In a letter to a friend written in 1902, Russell related a story told to him by an aged Blackfoot warrior named Medicine Whip. The story described a hostile skirmish between the man and some fellow warriors and a group of Sioux who had stolen some of the Blackfoot’s horses. After a running battle, the Blackfeet killed the horse of their medicine man, and the Sioux rallied around the fallen warrior and stood off the enemy for a while. The Blackfeet had used up their arrows and their leader was dead, so there was a standoff. Sharp taunts were traded between the adversaries, when suddenly Medicine Whip charged forward into the group of Sioux with his lance, parrying blows from the surrounding Sioux warriors. After mortally wounding one of the enemy, Medicine Whip was felled by tomahawk blows. When he awoke, his friends had rushed in after him and killed the Sioux warriors. The young Medicine Whip was afterward accorded great honor for his bravery in battle. Although Russell’s Medicine Whip is regarded as a fictional character, the story could certainly be based on fact. Such encounters between the Blackfeet and Sioux were extremely common, and Medicine Whip’s exploits are fully in accord with what we know about Plains Indian warfare. Russell modeled the subject of this hostile encounter in January 1905, during his second visit to New York. A bronze cast described as “Counting Coup #1” was entered into the Roman Bronze Works ledgers on February 7, 1905, making it the second documented sculpture in Russell’s oeuvre. This particular bronze may well be a unique example of the early version of the sculpture, for no other casts are recorded prior to 1925, when Russell reworked a model of Counting Coup in simpler form so it could be cast for the collector George D. Sack. All other surviving copies resemble this second version; the bronze pictured here remained in Nancy Russell’s possession until her death.