History: Crow Chief Plenty Coups Legacy Lives On

Photo of Chief Plenty Coups house. (Vannoy photo)

The Crow Tribe has always been a part of Sheridan’s history, with the reservation being only 70 miles away in neighboring Montana.  At one time the land that Sheridan occupies was once Crow County. 

Chief Plenty Coups was a Crow leader who helped his people transition from the nomadic life to the reservation life in the late 1880s.  Through a vision, he had the foresight and the knowledge to lead his people to the new life. 

In honor of the famous chief, each year on Labor Day there is the Chief Plenty Coups Day of Honor held at the Chief Plenty Coups State Park near Pryor, Montana.  This year, the 28th Day of Honor will be held on September 2.

Ellsworth Goes Ahead, of the Chief Plenty Coups Honor Guard at the recent Crow Fair, issued this invitation to everyone.

Some events will include a presentation of flags by the Chief Plenty Coups Honor guard; a buffalo feed; Crow drumming and dancers, and special speakers and presentations.  The park is located at 1 Edgar Road, Pryor, Montana.  Everyone is welcome to the event.

At the park is Chief Plenty Coups trading store, his two-story house, and a visitors’ center and museum dedicated to the Crow chief. In 1884, the chief chose for his allotment of land a piece near a sacred spring. Jerome Hugs, of the Chief Plenty Coup honor guard, at the 2023 Crow Fair, said this about Chief Plenty Coups house. 

Plenty Coups was well-known during the early part of the 20th Century in the West. He was one of those who was at the dedication of the Tomb of the Unknown Solider in 1921, representing not only the Crow Tribe but also all Native Americas. The current Honor Guard was asked to come back to the re-dedication of the Tomb at the 100- -year-anniversary in 2021. 

As can be seen from the newspaper coverage, Coups was also spelled Coos.

This from The Sheridan Post, January 29, 1918 – This was from the Congressional Record. (In the house, December 12, 1917) Uncle Joe Cannon, said: …..Since the passing of the buffalo, every day has been to the Indian, comparatively speaking, a meatless day. It was Chief Plenty Coups, chief of all the Crow nation who said: “The antelope have gone; the buffalo wallows are empty. Only the wail of the coyote Is heard. The white man’s medicine is stronger than ours; his iron horse runs over the buffalo trail. He talks to us through his ‘whispering spirit.” (The Indians name for the telegraph and telephone).

But other than his sacrifices of his love of the buffalo days and his change in occupation can be shown in other influences that are coming over him and even greater sacrifices that he is making. Chief Plenty Coups, chief of the Crow nation, said: “The Great Father ordered that we should stop fighting and live in peace, and since that time we have had allotment of land, schools have been built for the education of our children and I shall live for my country and shall remain in peace, as I feel peaceful toward my country.”

Years later, in November of 1921, after World War One, Marshal Foch of France visited the Custer Battlefield in Montana. This from The Sheridan Enterprise, November 27, 1921 – Chief Plenty Coups is to Welcome White Chief At Crow Agency Monday will be a gala day at Crow Agency. On that day Marshal Foch of France, and representatives of the interior department at Washington, D. C, officials’ of the American Legion, and other dignitaries will spend several hours at the Agency and looking over Custer’s battlefield and cemetery. There Marshall Foch and his party will be greeted by Chief Plenty Coups and other Indians; chieftains and tribesmen, who have arranged an elaborate and picturesque entertainment program for the distinguished visitors.

A number of Sheridan residents, including several Legion members from Donald Garbutt Post, No. 7, are planning to make the trip to Crow Agency late tomorrow or Monday to attend the ceremonies.  Word received here today from Billings was that the official itinerary of Marshal Foch shown that his special train will enter Montana over the Northern Pacific railroad from Bismarck, N. D., Sunday evening, reaching Miles City, Mont, at 10 p. m.

The train is scheduled to reach Billings at 4 o’clock Monday morning, mountain time. There it will be routed over the Burlington for the run to Crow Agency, reaching there at 7:30 o’clock Monday morning. The entire day Monday, it is expected, will be spent by Marshal Foch at Crow Agency and Custer’s battlefield. Only a brief stop is contemplated in Billings, it Is said, but arrangements are under way for a huge demonstration upon arrival of the marshal’s special train.

A large number of Billings residents and members of the Legion post there will proceed to Crow Agency on the special train or by automobile to attend the Indian exercises.

The Moorcroft Democrat, December 2, 1921 had this report on the ceremony. Billings. — In the center of a semicircle of brilliantly bedizen Crow tribesmen. Chief Plenty Coups, Monday morning at Crow Agency proclaimed Marshal Foch a chief of the tribe and gave him Hie name of Ah-Way-Ko-Ta Bah-Che-Chish,” which means Chief of Chiefs, literally, but, as Plenty Coos prefers it, “Napoleon of Napoleons.”

While three motion picture machines and more scores of Kodaks clicked, the marshal was presented to the Indians by Solicitor Edwin C. Booth of the department of the interior, who then introduced Lieutenant Governor Nelson Story, who welcomed the marshal on behalf of the state. Chief Plenty Coos then advanced to a place before the marshal, and the two drew three puffs each on a ceremonial pipe.  Returning to the agency, the marshal was greeted by the Crow joy song, with special words celebrating the arrival of the great warrior who had defeated “Iron Hat,” the Crow name for Kaiser Willhelm. An owl and a war dance preceded the conferring of many gifts on the marshal end the French and American officers. After this Chief Plenty Coos in a five-minute speech named Foch a fellow chieftain.

This story about the Crow tribe and Plenty Coups appeared in the Powell Tribune, June 23, 1916 – In connection with the observance of the fortieth anniversary of the (Custer) massacre, preparations for which are being made in Billings and elsewhere, the following account of the fight, taken from the Sheridan Post will be interesting:

The Crow Indians, because they did not take part in the last campaigns against the whites, have gone into some histories as an indolent, un-warlike race. That is manifestly unfair. The Crows were always great fighters and held their own against their enemies, the other Indian tribes, for centuries, holding as their hunting grounds one of the fairest lands in the northwest.

The reason they were not allied with the Sioux and Cheyenne tribes, against the whites in the campaigns, which the Battle of the Little Big Horn was an incident, is that they had after long council, decided that their hope lay with the whites; that, by aiding the whites against the other tribes, they would help them to retain their hunting grounds. Vain hope. The Crows did their part, doing yeoman service of the white soldiers as scouts and military, only to find. when the campaigns were over, that much of the land they had fought for had passed into white ownership, that their empire had shrunk to a reservation; that they were just “redskins” after all.

The Battle of the Little Big Horn, where Custer made his last stand, is located within the present confines of the Crow reservation, and, at the memorial celebration which will be held on June 25th the fortieth day of remembrance of the battle the Crows will be much in evidence.

They will be led by their famous chief Plenty Coups who was their chief in 1876, and whose name itself signifies a famous and daring fighter. Among Indian warriors, he, who first engaged in personal combat with a foe, or who first touched the body of a foeman, dead or alive, was held to have achieved a “coup.” For each such ”coup” he was entitled to add one eagle feather to his “coup stick,’ inseparable companion of every warrior. So many such eagle feathers did Plenty Coups win that his coup stick became noticeable in any gathering and after Indian fashion, be gained the recognition which best fitted him. The Indian pronounces “coups” as though spelled coos.” so that Plenty Coups is generally called Plenty Coos.

The Crow Indian camp, on the date of the anniversary, will be situated almost upon the exact spot where the Sioux and Cheyennes had their camp when attacked by General Custer’s command, forty years before. With them will be camped the visitors from other reservations, the Sioux, Cheyenne. Rees and Blackfeet Indians, have been sent these tribes, and the request made the Indian department that permission be given for the invitations to be accepted, to send as many representatives as possible and particularly to send those men who are survivors of the battle and their leading chiefs.

Chief Plenty Coups legacy lives on. A chief by the time he was 28, he helped to bridge the gap between the two cultures. The Chief Plenty Coup state park has his house, farmstead, store, the sacred spring, and a visitor’s center and museum.