Principally an autobiographical account told to F.B. Linderman.

In his old age, Plenty-Coups (1848-1932), the last hereditary chief of the Crow Indians, told the moving story of his life to Frank B. Linderman, a well-known western writer who had befriended him. First published in 1930, Plenty-Coups is a classic account of the nomadic, spiritual, and warring life of Plains Indians before they were forced onto reservations. Plenty-Coups tells of the great triumphs and struggles of his own life: his powerful medicine dreams, marriage, raiding and counting coups against the Lakotas, fighting alongside the U.S. Army, and the death of General Custer.

Presents the story of Plenty Coups, the last great Chief of the Crow Nation. This title contains a philosophical and ethical inquiry into a people faced with the end of their way of life.

Exploring the links between the nineteenth-century nomadic life of the Crow Indians and their modern existence, this book demonstrates that dislocation and conquest by outsiders drew the Crows together by testing their ability to adapt their traditions to new conditions.

Fur traders observed that no other Indians of the Upper Missouri were so well dressed or bragged of their tribal affiliation as frequently or as vociferously as the Crow. Two Leggings, the teller of the story you are about to read, was above all else a Crow warrior. His story tells us quite as much of tribal values that motivated and guided his actions as it does of his personal escapades. He was one of the last Crow Indians to abandon the warpath.

A rare, documented account of the life of a Crow medicine woman, drawn from interviews conducted by legendary writer and ethnographer Frank Bird Linderman and told in her own words. In the spring of 1931, Pretty-shield, a grandmother and medicine healer in the Crow tribe, met Frank Linderman for a series of interviews. When Linderman asked Pretty-shield about her life, the old woman relaxed and laughed. “We shall be here until we die.” In this rich account, Linderman, using sign language and an interpreter, pieces together the story of Pretty-shield’s extraordinary life, from her youth migrating across the High Plains with her people to their forced settlement on the reservation, to how she became a medicine woman. Pretty-shield vividly recalls the centuries-long traditions of the Crow people, bringing into focus the many complex facets of Crow womanhood and the ways in which Indigenous communities care for each other. Pretty-shield: Medicine Woman of the Crows reveals the everyday concerns and deep-rooted customs of tribal life for a new generation coming to terms with the violence and racism of America’s past, and offers a fascinating and authentic portrait of the Crow, their customs and traditions, their relationship to nature and healing, and the timeless insights of their lived experiences. As Pretty-shield reminds us, “Listen to the old ones. . . keep their wisdom within your heart, and understand that wisdom in your mind.” An essential contribution to the American experience, Pretty-shield illuminates a segment of our society which has for too long been relegated to the shadows of history, and celebrates Crow life and its contributions to our rich culture.