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Counting Coup and Cutting Horses: Intertribal Warfare on the Northern Plains, 1738-1889
Counting Coup and Cutting Horses is the comprehensive history of more than 150 years of intertribal warfare between northern Plains tribes and a study of the complex rivalries that prevailed among the Native societies that migrated into and around the region. It is a sweeping drama about the warriors’ perpetual search for glory—from the plains of Nebraska to the grasslands of Saskatchewan, from the fields of Minnesota to the forests of Montana. It is also about the attempts of private interests (such as fur trading companies) and the U.S. government to control tribal warfare for their own purposes, and, ultimately, to end it.
Anthony R. McGinnis consulted a wide variety of sources, including early travelers’ accounts, government reports, and studies by other authorities, to provide a full account of the intricate cultural systems of the Arapahos, Assiniboines, Blackfeet, Sioux, Shoshonis, and Cheyennes. Depicting one of the most fascinating periods in western history, Counting Coup and Cutting Horses describes warriors such as Dull Knife, Plenty Coups, and Sitting Bull; women such as Sacagawea, Deer Little Woman, and Buffalo Calf Road; the cycle of raids and revenge; the impact of horses and guns; and the role of the American and Canadian governments.
Anthony R. McGinnis consulted a wide variety of sources, including early travelers’ accounts, government reports, and studies by other authorities, to provide a full account of the intricate cultural systems of the Arapahos, Assiniboines, Blackfeet, Sioux, Shoshonis, and Cheyennes. Depicting one of the most fascinating periods in western history, Counting Coup and Cutting Horses describes warriors such as Dull Knife, Plenty Coups, and Sitting Bull; women such as Sacagawea, Deer Little Woman, and Buffalo Calf Road; the cycle of raids and revenge; the impact of horses and guns; and the role of the American and Canadian governments.
272 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 1990
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
April 22, 2024
Very good raid-by-raid summary of the shifting alliances and agonists between the northern Plains Tribes. Author has a particular affinity for the Crow tribe's successful fight against the odds of multiple larger antagonists...which is great for me because I find that a fascinating and overlooked nation in plains history.
June 21, 2021
I enjoyed this book, although I agree with other reviewers that, after a while, it seemed to become a study of the same thing over and over again. There were variations on the central theme but, in my view, they were not sufficiently significant or different to propel the narrative along in an interesting way. Thus, I felt the book bogged down a bit in the last 40-50 pages. Nevertheless, it contains a wealth of information presented in a clear and convincing manner. I became convinced of the correctness of the author's conclusion that warriors from the various tribes went to war more often than not to gain individual honors rather than for economic gain.
August 31, 2016
This book is rich in accounts of tribal altercations starting late 1700s to late 1880s which saw the end of Indian war culture and their reduced mobility to within reservation boundaries. The book starts fresh and interesting but towards the middle turns repetitive as the same process of warfare is recounted through new eyes. The author has deeply reached into many accounts of fur traders travels, government agencies workers, treaties, missionaries, and oral stories from elder Indians to weave the story of the transformation of the Indian way of life. The introduction of horses and guns changed the interactions between the dozens of tribes living in the Great Plains and started a process of mobility for finding better hunting grounds and the most honorable counting coups. The rise of the Sioux through a strong alliance with the Cheyennes eventually made them the focus of the Americans who strategized against them by finding allies amongst their enemy tribes and giving them help in exchange of giving up their land to live in protected reservations. The high point of the Sioux domination was in the 1870s when Crazy horse defeats general Custer in the battle of the Little Bighorn. With the reduction of bison hunting territory and the increasing invasiveness of the American army and better understanding of inter tribal warfare, the 1880s saw the final decline of a culture which continued to live in the imagination of the few. The book ends with a very helpful final chapter on primary source bibliography for every period discussed in the books, such as the works of Jean Baptiste Trudeau ("Journals") and David Thompson ("Narratives of his Explorations in Western America, 1784-1812") for late 1700s, the works of Edwin Denig ("Five Indian Tribes of the Upper Missouri") for 1840-1850s, writings of Maximilian, Prince of Wied (Travels in the Interior of North America) whom he praises for scientific objectivity and many others from fur traders, christian missionaries and american indian agency employees.
February 9, 2022
After reading this book I have to say that [no matter how unfortunate it may sound] demise of native Americans in the great plains area was very much their doing than it was influence of many other outside factors (Europeans moving into their territory and explosion of newly introduced diseases).
Book is full of author's awkward attempts to be awed by native American way of living followed by downplaying the effect of their inter-tribal conflict (and he does this in a funny and a rather circular fashion) and then trying to introduce the Europeans as main cause of pressure (white men as he calls them although this included whole bunch of nations and races at the time) and then [again] downplay settler's effect (like in they could not actually affect anything because they did not know what they were doing (?)) and present native Americans as main actors again. And so on, in never-ending circles.
What comes out of this book is that in 19th century native Americans were only interested in keeping their own way of life which centered on gaining glory points either through ritual combat, actual combat, hunting and stealing horses from enemy. In a society that did not allow for any other way of achieving social status it is no wonder that native Americans did not want to pick up the peaceful way of life (as in forbidding raiding parties for good). This way native Americans basically boxed themselves in and soon lost any way of adapting to the new situation until it was too late, when they encountered a methodical enemy that had all the resources of the world at its back.
When they arrived, Europeans tried to put an end to this never-ending conflict. Some came with altruistic goals only, some in order to end the conflict for their own ends - in any case I do not see what would be the difference because goal was to pacify the region [and do remember that at the start of 19th century US army was still not active in these parts]. They all tried to engage the tribes to finally make peace. Unfortunately this never worked out because for Plains' tribes peaceful way of life was not something they wanted. So they broke the rules over and over again. As time went by, various government agents tried to fight for their assigned tribes' rights but with the shortsightedness that usually follows such endeavors in bureaucratic organizations. They each saw their own tribes as sole victims and pushed for US government support for them.
And this caused further escalations (since tribes felt protected to do what they want) and soon new raids would take place. Until a point of time when US government decided enough is enough and finally pushed more armed man into the theater after building very large net of forts and communication lanes that encircled the Plains' tribes' living areas. Now Plains' tribes engaged the US army as if it were just another tribe and this was the final mistake they made - US army was maybe just another tribe but methodical one that accepted the fight and the losses but also pushed on until they finally won the conflict.
Inability to adapt, inability to organize and create longer-lived alliances and position themselves as a force to be reckoned with, all of these elements brought the demise of Plains' tribes and sealed their fate in reservations. Ignoring the fact that US army is the major force that fights in a very different way and aims to achieve something in the long run is also something that Plains' tribes missed and finally payed the price for.
To speak of inter-tribal warfare as something ritualistic is a stupid thing. War is a war and tribal war is most deadly form of war ever (if you do not believe just look at inter gang warfare (modern tribal structures) - it is bloody and has high casualty rate (not as in industrial warfare but when compared to number of participants)). Author tries to present inter tribal conflict in this ritualistic light but every so often he would state "wait but there was exception" where 50 or more tribe members would be killed. As book goes on these exceptions started becoming more of a norm. It was bloody war that did not chose victims - everyone was a target, men, women and children.
Talk that Plains' tribes would inflict massacres only when they had numerical superiority is also strange. I am not sure if author is aware that even today no modern army will even think about attacking their counterparts if numerical superiority is below 5:1 or even more. This is the plain logic of warfare and is it so strange that practical people like Plains' tribes followed the same logic? You can find the same in wars of ancient Rome, ancient Greece etc. All over the world as a matter of fact.
Interesting book but full of author's attempts to somehow present the inter tribal conflict as something more ritualistic and not that bloodthirsty (?) only to drop this narrative in next paragraph. Or saying that this and that fur company or agency agent was not familiar with tribe's inner works followed almost immediately how that same person showed a very good judgement when anticipating tribe's behavior (?). But in any case it provides very good information on the way tribes functioned and tried to keep their way of life that just was not sustainable in the modern world.
I definitely recommend the book if for nothing else than because of an essay at the end with listing of all bibliographical sources.
Recommended.
Book is full of author's awkward attempts to be awed by native American way of living followed by downplaying the effect of their inter-tribal conflict (and he does this in a funny and a rather circular fashion) and then trying to introduce the Europeans as main cause of pressure (white men as he calls them although this included whole bunch of nations and races at the time) and then [again] downplay settler's effect (like in they could not actually affect anything because they did not know what they were doing (?)) and present native Americans as main actors again. And so on, in never-ending circles.
What comes out of this book is that in 19th century native Americans were only interested in keeping their own way of life which centered on gaining glory points either through ritual combat, actual combat, hunting and stealing horses from enemy. In a society that did not allow for any other way of achieving social status it is no wonder that native Americans did not want to pick up the peaceful way of life (as in forbidding raiding parties for good). This way native Americans basically boxed themselves in and soon lost any way of adapting to the new situation until it was too late, when they encountered a methodical enemy that had all the resources of the world at its back.
When they arrived, Europeans tried to put an end to this never-ending conflict. Some came with altruistic goals only, some in order to end the conflict for their own ends - in any case I do not see what would be the difference because goal was to pacify the region [and do remember that at the start of 19th century US army was still not active in these parts]. They all tried to engage the tribes to finally make peace. Unfortunately this never worked out because for Plains' tribes peaceful way of life was not something they wanted. So they broke the rules over and over again. As time went by, various government agents tried to fight for their assigned tribes' rights but with the shortsightedness that usually follows such endeavors in bureaucratic organizations. They each saw their own tribes as sole victims and pushed for US government support for them.
And this caused further escalations (since tribes felt protected to do what they want) and soon new raids would take place. Until a point of time when US government decided enough is enough and finally pushed more armed man into the theater after building very large net of forts and communication lanes that encircled the Plains' tribes' living areas. Now Plains' tribes engaged the US army as if it were just another tribe and this was the final mistake they made - US army was maybe just another tribe but methodical one that accepted the fight and the losses but also pushed on until they finally won the conflict.
Inability to adapt, inability to organize and create longer-lived alliances and position themselves as a force to be reckoned with, all of these elements brought the demise of Plains' tribes and sealed their fate in reservations. Ignoring the fact that US army is the major force that fights in a very different way and aims to achieve something in the long run is also something that Plains' tribes missed and finally payed the price for.
To speak of inter-tribal warfare as something ritualistic is a stupid thing. War is a war and tribal war is most deadly form of war ever (if you do not believe just look at inter gang warfare (modern tribal structures) - it is bloody and has high casualty rate (not as in industrial warfare but when compared to number of participants)). Author tries to present inter tribal conflict in this ritualistic light but every so often he would state "wait but there was exception" where 50 or more tribe members would be killed. As book goes on these exceptions started becoming more of a norm. It was bloody war that did not chose victims - everyone was a target, men, women and children.
Talk that Plains' tribes would inflict massacres only when they had numerical superiority is also strange. I am not sure if author is aware that even today no modern army will even think about attacking their counterparts if numerical superiority is below 5:1 or even more. This is the plain logic of warfare and is it so strange that practical people like Plains' tribes followed the same logic? You can find the same in wars of ancient Rome, ancient Greece etc. All over the world as a matter of fact.
Interesting book but full of author's attempts to somehow present the inter tribal conflict as something more ritualistic and not that bloodthirsty (?) only to drop this narrative in next paragraph. Or saying that this and that fur company or agency agent was not familiar with tribe's inner works followed almost immediately how that same person showed a very good judgement when anticipating tribe's behavior (?). But in any case it provides very good information on the way tribes functioned and tried to keep their way of life that just was not sustainable in the modern world.
I definitely recommend the book if for nothing else than because of an essay at the end with listing of all bibliographical sources.
Recommended.
March 10, 2017
Covers the history of the northern plains from a unique perspective: intertribal warfare. This perspective is quite helpful in understanding the why's of the US government Indian policies of that era. All too often the history is told from the perspective of whits versus Natives or Natives versus whites, when a huge part of the history (incessant intertribal warfare) gets left untold.
May 22, 2023
Superb read on the Native American of the Northern US and Southern Canada.....
March 13, 2014
A good read for anyone interested in warfare amongst the Indians of the northern plains. Lots of interesting stories, many from the warriors who fought against rival tribes.
September 30, 2014
Boy, how did I lose this book. Great to learn what was important to the Indian. Horses.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews