empty-handed. They carried hundreds of bushels of white corn, a staple of the Oneida diet. When they arrived, the starving soldiers were so desperate they tried to eat the dried corn raw.
Benjamin Hawkins and the Creek Indians (1805) by Unknown Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello
Polly Cooper stepped forward and stopped them. She knew that raw, dried white corn would expand in their stomachs and potentially kill men in such a weakened state.
The kitchen of survival
Polly Cooper stayed to teach the soldiers how to survive. She took charge of the camp kitchens, showing the troops how to properly hull and cook the corn into a nutritious mush and soup and how to prepare nutritional and medicinal food.
mais Tiges entières de maïs à maturité avant la récolte Intercéréales
She refused to take a single cent in payment for her labor or the grain. To her, the act was one of alliance and humanity, and not a business transaction. She stayed with the army through the heat of the summer, nursing the sick and ensuring the troops were fed as they prepared for battle.
Martha Dandridge Custis Washington (c. 1800-1825) by Unidentified Artist and Gilbert Stuart Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery
The black shawl
When the war finally turned and the Continental Army moved on, the officers wanted to reward Polly for her service. When she again refused money, Martha Washington took her to a shop in Philadelphia.
At the shop, she admired a black silk shawl.
The officers purchased the shawl and presented it to her along with a bonnet as a token of gratitude.
Washington at Valley Forge (mid 19th century) by American 19th Century National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
The Cooper family never forgot the gesture. The "Polly Cooper Shawl" was passed down through generations of Oneida women as a sacred heirloom. It is still preserved today, a physical reminder of the woman who walked through the snow to feed a dying army.
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