Chief Plenty Coups' bronze sculpture lies near the Chamber of Commerce and is located North or town, near the intersection of 3rd Street (Highway 78) and Broadway Ave (Highway 212).
The following is a quote from Linderman's biography of Plenty Coups which is also shown on the permanent plaque near the monument.
"The buffalo gone and freedom denied him, the Indian was visited by two equally hideous strangers, famine and tuberculosis. He could cope with neither. His pride broken he felt himself and outcast, a beggar in his own country. It was now that Plenty Coups became the real leader of his people."
The following is a statement that chief Plenty Coups made that reveals his greatness (it is also displayed on the permanent plaque):
"All my life I have tried to learn as the chickadee learns by listening, profiting by the mistakes of others, that I may help my people. I hear the white man say there will be no more war. But this cannot be true. There will be other wars. Men have not changed, and whenever they quarrel they will fight as they have always done.
We love our country because it is beautiful, because we were born here. Strangers will covet it and someday try to possess it as surely as the sun will come tomorrow. Then there must be war, unless we have grown to be cowards without love in our hearts for our native land. And whenever war comes between this country and another, your people will find my people pointing their guns with yours. "If ever the hands of my people hold the rope that keeps this country's flag high in the air, it will never come down while an Absarokee (Crow) warrior lives."
Crow country once ranged from Three Forks to the Black Hills, from the Musselshell to the Big Horn Mountains. Red Lodge was a place of worship, food and protection for the Crow people when it was theirs. Please respect it and love it. It is a very good place.
For info on Red Lodge and things to do and see in and around Red Lodge, see the following article from Montana Magazine: Red Lodge - Gateway to the Beartooths .
Gerry Khatchikian, ASA, TRC (4 languages spoken: English, French, Spanish, Armenian)
Realtor Associate
ASA: Associate of the Society of Actuaries TRC: Transnational Referral Certification
All photos and/or written content produced by Gerry Khatchikian. All rights reserved and may not be reproduced or reprinted without express written permission of Gerry Khatchikian, Realtor Associate.
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