Bravery
was an
important part of Native
American
culture. It meant a lot to show bravery to your tribe. Every Native
American
wanted to prove himself to
his tribe.
Two
of the greatest acts of bravery are when someone would either touch an enemy with
their bare
hands, or
they would just touch them with a special stick that was long and it was called
a coup stick. It was more important to do this as an act of bravery than to actually
kill someone.
There was a scoring point system that recorded points for hitting an enemy with
the coup stick. A warrior would get a few points for killing someone with his
bow and arrow, but get the maximum amount of points for getting close and hitting
someone with the coup stick. All the coup sticks would be carefully counted and
the warriors would show them off for all to see with feathers or war bonnets on
them.
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