Counting Coup

 

In the early days of the Great American West, there was a tradition of bravery among Indian Warriors known as "counting coup". To complete this act of bravery, a brave must approach an enemy warrior in the thick of battle, touch him with a coup stick, but not kill him, and return alive to tell the tale. Each time a brave counted coup in battle, he received an eagle feather in recognition of his bravery. Indeed, many feathers in the war bonnets of Great Chiefs were feathers earned by counting coup.

The Boy Scouts embrace many Native American traditions. However, Native Americans of the Old West honored bravery among enemies, whereas Scouts hold youth leadership among friends in the highest esteem. To reach the rank of Eagle, a scout must, first and foremost, be a leader. Thus, it is only fitting that the act of counting coup in scouting be in recognition of an act of leadership.

I hold in my hand a coup stick. Hanging from this stick is a dream catcher, symbolizing the attainment of a dream. Many scouts dream of being Eagle, but only 4% ever reach that goal. More importantly, the coup stick is adorned with the Eagle Feathers of scouts in our troop who previously attained Eagle. In honor of those scouts, I now count coup on our new Eagle Scout by touching him with the coup stick.

I now present to you ___________________________ this Troop 484 coup stick and an Eagle Feather of your own. Even though you have yet to count coup, I ask that you add your feather to this stick, and embellish the stick with a decoration to commemorate your act of leadership in attaining the rank of Eagle.

For you to count coup, you must guard and protect this coup stick until the next scout in our troop reaches the rank of Eagle. Then at his ceremony, you must count coup on your friend and fellow Eagle Scout before passing on to him the coup stick, for him to guard and protect until the next Eagle Ceremony. Then and only then will you have earned the feather that you have just received.