(Image courtesy of U.S. Mint)

The U.S. Mint’s 2025 Native American $1 Coin features Native Hawaiian scholar Mary Kawena Pukui.

Pukui was an author, hula dancer, composer, educator, archivist and keeper of Native Hawaiian knowledge. She died in 1986 at age 91. 

In 2021, Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, sent a letter then-Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen urging the U.S. Mint to honor three prominent women from Hawaii in the American Women Quarters Program. Edith Kanakaole was featured on a quarter in 2022, Congresswoman Patsy T. Mink was featured on a quarter in 2023, and now Mary Kawena Pukui is on the $1 coin.

“Mary Kawena Pukui’s work, from her translations to compositions, have sustained Hawaiian language and culture for generations,” said Sen. Mazie Hirono in a statement. “She was a prominent Native Hawaiian scholar, author, composer, and dancer dedicated to strengthening and preserving Hawaiian culture. I am glad to see the Mint honoring Mary Kawena Pukui on this year’s Native American $1 Coin design, and hope that people across the country will learn more about her valuable contributions to uplift Native Hawaiian language, history, and culture.”

Launched in 2009, the Native American $1 Coin program honors and recognizes the important contributions made by Indian tribes and individual Native Americans, according to the U.S. Mint. 

The coin’s “heads” side includes a portrait of Sacagawea carrying her infant son Jean-Baptiste, while the “tails” side features Mary Kawena Pukui wearing a hibiscus flower, a kukui nut lei, and a muʻumuʻu. In the background, there are stylized depictions of water and the saying “Nānā I Ke Kumu,” which translates to “Look to the Source.” 

Nānā I Ke Kumu is the title of a series of books that Pukui helped produce with the Queen Liliʻuokalani Children's Center. According to the U.S. Mint, the phrase is evocative of Pukui’s life, work, and legacy, as she was someone who was consulted for her expertise on various aspects of Hawaiian knowledge.