The Crow were always friendly to whites – perhaps because they realized being unfriendly to whites would end poorly. This is a re-issue of an interview between Frank Linderman and Plenty-Coups conducted in 1930.

Most of the book is Plenty-Coups’ stories of his early life – raids against the Sioux, the Cheyenne, and the Arapahoe – sometimes all at once. There are tales of sneaking into an enemy camp to steal horses, and of hand-to-hand battles. One thing I found interesting is Plenty-Coups is always full of praise for his enemies – “that Sioux was a good warrior”; “that Cheyenne fought well” – before killing them. In time, Plenty-Coups became the archetypical “wise old Indian chief” and was chosen to represent all Native Americans at the dedication of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in 1921. He’s quoted as advising the Crow “Get a white man’s education; without it you are a white man’s victim, with it you are his equal”. When he died in 1932, the Crow unanimously voted never to elect another principal chief; he willed his house and land to Montana as a state park.

An easy, interesting, and exciting read. Pictures of Plenty-Coups and various aspects of Crow life. Introduction and afterword to this (2002) edition by Crow. Maps of Plenty-Coups’ world and a glossary of Crow words (which notes the native name for Crow is Apsáalooke, which translates as “Children of the Large Beaked Bird, and for Plenty-Coups is Alaxchíiahush, “Many War Deeds”). For more on the Crow, see Absaraka, Home of the Crows and The Crow Indians. ( )

"Plenty-Coups: Chief of the Crows" is a wonderful autobiographyical, as-told-to-the-author FRank B. Linderman, no-holds-barred account of the pre-reservation life of Plenty-Coups, the last great Chief of the Crow Nation. Plenty-Coups talks about his childhood, youth and manhood in the tribe's pre-reservation days and leads into the era when the Crow allied themselves with the U.S. Army against neighboring tribes. The Cheyenne and Lakota Sioux had long been engaged in warfare with the Crow in an attempt to thoroughly destroy the Crow and take over their lands. As Chief, Plenty-Coups successfully led his tribe from their Plains Indian life into reservation life---so successful that the Crow retained most all their land. They never fought against the US government. His Crow contemporaries and more recent tribal members included in this "New Edition," 2002, accord him great honor as their most important Chief in history.

Plenty-Coups' voice is clearly heard through the written text. His joy in childhood and warring activities is palpable, as well as entirely candid about topics that often offend European-American sensibilities. Plenty-Coups has provided the reader with one of the most real accounts of Plains Indian lifeways in the North American continent before Indians were relegated to reservations. The book covers Crow childhood games, processes of teaching skills for adulthood, youthful exploits, spiritual life, marriage and wars for survival of the tribe. Plenty-Coups ends his story at the point when the tribe was limited to a reservation by the US government. Linderman continues the story with information on how Plenty Coup led his tribe into the new world of a Euro-American dominant society, culture and government.

Plenty-Coups' spoken autobiography recorded with the observations of author Frank B. Linderman is a necessary read before beginning author Jonathan Lear's book "Radical Hope: Ethics in the Face of Cultural Devastation." This latter book is well worth reading by those who are interested in the intersection of cultural anthropology, philosophy and ethics.

I was nudged to read this classic by an article in Montana Quarterly. It is a rare glimpse into the life and motivations of the chief of the Crow Indians back when the Plains were filled with buffalo and roving Flathead enemies... The illustrations in the original are authentic drawings of Native Americans back in the day.... probably not politically correct today.