Plenty Coups

The chief and the chickadee

By: Cal Cumin | January 28, 2017

Chief Plenty Coups, last of the great Crow chiefs, in battle wore the legs and feet of the chickadee braided in the long black hair behind his ear. After listening to an early vision received by this future chief, the Crow Elders told Plenty Coups, “The chickadee is your medicine. We must be wise like the chickadee.” And he honored this tiny bird throughout his life. Power from and communication between species is something most people don’t believe in now—or even try to understand. (more…) Continue Reading →

Adrian Jawort: Recollections of Joe Medicine Crow

By: Adrian Jawort | April 4, 2016

Some 14 years ago I sat in the back of a van along with a group of Little Big Horn College students on their way to pick up Joe Medicine Crow before going across the border to Ucross, Wyo., home of the Ucross Foundation Art Gallery and temporary display area of the Barstow Collection of ledger art. (more…) Continue Reading →

Prairie Lights: Three favorite books, non-candidate division

By: Ed Kemmick | September 20, 2015

I was recently asked by a community group that will be interviewing Billings City Council candidates if I had any questions for the candidates. My suggestion wasn’t really a question, it was this: “Name your three favorite books.” (more…) Continue Reading →

Prairie Lights: Thanks to my kids, partial bragging rights

By: Ed Kemmick | July 19, 2015

I don’t mean to boast, but my people go way back. One branch of the family, the one that takes the Bible literally, says we go back to Adam and Eve. Some of them even claim to have a sliver of the fig leaf once owned by Eve. I’m a little skeptical about that, but who knows? (more…) Continue Reading →

Reading Montana

By: Ed Kemmick | January 7, 2015

Editor’s note: When this Lay of the Land series started, I explained how it came into being by accident, after several people sent me unsolicited essays. Now, having published 16 of these pieces, all of them looking at life in Montana, we have come to the end of the twice-a-month series. (more…) Continue Reading →

Ben Pease, paintbrush storyteller

By: Ed Kemmick | January 28, 2014

Ben Pease says “Last Good Man,” his many-layered portrait of Crow Chief Plenty Coups, is his signature piece. It is the richest expression of a style of painting he calls “American Indian Narrative,” in which a portrait sits in the midst of other images, other media, other forms of storytelling. Pease himself has a chief-like bearing. He is tall and solidly built, like the college football player he once was, but at the age of 24 he carries himself with a calm gracefulness, and his habitual smile can be disarming. His portrait of Plenty Coups is on display at Mr. A’s Fine Art Gallery in Hardin, along with other of his works. Continue Reading →

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