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Content by Study Area: Language Arts Discovered in the Field Trip, by Station:

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Use the links to find language arts material at the station of your choice.



 Welcome to the 1st Station : Greeting in Crow

Hi! I'm SHE-LISH-GA, and you are about to go on an awesome field trip using this computer. The best part of it is that we are going to meet a great chief of the Crow Indian people - Chief Plenty Coups.

Can you imagine what it was like to be a Crow Indian more than 100 years ago when Chief Plenty Coups was alive? There's so much to tell you. Did you know that the Crow Indian people believed that animals had special abilities? One of my ancestors even helped Chief Plenty Coups become a great leader. That's why he picked me to guide you on this field trip.

Did you know that you have already learned one Crow Indian word? My name is SHE-LISH-GA, and it means chickadee in the Crow Indian language.

Can you imagine what it would be like to know the president? Chief Plenty Coups did.

Since I can't come out of this computer -- you can't come in, you will have to click on this snappy little picture of me when you want to hear more of the story. Here we go, just follow me!

How do you say "Hello" in the Crow Indian language?

Ka-Hay. Sho'o Daa' Chi: Welcome to the home of Chief Plenty Coups or "Alakchia Ahoosh" as he was known in the Absaaloga language. Absaaloga is the word for Crow Indian. It means the children of the large beaked bird. From: Rich Pittsley Museum Tour Content

In traditional and contemporary Crow culture, it is customary to greet each other with a quick glance away or a blink and nod of the head. If they are wearing a hat, they might tip the brim of the hat. Handshaking is a white man's custom and was only recently accepted as a greeting in Crow culture. You will rarely see Crow people embracing publicly. From: Vincent Goes Ahead, Jr., Museum Tour Content




Welcome to the 2nd Station : Plenty Coups As a Child
Where was Plenty Coups born and where did he live?
We believe that Plenty Coups was born in 1848 in a place that Absaaloga people called "the cliff that has no past." This very much resembles the area around Billings, Montana, with its large sandstone cliffs. He was raised in the way of a typical young boy with a lot of swimming and running as they traveled from place to place and different camping and hunting areas. The Absaaloga, or Crow Indian, people in their language call this area BOPWAH which means "where they shoot the rock with arrows." This name BOPWAH is based upon one of the Crow Indian's legends of sacred places found here in Pryor Gap. If the Crow people were talking in the English language, they would probably say Pryor. If they were talking in their Crow language, which is their predominant language, they would say BOPWAH. To them this means: "That place over there where they shoot the rock with arrows." They all know that as the Pryor vicinity. From: Rich Pittsley Museum Tour Content



Welcome to the 3rd Station : Plenty Coups Becomes an Adult

How did Plenty Coups get his name?
Often, young Indian boys got their adult names by special things that happened during their lives. As a child, Plenty Coups was called Buffalo Who Goes Ahead Of The Wind because he was the first boy brave enough to touch a wounded buffalo bull. As he grew up, he had many great deeds or accomplishments, or coups; so his name became Plenty Coups. Actually, there were a number of different naming processes that young Indian boys went through to achieve their adult names. Plenty Coups' name as a child, Buffalo Who Goes Ahead The Wind, was based upon an experience where all the young boys in the tribe were challenged to count coup or to touch a wounded buffalo bull with a stick. Plenty Coups was the first one who was brave enough to do this. He always tried to be the first and always tried to challenge himself to accomplish as much as he could.

Later on in his life, he likely had other names until eventually he acquired the name Alakchia Ahoosh, or as the white man translates this name today, Plenty Coups, where coups means an achievement. From: Rich Pittsley Museum Tour Content