WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI) applauded the launch of the U.S. Mint’s 2025 Native American $1 Coin featuring Mary Kawena Pukui, a landmark scholar credited by many as preserving and protecting Native Hawaiian language and culture. In 2021, Senator Hirono sent a letter to then-Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen urging the U.S. Mint to feature three prominent women from Hawaii in the American Women Quarters Program. All three of the women suggested by Senator Hirono were selected—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 will be on the $1 coin.
“Mary Kawena Pukui’s work, from her translations to compositions, have sustained Hawaiian language and culture for generations,” said Senator Hirono. “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.”
The coin’s design features Mary Kawena Pukui wearing a hibiscus flower, a kukui nut lei, and a muumuu with leaves from the kukui nut tree. There is an also an inscription with “Nana I Ke Kumu,” the title of a series of books that Pukui helped to produce with the Queen Liliuokalani Children’s Center.
The Native American $1 Coin Program was launched in 2009 in celebration of the important contributions made by Indian tribes and indigenous people to the history and development of the United States.
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