We are led to wonder often concerning the Indian’s passion for his coup
stick (pronounced coo). This rod, bedecked with eagle feathers and his
own colour scheme, is the Indian’s badge of empire. It is the “Victoria
Cross” of his deeds of valour. In battle he rushes amid his foes, touches
the enemy with his coup stick—that man is his prisoner, and he has counted
a coup. He slays an enemy, then rushes up and touches him with the stick,
takes his scalp; another coup is counted. The credit of victory was taken
for three brave deeds: killing an enemy, scalping an enemy, or being the
first to strike an enemy, alive or dead; any one of these entitles a man
to rank as a warrior and to recount his exploit in public; but to be the
first to touch an enemy is regarded as the bravest deed of all, as it
implied close approach in battle. In the last Great Indian Council and on
the journey home the attention of the writer was called to the prominence
given to the coup stick. They are present at all ceremonial functions and
are carried on all ceremonial parades. The warrior who can strike a tepee
of the enemy in a charge upon a home camp thus counted coup upon it and is
entitled to reproduce its particular design in the next new tepee which he
made for his own use, and to perpetuate the pattern in his family. The
eagle feathers on the stick can only be placed there after the warrior has
counted his coup, recounted it in public, and the deed has met with the
approval of all the warriors. The eagle, the proudest and most victorious
of birds, then yielded a feather, which is deftly fastened with a circle
of shining beads to the stick, and the proud victor flaunts another emblem
of his bravery.
[The Attack on the Camp]