Cross Reference: Fort Clark as a Studio
“Within a Plains tribe, coup marks defined a warrior. In a 1911 interview, for instance, Minitari warriors Tseca Matseítsi and Butterfly accounted for each member of their Mi'maúpaki (Stone Hammer) society cohort through their accumulated coup marks of kills, wounds, strikes, and horses shot in battle, while the two men struggled to answer their interrogator’s questions about their friends’ exact ages.[58] In the tightly woven social structures of Awatíkihu villages, as previously discussed, a warrior was known by his deeds, and these deeds were in turn the claims he must have to be a leader, such as village war chief or society leader—both of which were positions that Mató-Tópe held at the time of the Europeans’ visit.[59] But among the Numak'aki, only a warrior had the right to his coup marks, in either visual or oral form.[60] One had to do one’s own telling.” Go to page