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Plenty Coups (Alaxchiiaahush, roughly “Many Achievements”) was a principal chief of the Apsáalooke, or Crow, people. He led during the move from buffalo-hunting life to the reservation era in what became south-central Montana.
Diplomacy
Plenty Coups worked to protect the Crow homeland through relationships with the U.S. government, traveling to Washington, D.C., several times to argue for Crow interests. He encouraged education and farming as tools for his people to adapt.
In 1921, he represented Native Americans at the dedication of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery, where he laid his war bonnet and coup stick.
His home today
Before he died in 1932, Plenty Coups gave his home and land near Pryor to be used by all people. It is now Chief Plenty Coups State Park, run by Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, with a museum, his house and a sacred spring.
For more background, see our explainers on Senate leader Mike Mansfield and photographer Evelyn Cameron. Find more stories in our People & Profiles section.
Sources
- Montana FWP, Chief Plenty Coups State Park: https://fwp.mt.gov/stateparks/chief-plenty-coups
- Apsáalooke (Crow) Nation: https://www.crow-nsn.gov/
- Arlington National Cemetery history: https://www.arlingtoncemetery.mil/