Chief plenty coups biography

PLENTY COUPS (1848-1932)

Photograph of Crow leader Plenty Coups, taken by Edward Curtis

Plenty Coups (Alaxchiiaahush, or Aleck chea ahoos) was a Crow warrior, diplomat, and mediator. He was born in 1848 at "the cliff that has no pass" in present Billings, Montana. Also known as Bull Who Goes Into (Against) the Wind, he was a Mountain Crow.

Chief Plenty Coups — Little Big Horn College Library

His parents died when he was about ten years old. Orphaned and in grief, he was encouraged by camp criers to go on vision quests. He was adopted by the Little People and guided by eagles, who became his guardians. In a vision in the Crazy Mountains he saw the buffalo disappear and be replaced by cattle, a windstorm destroy all trees except the one in which the chickadee lived, and himself as an old man sitting by a house.

By his mid-twenties Plenty Coups had accomplished each of four war deeds to achieve the distinction of chieftain, or "good man." He carried a Medicine Pipe and Pipe Holder's bag as a leader of the Fox Warrior Society.

One Plenty Coups - Encyclopedia.com HAHA