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Káma-Kapúska! Making Marks in Indian Country, 1833–34

counting coup note 2

“Men’s Age Societies,” volume 10 (1911), Hidatsa-Mandan Reports, Gilbert L. and Frederick N. Wilson Papers, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul, Minnesota (hereafter MHS-Wilson).

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counting coup 4 numak'aki theme plain 2021-04-30T06:07:29-07:00
In Native Plains societies, warriors recounted their brave deeds by counting coup.‍[1] This counting could happen verbally at a variety of community events, such as dances, society meetings, or gatherings that welcomed returned warriors from the hunt or warfare. Sometimes countings were verbal orations; sometimes they were reenactments of deeds. Counting coup also happened visually, through honor marks. Marks could be applied to various material culture objects, including tipis, shields, clothing, or weapons. They could also be painted or tattooed directly onto the body or symbolized through the wearing of particular elements, such as feathers. Systems for counting coup were tribally specific: Numak'aki warriors, for instance, wore carved wooden coup sticks bound into their hair and a distinct tally system of parallel lines and schematic figures to mark deeds.
Counting coup defined a Plains warrior . Individuals knew their fellow óhate (society) members through their deed tallies.‍[2] One’s coup tallies also formed the basis by which a warrior could be chosen as leader later in life. In the Awatíkihu (Five Villages), counting coup followed a system of rights by which only the owner of the coup marks had the right to duplicate them; later, after death, one’s wife, sister, or son could inherit those rights.‍[3] Many of the visual practices recorded by Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied served as a way to count coup—to declare and repeat one’s deeds of bravery—by the various individuals who owned them.

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