plenty coups & sitting bull

Dood Paard and Discordia present a wild-west story

plenty coups & sitting bull

Following the production ‘mannetje met de lange lul’ inspired by the French philosopher De la Mettrie, Jorn Heijdenrijk and Kuno Bakker have collaborated on another project. Plenty coups & sitting bull is inspired by two Native Americans, each of whom, in their own different way, choose to combat the colonists. One fights, the other talks.

when it was 1876 / when we were young / when we did not speak and listened to our Wise Ones / when Old Man Wolf walked through the camp calling certain men to his tipi for a smoke / when girls as well as boys derived their names from a famous man’s exploit / when the bird said I should not be afraid / when I was never wounded and only once had a horse killed under me / when women danced wearing scalps / when my dream was powerful / when I stretched out on my back and watched the moon and the stars by night, and followed the sun through the next day / when I heard a voice but saw no one else / when Plenty Coups and Sitting Bull had the same vision / when the buffalo went away / when the hearts of my people fell to the ground / when after this nothing happened /

How do people survive after they have witnessed the collapse of their traditional way of life?

In days gone by, a Crow warrior could defend his territory and lose the struggle. But when the territory was reduced to a reservation, where war or hunting were no longer possible, the Crow lost immeasurably more. What does it mean to be a father if you can no longer pass on the art of fighting to your children?

Or like a Crow woman said: ‘I try to lead a life I can’t understand’.