---
title: Project Embraces Tribal History With Modern Technology
date: 2024-11-21T05:30:00-05:00
author: University of Maryland
canonical_url: "https://today.umd.edu/project-embraces-tribal-history-with-modern-technology"
section: Articles
---
# Project Embraces Tribal History With Modern Technology

*November 21, 2024* — by [Annie Krakower](/author/annie-krakower)


> Piscataway, UMD Team Up to 3D-Print Replicas of Peace Medals

*Piscataway Peace Medals 3 D Printing 11192024 JC 9062 1920x1080 — Bobby Alban ’25, an aerospace engineering major and technical coordinator for Terrapin Works, removes 3D-printed peace medals from the SLM 125 metal printer in the Chemical and Nuclear Engineering Building on Tuesday. The replicas will serve as accessible educational tools for Piscataway youth, UMD students and others around the DMV.*

Motors whirred and lasers sparked in the Chemical and Nuclear Engineering Building this week, and the safety glass on an advanced 3D metal printer was at once a window into the future of manufacturing and a centuries-old Indigenous past.

The Piscataway Tribe, on whose ancestral lands the University of Maryland sits, is collaborating with the A. James Clark School of Engineering’s [Terrapin Works](https://terrapinworks.umd.edu/) makerspace to create replicas of three peace medals, 2-inch silver tokens of goodwill that colonists presented to Native leaders in the 1600s and 1700s. The 3D-printed artifacts, made from the nickel-chromium-based superalloy Inconel on industrial-grade printers around campus, will serve as accessible educational tools for Piscataway youth, UMD students and others around the DMV.

“We want to be able to tell the full and complete story,” said Piscataway tribal member and historian Mario Harley. “(The replicas) become a physical reminder that people can come see and touch to be able to understand this aspect of not only colonial Maryland history or colonial Pennsylvania history, but also early American history.”


*six 3D-printed peace medals — 3D-printed medals from the SLM 125 metal printer*




**Topics:** [Campus & Community](https://today.umd.edu/tags/campus-community)


**Tags:** [History](https://today.umd.edu/topic/history), [Student Experience](https://today.umd.edu/topic/student-experience), [Multicultural Community](https://today.umd.edu/topic/multicultural-community)


**Units:** [A. James Clark School of Engineering](https://today.umd.edu/topic/james-clark-school-engineering)