Counting Coup: Becoming a Crow Chief on the Reservation and Beyond
By: Joseph Medicine Crow / Narrated By: Henry Strozier
Length: 2 hrs and 22 mins
Oh gosh how I wish this was longer!
I remember seeing an interview on PBS with the last War Chief of modern times, and it was of the man telling the interviewer of how he counted coup during WWII. Numbskull that I was (I was pretty young at the time, so maybe I can claim that for my lack of consideration?), I didn’t take note of the man’s name, but after listening to Counting Coup, a very brief autobiography, I’m TOTALLY wondering if I’d had the jolly luck to have seen the ACTUAL Joseph Medicine Crow! That’d be awesome! Cuz really, when I got to the final verrrry brief accounts of the coup counting, it was so familiar!
As it is, don’t expect much in the way of war exploits with this little audiobook. It’s more of growing up as Winter Man (As a Sioux visitor dubbed him), a boy then man who’s living in two cultures. Life on the reservation, he tells us, was always hard for the older folks, but for children like himself, who weren’t given the knowledge of how atrocious things were, summers especially could be idyllic. He has memories of just being and breathing and playing out in Nature. Time is spent with friends and with horses, always breaking them or riding them as the horses became boon companions.
He does indeed have horror stories, but they mostly concern his school days where not much was taught to the reservation kids. This lack of effort spent on them soon demanded that his family pull him from that school and send him to a school where more was taught but where racism was more rampant throughout the day. Two-way street, however, in that the Rez kids would wait for the Belgian kids and beat them up. Of course, what it came down to was that the Belgian kids would pack extra sandwiches to offer in exchange for peaceable passage—and food was mighty scarce at home, so those sandwiches were very much appreciated.
Most of what stuck with me was how family was so important. The elderly were appreciated and honored, and Winter Man’s grandfather Yellowtail had the boy toughing it out in the ice and snow, barefoot and running, all in an effort to guide him in the Warrior Way. I thought it hiiiiiighly interesting that this grandfather was in nooooo way a warrior… so hmmmm… Seems men do so like to preach what they have not themselves lived, but I’m kinda grouchy with the state of the world nowadays and am looking to cast stones. Still, aside from that, I did like the family aspect. And I thought it so very moving when an elderly grandmother sets Winter Man to the East and sings a song of wailing and joy when he’s about to set off to boarding school—it’s the way men are sent to war, and she must let her song say what her heart is feeling.
It’s only at the last bit where we hear how Winter Man is during the war against the Germans. He’s called Chief (NATurally), and he’s sent to lead several men to destroy machine gun nests. Done, and he brings them all back safely, along with bringing some purloined equipment. Then he runs into a very cold, very terrified young German soldier who shouts for his life. As Winter Man has just disarmed the lad, he takes pity on him and merely touches him before moving onto other areas of fighting. And finally, as Chief, he takes charge of waiting horses of SS officers as an ambush is planned. Riding high, riding proud, he steals all the horses and heads out with the rest of his men… hopping from the glorious horse only when it’s pointed out that up there he makes a mighty fine target for snipers.
Once at home, tribal elders call him and others who went to war, and they ask them all to account for their time at war. He’s surprised by this; it is, after all, not a modern thing, but he obliges. He’s reeeeally surprised when all celebrate his exploits as he’s done the four proper counting of coup and is a new War Chief. MASS celebrations ensue and there’s feasting and dancing. And this is where I remember that old TV interview. Because that gentleman was still as befuddled, as tickled pink, to discover what he’d done. At that late date, it was still a surprise and delight to him!
Henry Strozier does a great job in relating things as tho’ from the eyes of a child, the joys of being a kid reveling in Nature, of hearing stories of old, of seeing Nature as through the eyes of one who is at peace with the world. And then Strozier goes on to become that young man, off to school, then off to war. This is a great book for Kids—Not too gritty but with how difficult it is by being The Other, by trying to keep and honor the Old Ways all whilst navigating not only the new world, but also a world that descends into the chaos of a world war.
Quite the awesome little book. But OH how I could’ve listened to more!
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