Plenty Coups (1848-1932) was both a political and religious leader for the Crow nation during a period of great change. U.S. government expansion into the West revolutionized Indian life on the Plains. While neighboring Sioux and Cheyenne tribes reacted by taking a military stance against white settlement, Plenty Coup encouraged alliances with European settlers and used diplomacy to try to preserve the Crow homeland and protect tribal rights.  His is a story of HOW different styles of encounter and exchange influenced historical outcomes.

Secondary Sources

Gildart, Bert, “A Place of Peace,” Montana Outdoors, March-April 2004

Norman Wiltsey, "Plenty Coups: Statesman Chief of the Crows," Montana The Magazine of Western History, Vol. 13, No. 4 (Autumn, 1963):. 28-39  

Hoxie, Frederick, Parading through History: The Making of the Crow Nation in America, 1805-1935. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995

Bauch, Jerry, Children of the Large Beaked Bird: History and Culture of the Crow Nation, self published, 2002

Old Coyote, Lloyd and Helene Smith, Apsaalooka: The Crow Nation Then and Now, MacDonal/Sward Publishing Company, Greensburg, Pennsylvania, 1993.

Primary Sources at the Montana Historical Society

Linderman, Frank B. ed., Plenty Coups: Chief of the Crows, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, Nebraska, 2002. 

Primary Sources in Edited Collections

Calloway, Collin G., ed. Our Hearts Fell to the Ground: Plains Indian Views on How the West Was Lost, Bedford Books, Boston 1996,  86-87.

Primary and Secondary Sources on the Internet

Plenty Coups State Monument: http://fwp.mt.gov/parks/visit/parkSiteDetail.html?id=283264

Plenty Coups Biography, “Your Dictionary:” http://www.yourdictionary.com/biography/plenty-coups

Chief Plenty Coups State Park website: http://www.nezperce.com/pcmain.html (provides historical photographs) 

Vertical Files at the Montana Historical Society

Plenty Coups 1 and 2