The Medicine-Dreams of Chief Plenty-Coups: A Study in Phenomenological Anthropology

Abstract

A few remarks are now possible concerning a characterology of Plentycoups. His leadership depended on his great abilities for rational linear thinking, but this natural talent is informed and permeated by the transcendent connection to the medicine-dream. His rational powers and perceptual perspicuity are used in tandem with his medicine and do not have potency without the medicine. In the description of his exploits, it is obvious that he exhibited great intelligence as a problem-solver, great courage as a warrior, and great diplomacy in political life. All of these aspects of Plenty-coups’ personality are molded in the relevance structure determined by the significance of his medicine-dreams. A worthy avenue of research would be to relate Plenty-coups’ life to other great leaders that have been spiritually guided such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi. One would then compare how a transcendent meaning-context bestows significance on a specific life, and then one would be able to differentiate the characterologies of specific historical personages within the typicality of the particular cultural milieu. However, the medicinedream is not a guide for the leaders of humanity only, it is meant to be a guide for everyone. Each of us can form a connection with the cosmos and experience our true selves and become rooted to a community in a primordial way. The Red-World is the milieu that satisfies the necessary conditions for the fulfillment of a medicine-dream, symbolic reality is its reality.