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Chief Pretty Eagle
(1840-1903)
Warriors Citation
Pretty Eagle was a principal chief of the Crows during the first organized incursions into their territory by the U.S. Army.
As he aged, Pretty Eagle began to defer to Plenty Coups, who counseled the Crows to aid the invaders against their traditional
enemies, the Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho. Pretty Eagle married nineteen times and was known for hard bargaining with the
Indian Bureau when Crow lands were threatened. (In the late 1880s, Charles Barstow, head BIA clerk at Crow Agency, said he
kept a loaded revolver in his desk drawer while negotiating with Pretty Eagle.) He resented the incursions of the whites but
came to agree with Plenty Coups that they could not be defeated or driven out. As early as the 1880s, Plenty Coups and Pretty
Eagle grew and sold hay to the U.S. government to demonstrate Crow financial independence.
Following his death, Pretty Eagle's body was placed in a wagon (in lieu of a burial scaffold) about sixteen miles south of
Hardin, Montana. Sometime later, an employee of the country sanitarium removed the body and sold it to the Museum of Natural
History in New York City. In 1994, the museum returned Pretty Eagle's remains to the Crows. From: historical accounts & records
LINK TO BRAVEHORSE WARRIORS VOLUME TWO
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