Brass military buttons with the figure of a phoenix bird are reported with great regularity from the West Coast of the United States. In spite of the excellent previous research and published conclusions of Emory Strong, there is a wealth of misinformation still being published. The literature, including both historical data and speculation on the original source of the buttons as well as site reports listing such buttons, is assembled and summarized, essentially an annotated bibliography with locational maps, as an additional step in the analysis of these distinctive artifacts . A bipolar distribution -involving burial caches and body ornamentation on the lower Columbia River and use as buttons in mission sites of California -is suggested, but as yet there is a dearth of research tying the two areas together. New directions for additional research include locating unreported buttons, developing distributional studies, verifying the theories of origins, and determining trading patterns.
IntroductionA brief summary of the current theory on the origin of the phoenix buttons is necessary for a clear understanding of the annotations and research questions being asked. Very briefly, the theory is that the buttons were made for Haitian troop uniforms during the reign of Christophe I (1811-1820). Strong (1975) has identified 3 types (flat buttons with only the bird, flat type with a cannon and mortar under the bird, and ball shaped buttons with only the bird), 3 styles (mainly differences in the flames and nest under the bird), 2 sizes (types I and II are 25 mm and 15 mm [1 in. and 0.6 in.], type III are 17 mm and 13 mm [0.7 in. and 0.5 in]), and 18 regimental numbers (1-10, 14, 20, and 25-30). On the basis of back marks found only on the largesize, ball-shaped buttons, it is assumed that all of them were made by Bushby of London. When Christophe committed suicide in 1820, the buttons became surplus and through some, as yet unknown, process were traded to Hawaii, up the Historical Archaeology, 1998,32(2):56-77. Permission to reprint required.
