Why are Plenty Coups' trading post, store, garden and orchard meaningful?

Plenty Coups knew that the Crow Indian people would need to learn how to survive now that they were no longer buffalo hunters. He set up a small trading post and store where they would practice trading for the items they needed and where they sold produce from the gardens and apples from his orchards. This is how the Crow Indian people learned a new way of life. In addition to Plenty Coups' house, there was a small building used at different times as a barn or storage building. Plenty Coups used the smaller building as a trading post to try to teach his people the concept of bringing their goods into the trading post to trade for the things that they needed in the modern era, such as flour, sugar, dishes and tools. He also sold produce from his gardens and apples from the orchards that surrounded his home site.

Plenty Coups knew that he had to show by example how his people would provide for themselves in this new and challenging time. They were no longer nomadic buffalo hunters but were confined to one reservation and, as events evolved, to a specific home site. He knew he had to show them how to become farmers, ranchers, orchard growers and garden growers; so they could produce what they needed to survive. Plenty Coups led them very well by those examples in this place that meant so much to them. Not only was it a gathering place for thousands of years before, it is still very much a gathering place today. From: Chief Plenty Coups State Park Museum Tour Content