Exploits of Plenty Coups, Chief of the Crows

This volume contains the personal recollections of Apsaalooke Chief Plenty Coups as he described them to Willem Wildschut in the early 1920s. The individual narratives focus on Plenty Coups's early years as a warrior when he rose to prominence within the tribe and conclude before he came to be regarded as the principal chief of the entire Apsaalooke Nation in 1907, a position he held after the death of Chief Pretty Eagle in 1904 until his own death in 1932. Autobiographical information of Native leaders of Plenty Coups's status is rare, and without such direct personal narratives, scholars are forced to use external sources in an attempt to reconstruct and contextualize major events as well as the minutiae of daily activities that an individual considered to be pivotal in his or her life. In this particular instance, Plenty Coups's recollections contain information not just about his personal exploits but also provide a wealth of cultural information about the Apsaalooke at the apex of the Plains Indian horse culture in the nineteenth century shortly before the onset of the reservation period.

Bill Mercer

As former Crow Historian Grant Bulltail noted, "This book records the acts of Plenty Coups who stood in the front ranks of battle to protect our sacred lands and culture."

Grant Bulltail