PLENTY COUPS
Grand Chief of the Crows
One of the
best looking Indians in a tribe noted for good looks, Plenty Coups
stood six feet two - surely as 'straight as an Indian' and had a head
on his shoulders with plenty brains in it.
If we were Indians
and wrote history from the standpoint of the red race, we would class
Plenty Coups among the leading men of the country, just as we class
Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson and some other of our presidents and
statesmen. And Plenty Coups would compare very well with any of them,
as a man and a leader of his people: and, if he had the same education
and training as any prominent white man in American history.
While
the historic battle of the Little Big Horn was fought in the Crow
territory, it was Sitting Bull's camps of several branches of the Sioux
and Blackfeet tribes that were involved as the Crows were and had been
friendly with the whites. The great war Chief, Crazy Horse, led his
warriors in this fight, as he had in any former contests with the
United States armies, and won as he had always won in every battle with
them. Crazy Horse never lost a battle with white troops, in the ten
long years they expended millions in the futile effort to conquer him
and then when he voluntarily surrendered on the promise that his people
would be treated fairly, the vengeful army officers at once violated
their pledge and found a flimsy excuse for arresting him. When he
protested at this vile treachery of officers whom he had a right to
trust, they ran a bayonet through his kidney when his back was turned
and let him lie on the floor of the guard house, suffering untold
agony, until he died. After more than half a century of public
criticism, the Government sponsored the erection of a monument to him
at the scene of this dastardly assassination.
Plenty Coups was
an occasional visitor to the White House during President Harding's
term when photos were made for him: and the Geographic Society
published a group photo of him, with a few others of his tribe, in
colors for the magazine several years ago. For the greater part of his
life, he had many brushes with the Sioux, the tribal enemy, but in
later times, as the country was settled by whites, he was placed in the
front as tribal chief and he became popular wit the white people all
about the region. He was recognized by the Federal Government as an
authority on questions affecting the Northern Tribes and frequently was
called to Washington for consultation in the guiding of Indian affairs
in that northwestern section of the country.
The tall and
dignified Chief took a lively interest in looking over the collection
of Indian relics at the Wigwam. He was interested in Red Cloud's
things, the Sitting Bull tribal pipe and the George Washington Medal of
1789, owned and worn by Hollow-Horn-Bear, and his successor sons, to the
death of the last chief of the name. Suddenly he grasped up from the
cabinet-shelf a horse's hoof with the shoe still on it and asked where
it came from; being told that it was picked up on the Custer battle
field shortly after the fight, by a cowboy who sent it, with the
statement that it was probably from Custer's horse, the Chief examined
it carefully at length. When he had completed his study of it he called
attention of the writer, to the unworn condition of the shoe and the
nails in it. He said that the cavalry horses of some officers had been
shod the day before the fight; he thus accounted for the new shoes and
nails, the size and condition of the hoof, and at once pronounced it
genuine as from one of the cavalry horses. He was there and knew about
the shoeing, as well as the size and condition of their feet and manner
of putting on the shoes; he, of course, could not know whether it was
from Custer's mount.
This shoe and hoof, a bow and arrows
which saw service in it, and the carbine used by Crazy Horse, are
prized relics from that historic fight of June 25, 1876, --the
controversy over which, has not yet been stilled after sixty-six years;
about which volumes without count, have been written and are still
being written. Chief Flying Hawk was with Crazy Horse throughout the
fight and dictated the account of it to the writer. It was published in
CHIEF FLYING HAWK'S TALES, some years ago and the comment of one of the
officials of the famed 7th Cavalry, under the command of Custer in the
fight, was that it was the best account ever written. Only Indians know
what took place, for the white troops and the officers taking part in
the last stand, were all killed, the white man could only guess from
what was found on the field.
Lieutenant Governor Beidleman was
at the Wigwam when Plenty Coups came to call. The Governor was thrilled
when the big Chief, at the writer's suggestion, gave him a short
adoption into the Crow tribe and an Indian name. At the time, Beidleman
was generally agreed upon for next Governor of Pennsylvania, but he died
before that result took place.
Plenty Coups made the address at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Washington, at the time it was dedicated. He said:
"For
the Indians of America I call upon the Great Spirit of the Red Men with
gesture and chant and tribal tongue, that the dead have not died in
vain, that war might end, that peace be purchased by the blood of Red
men and White.
Plenty Coups was born in 1852, and was therefore 24 at the time of the Custer fight. He said: "We were in the fight, we were on the side of the whites - for the Sioux were our enemies."
But very little detail is known of his part in the fight; likely not
very important yet he was not of a boastful nature and let his actions
speak, for his record in this as in all else. Tall and of heavy build,
the Chief became tottery in his old age; he no longer dressed up in his
finery, and took little interest in passing affairs, for the white
man's world was not his kind.
He died March 3rd,1932 and was
buried near his log cabin among the trees that he had planted there, at
the Crow Reservation in Montana. |
