Plenty Coups (1848-1932) was both a political and religious leader for the Crow nation during a period of dramatic 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.  

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