Counting Coup and Cutting Horses

“One of the book’s most valuable features is a long bibliographical essay, which lists and evaluates numerous primary sources and secondary works. A graduate student or budding scholar interested in Plains Indian history would find this a useful place to begin.”—Roy W. Meyer, American Historical Review

“McGinnis has produced a useful synthesis of tribal warfare and a compelling argument that brings some order out of the confusion of shifting alliances and short interludes of peace that dominated Indian life on the Northern Plains. Understanding the role that combat played in the lives of Plains Indians is essential to comprehending why Plains warriors found a life of enforced peace empty of meaning.”—Thomas R. Wessel, Western Historical Quarterly

“In preparing this book, Anthony McGinnis consulted a wide variety of sources, including early travelers’ accounts, government reports, and studies by other authorities, to present a comprehensive history of the conflict. Some content has been dealt with elsewhere, though not as sweepingly as here. Most significantly, McGinnis helps to further define the Indians’ motivations and explain their responses to the ideas, products, and events that affected them throughout the culturally critical mid-1800s. . . . Counting Coup and Cutting Horses merits attention as a worthwhile contribution to the field of Indian history.”—Jerome A. Greene, Montana: The Magazine of Western History