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Chief Plenty Coups and Marshal Foch at the “Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
On November 11, 1921, for the consecration of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Arlington National Cemetery, Chief Plenty Coups, a Crow Indian, had been chosen to represent all Native Americans. He came to the ceremony with gifts, a warbonnet and a coup stickand captured the audience with a moving speech, saying among other things that he was "glad to represent all the Indians of the United States in placing on the grave of this noble warrior this coup stick and war bonnet.
" His two presents were later put in a show case labeled "Chief Plenty Coups, American Indians" in the trophy room of the Arlington Cemetery.
In 1921, Marshal Foch, commanding general of the Allied Forces during the Great War, was invited by the American Legion to participate in their annual conference in Kansas City between November 1 and November 3. A few days later, he took part in the consecration of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington, where he certainly met Chief Plenty Coups.
Then the war hero went West, having previously expressed his desire to see Indian tribes. At Bismarck, North Dakota, he was welcomed by Red Tomahawk. Dressed in full war regalia in honor of his visitor, Red Tomahawk made an eloquent speech and gave Foch an Indian name"Charging Thunder." Marshal Foch then visited the Crow Indians in Montana where Plenty Coups met him and smoked the "traditional pipe of peace with him." A headdress, a shirt, and another nameNapoleon-of-Napoleonswere given to Foch.
Right after the war, the participation of Native Americans as soldiers in the Great War came to be symbolized by the selection of Chief Plenty Coups, a Plains Indian who had not fought in the Great War, as representative of all American Indians. The presents Chief Plenty Coups offered as reminders of this participation were a feather bonnet and a coup stick no doubt, the American Indian soldier of the Great War, whether Cherokee or Iroquois, Quapaw or Oglala, was the heir of the noble Plains Indian warrior. As for Marshal Foch's desire to visit Plains Indian tribes during his trip to the United States after the war, it further underscores the importance of the Plains Indian symbol in the mind of so many people, American or European.
Photos donated byGunter dejz <gunter.jentzsch@t-online.de> Thanks so very much.
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WELCOME TO CROW RESERVATION.COM
BIG HORN COUNTY, MONTANA
My name is Jo Ann Boyd Scott, your host for this web site. This is a special county in the great State of Montana. Queries are answered, in the summer I can look up obits I grew up in this county and have many reference
books. E-mail me.
Be sure to go to the Crow Fair,Questions? e-mail Albert Gros-Ventre (see picture below). Black Whistle web site
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I welcome additions or help transcribing data. This site will be linked to a new web site, Miss Indian America.com, (not online yet) I will be working on the site this summer. If you have pictures or information you would like to share, please send it via e-mail. Remember Lucy Yellow Mule and her historic time as Sheridan Rodeo Queen. Thanks to Neck Yoke Jones at the Sheridan Press we witnessed the start of the Miss Indian America contests each year. Check around in your files and send whatever you can find. Credit will be given to any submissions.
