This General Service button was recovered from the Village on the Pawnee Fork (also called Hancock's Village) in Ness County during excavations in 1977. The button, manufactured by the Scoville Manufacturing Company of Waterbury, Connecticut, measures to 3/4" or ligne 30, which is the size for a military coat. It is decorated with an eagle and shield design with a branch in one eagle claw and arrows in the other. It has a loop shank attachment on the back. The button was cleaned by electrolysis, which passes an electrical current through a liquid solution to separate the rust from the artifact. The Village on Pawnee Fork, home to several hundred Southern Cheyenne and Southern Teton Oglala was destroyed by order of Major General Winifred S. Hancock in 1867. The site is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Date: 1867