Plains Indians Warfare
During the wars all the Indian warriors wanted to prove their bravery, the greatest sign of bravery was touching their enemies with their bare hands or a special stick call a coup stick. Acts like this were seen as more brave then actually killing someone.
A point scoring system was created for every time an Indian warrior touched an enemy fighter with their bare hands or a coup stick they would gain points.
An Indian warrior would gain few points for killing a man from a distance with his bow and arrow, but would gain high points for getting close enough to tap him with his coup stick! All the points were carefully counted and displayed on their war bonnets or on their coup sticks for all warriors of there tribe to see.
C Walsh