Face of Gold

BY KAREN DAY

“I was the first person in my family to go to college,” says Randy’L He-dow Teton. “And when I left Idaho to get my degree (BA-University of New Mexico), I never imagined coming back with my face on a coin.” In 2000, Teton, a member of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribe, was selected to be the model for the face on the Sacajawea Gold Dollar, representing far more than its monetary value. “The image doesn’t represent me,” Teton says, “it represents all Native American women. All women have the dignity of the Golden Dollar’s image.”

“I had a wonderful upbringing on the Fort Hall Reservation,” says Teton today, the eldest of five siblings and now a mother of three children. “I grew up watching my father and grandfather ride out on horses at dawn and come home at dusk with a deer. I never bought meat in my life until I went to college. It was so expensive; I wondered how people afforded it!”

Teton has used her golden opportunity to enrich the lives of all Native Americans. “The national public platform offered me a chance to encourage and inspire the aspiration for higher education in our culture. You can’t even be a secretary for our Tribal Council without a college degree,” she explains.

In the Shoshoni language, “He-dow” means “meadowlark,” a species known for its bright songs that begin at sunrise and continue even while they fly. Fittingly, Teton is the Public Affairs Manager of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribe and a tribal consultant on tribal history and government in Fort Hall, Idaho. She stays busy with a robust public speaking career and First Peoples advocacy as an independent entrepreneur with FACE OF GOLD, with podcast appearances, and by writing articles for national publications (like IdaHome).

MEDALION BY ARTIST BRODIE SANCHES