Where was Plenty Coups born and where did he live?
We believe that Plenty Coups was born in 1848 in a place that Absaaloga people called “the cliff that has no past.” This very much resembles the area around Billings, Montana, with its large sandstone cliffs. He was raised in the way of a typical young boy with a lot of swimming and running as they traveled from place to place and different camping and hunting areas. The Absaaloga, or Crow Indian, people in their language call this area BOPWAH which means “where they shoot the rock with arrows.” This name BOPWAH is based upon one of the Crow Indian’s legends of sacred places found here in Pryor Gap. If the Crow people were talking in the English language, they would probably say Pryor. If they were talking in their Crow language, which is their predominant language, they would say BOPWAH. To them this means: “That place over there where they shoot the rock with arrows.” They all know that as the Pryor vicinity.
