For further elucidation, I offer a personal account. My family owns a genuine coup stick (BTW, FYI, it's pronounced "COO. COO STIK.") from some unmeasureable time ago. My father told me that amongst Choctaws, it was traditional for young men to head out west into the Ozark mountain area during a time called Oachita - roughly, the Big Hunt (note the "Washita" river in arkansas). But they weren't hunting for food. The point was to sneak up on a fully-armed Osage warrior and bonk him on the head with your coup stick. Having a witness was near-mandatory so that you could both go back home and tell the story and put another bead on your coup stick. It was heartwarming to me to learn that my ancestors went through the same period of adolescent hooliganism that I did.