What are the sacred medicine springs?

A vision led Plenty Coups to a place where he would settle. In the vision, he saw that there would be three sacred springs at this place. The dream told him to build his home at the head of one of the springs. Crow Indian people believed that the water of these springs had special power or medicine. There are three sacred springs in the area where Plenty Coups settled. Plenty Coups' spring near the museum and his home is one of them. There are two more springs against the base of the Pryor Mountains. The Crow Indian people believed that the water was sacred because Plenty Coups had envisioned this place. They used the water to purify themselves during ceremonies, to perform sweats and to break the fast of the participants in the sun dance.

The Crow Indian people have always known these mountains as the Arrowhead Mountains long before it became known as the Pryor area. The area we call Pryor Creek today they knew as Arrow Creek or also Horse Creek. There are many sacred sites to them in this area, such as the Medicine Rock or Arrow Rock and the Castle Rocks where many visions took place. This place is also special because of the Little People's Cave and the Baby Place as well as the different battle sites. Therefore, it was logical that a Native American community would be established here.

The Pryor area was a gathering place for Indian people for thousands of years. There is archeological evidence of people living in this area as far back as 11,000 to 12,000 years ago. The Pryor Valley was a huge gathering place for especially Crow Indian people from prehistoric to more recent times. They would gather in this exact vicinity by the hundreds and by the thousands at certain times of the year. Photographs of hundreds of people gathered at Plenty Coups' home or in the Park for different ceremonies verify that this was also a gathering place during Plenty Coups' time. From: Chief Plenty Coups State Park Museum Tour Content