Into the Northern Plains , Montana The Crow and related
Hidatsa originated in the
Ohio Country, south of
Lake Erie. They migrated west through Illinois, Minnesota, and settled south of
Lake Winnipeg in the 12th or 13th centuries. They grew crops and hunted bison in settled villages, until the mid-16th century when the
Ojibwe and
Cree drove them further west to the
Upper Missouri River. and drove them westward. The Crow allied with local
Kiowa and
Plains Apache bands. The Kiowa and Plains Apache bands later migrated southward, and the Crow remained dominant in their established area through the 18th and 19th centuries, the era of the
fur trade. Their historical territory stretched from what is now
Yellowstone National Park and the headwaters of the Yellowstone River (E-chee-dick-karsh-ah-shay in Crow, translating to "Elk River") to the west, north to the
Musselshell River, then northeast to the Yellowstone's mouth at the
Missouri River, then southeast to the confluence of the Yellowstone and
Powder rivers (Bilap Chashee, or "Powder River" or "Ash River"), south along the South Fork of the Powder River, confined in the SE by the Rattlesnake Mountains and westwards in the SW by the
Wind River Range. Their tribal area included the river valleys of the
Judith River (Buluhpa'ashe, or "Plum River"), Powder River,
Tongue River,
Big Horn River and
Wind River as well as the
Bighorn Mountains (Iisiaxpúatachee Isawaxaawúua),
Pryor Mountains (Baahpuuo Isawaxaawúua),
Wolf Mountains (Cheetiish, or "Wolf Teeth Mountains") and
Absaroka Range (also called Absalaga Mountains). Once established in the
Valley of the Yellowstone River and its tributaries on the Northern Plains in
Montana and
Wyoming, the Crow divided into four groups: the Mountain Crow, River Crow, Kicked in the Bellies, and Beaver Dries its Fur. Formerly semi-nomad hunters and farmers in the northeastern woodland, they adapted to the
nomadic lifestyle of the
Plains Indians as hunters and gatherers, and hunted
bison. Before 1700, they were using
dog travois for carrying goods.
Enemies and allies of a Cheyenne war chief and warriors (left) coming to a truce with a Crow war chief and warriors (right) From about 1730, the Plains tribes rapidly adopted the horse, which allowed them to move out on to the Plains and hunt buffalo more effectively. However, the severe winters in the North kept their herds smaller than those of Plains tribes in the South. The Crow, Hidatsa,
Eastern Shoshone, and
Northern Shoshone soon became noted as horse breeders and dealers and developed relatively large horse herds. At the time, other eastern and northern tribes were also moving on to the Plains, in search of game for the fur trade, bison, and more horses. The Crow were subject to raids and horse thefts by horse-poor tribes, including the powerful
Blackfoot,
Gros Ventre,
Assiniboine,
Pawnee, and
Ute. Later they had to face the
Lakota and their allies, the
Arapaho and
Cheyenne, who also stole horses from their enemies. Their greatest enemies became the tribes of the Blackfoot Confederacy and the Lakota-Cheyenne-Arapaho alliance. In the 18th century, pressured by the
Saulteaux and
Cree peoples (the
Iron Confederacy), who had earlier and better access to guns through the
fur trade, the Crow had migrated to this area from the Ohio Eastern Woodland area of present-day Ohio, settling south of
Lake Winnipeg. From there, they were pushed to the west by the Cheyenne. Both the Crow and the Cheyenne were pushed farther west by the Lakota, who took over the territory west of the Missouri River, reaching past the
Black Hills of South Dakota to the
Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming and Montana. The Cheyenne eventually became allies of the Lakota, as they sought to expel European Americans from the area. The Crow remained bitter enemies of both the Sioux and Cheyenne. They managed to retain a large
reservation of more than 9300 km2 despite territorial losses, due in part to their cooperation with the federal government against their traditional enemies, the Sioux and Blackfoot. Many other tribes were forced onto much smaller reservations far from their traditional lands. The Crow were generally friendly with the northern Plains tribes of the
Flathead (although sometimes they had conflicts);
Nez Perce,
Kutenai, Shoshone,
Kiowa, and
Plains Apache. The powerful Iron Confederacy (Nehiyaw-Pwat), an alliance of northern plains Indian nations based around the fur trade, developed as enemies of the Crow. It was named after the dominating Plains Cree and Assiniboine peoples, and later included the
Stoney, Saulteaux, and
Métis.
Historical subgroups By the early 19th century, the Apsáalooke fell into three independent groupings, who came together only for common defense: •
Ashalaho ('Many Lodges', today called Mountain Crow),
Awaxaawaxammilaxpáake ('Mountain People'), or
Ashkúale ('The Center Camp'). The Ashalaho or Mountain Crow, the largest Crow group, split from the Awatixa Hidatsa and were the first to travel west. (McCleary 1997: 2–3)., (Bowers 1992: 21) Their leader No Intestines had received a
vision and led his band on a long
migratory search for
sacred tobacco, finally settling in southeastern
Montana. They lived in the Rocky Mountains and foothills along the Upper Yellowstone River, on the present-day Wyoming-Montana border, in the Big Horn and Absaroka Range (also Absalaga Mountains); the
Black Hills comprised the eastern edge of their territory. •
Binnéessiippeele ('Those Who Live Amongst the River Banks'), today called River Crow or
Ashshipíte ('The Black Lodges') The Binnéessiippeele, or River Crow, split from the Hidatsa proper, according to tradition because of a dispute over a bison stomach. As a result, the Hidatsa called the Crow Gixáa-iccá—"Those Who Pout Over Tripe". They lived along the Yellowstone and Musselshell rivers south of the Missouri River and in the river valleys of the Big Horn, Powder and Wind rivers. This area was historically known as the
Powder River Country. They sometimes traveled north up to the
Milk River. •
Eelalapito (Kicked in the Bellies) or
Ammitaalasshé (Home Away From The center, that is, away from the Ashkúale – "Mountain Crow"). They claimed the area known as the
Bighorn Basin, from the Bighorn Mountains in the east to the Absaroka Range to the west, and south to the Wind River Range in northern Wyoming. Sometimes they settled in the
Owl Creek Mountains,
Bridger Mountains and along the
Sweetwater River in the south. Apsaalooke
oral history describes a fourth group, the
Bilapiluutche ("Beaver Dries its Fur"), who may have merged with the
Kiowa in the second half of the 17th century.
Gradual displacement from tribal lands When European Americans arrived in numbers, the Crows were resisting pressure from enemies who greatly outnumbered them. In the 1850s, a vision by
Plenty Coups, then a boy, but who later became their greatest chief, was interpreted by tribal elders as meaning that the whites would become dominant over the entire country, and that the Crow, if they were to retain any of their land, would need to remain on good terms with the whites. By 1851, the more numerous Lakota and Cheyenne were established just to the south and east of Crow territory in Montana. These enemy tribes coveted the hunting lands of the Crow and warred against them. By
right of conquest, they took over the eastern hunting lands of the Crow, including the Powder and Tongue River valleys, and pushed the less numerous Crow to the west and northwest upriver on the
Yellowstone. After about 1860, the Lakota Sioux claimed all the former Crow lands from the
Black Hills of South Dakota to the
Big Horn Mountains of Montana. They demanded that the Americans deal with them regarding any intrusion into these areas. The
Treaty of Fort Laramie of 1851 with the United States confirmed as Crow lands a large area centered on the Big Horn Mountains: the area ran from the
Big Horn Basin on the west, to the
Musselshell River on the north, and east to the
Powder River; it included the Tongue River
basin. But for two centuries the
Cheyenne and many bands of
Lakota Sioux had been steadily migrating westward across the plains, and were still pressing hard on the Crows.
Red Cloud's War (18661868) was a challenge by the Lakota Sioux to the United States military presence on the
Bozeman Trail, a route along the eastern edge of the Big Horn Mountains to the Montana gold fields. Red Cloud's War ended with victory for the Lakota. The
Treaty of Fort Laramie of 1868 with the United States confirmed the Lakota control over all the high plains from the Black Hills of the Dakotas westward across the
Powder River Basin to the crest of the Big Horn Mountains. Thereafter bands of Lakota Sioux led by
Sitting Bull,
Crazy Horse,
Gall, and others, along with their
Northern Cheyenne allies, hunted and raided throughout the length and breadth of
eastern Montana and northeastern
Wyoming, which had been for a time ancestral Crow territory. On 25 June 1876, the Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne achieved a major victory over army forces under Lieutenant Colonel
George Armstrong Custer at the
Battle of the Little Big Horn in the
Crow Indian Reservation, but the
Great Sioux War (1876–1877) ended in the defeat of the Sioux and their Cheyenne allies. Crow warriors enlisted with the U.S. Army for this war. The Sioux and allies were forced from eastern Montana and Wyoming: some bands fled to Canada, while others suffered forced removal to distant reservations, primarily in present-day Montana and Nebraska west of the Missouri River. In 1918, the Crow organized a gathering to display their culture, and they invited members of other tribes. The
Crow Fair is now celebrated yearly on the third weekend of August, with wide participation from other tribes.
Crow Tribe history: a chronological record 1600–1699 A group of Crow went west after leaving the Hidatsa villages of earth lodges in the Knife River and Heart River area (present North Dakota) around 1675–1700. They selected a site for a single earth lodge on the lower Yellowstone River. Most families lived in tipis or other perishable kinds of homes at the new place. These Indians had left the Hidatsa villages and adjacent cornfields for good, but they had yet to become "real" buffalo hunting Crow following the herds on the open plains. Archaeologists know this "proto-Crow" site in present Montana as the Hagen site.
1700–1799 Some time before 1765, the Crow held a Sun Dance, attended by a poor Arapaho. A Crow with power gave him a medicine doll, and he quickly earned status and owned horses as no one else. During the next Sun Dance, some Crow stole back the figure to keep it in the tribe. Eventually the Arapaho made a duplicate. Later in life, he married a Kiowa woman and brought the doll with him. The Kiowas use it during the Sun Dance and recognize it as one of the most powerful tribal medicines. They still credit the Crow tribe for the origin of their sacred Tai-may figure.
1800–1824 The enmity between the Crow and the Lakota was reasserted from the start of the 19th century. The Crow killed a minimum of thirty Lakota in 1800–1801 according to two Lakota
winter counts. The next year, the Lakota and their Cheyenne allies killed all the men in a Crow camp with thirty tipis. In the summer of 1805, a Crow camp traded at the Hidatsa villages on Knife River in present North Dakota. Chiefs Red Calf and Spotted Crow allowed the fur trader Francois-Antoine Larocque to join it on its way across the plains to the Yellowstone area. He traveled with it to a point west of the place where
Billings, Montana, is today. The camp crossed Little Missouri River and Bighorn River on the way. The next year, some Crow discovered a group of whites with horses on the Yellowstone River. By stealth, they captured the mounts before morning. The
Lewis and Clark Expedition did not see the Crow. The first trading post in Crow country was constructed in 1807, known as both
Fort Raymond and Fort Lisa (1807–ca. 1813). Like the succeeding forts, Fort Benton (ca. 1821–1824) and Fort Cass (1832–1838), it was built near the confluence of the Yellowstone and the Bighorn. The Blood Blackfoot Bad Head's winter count tells about the early and persistent hostility between the Crow and the Blackfoot. In 1813, a force of Blood warriors set off for a raid on the Crow in the Bighorn area. Next year, Crows near Little Bighorn River killed Blackfoot Top Knot. A Crow camp neutralized thirty Cheyenne bent on capturing horses in 1819. The Cheyenne and warriors from a Lakota camp destroyed a whole
Crow camp at Tongue River the following year. This was likely the most severe attack on a Crow camp in historic time.
1825–1849 The Crows put up 300
tipis near a Mandan village on the Missouri in 1825. The representatives of the US government waited for them. Mountain Crow chief Long Hair (Red Plume at Forehead) and fifteen other Crows signed the first treaty of friendship and trade between the Crows and the United States on 4 August. With the signing of the document, the Crows also recognized the supremacy of the United States, if they actually understood the word. River Crow chief Arapooish had left the treaty area in disgust. By help of the thunderbird he had to send a farewell shower down on the whites and the Mountain Crows. In 1829, seven Crow warriors were neutralized by Blood Blackfoot Indians led by Spotted Bear, who captured a pipe-hatchet during the fight just west of
Chinook, Montana. it lasted only two days. The opponents exchanged a few shots and the men in the fort fired a cannon, but no real harm came to anyone. The Crows left four days before the arrival of a Blackfeet band. The episode seems to be the worst armed conflict between the Crows and a group of whites until the
Sword Bearer uprising in 1887. The death of chief Arapooish was recorded on 17 September 1834. The news reached
Fort Clark at the Mandan village Mitutanka. Manager F.A. Chardon wrote he "was Killed by Black feet". The smallpox epidemic of 1837 spread along the Missouri and "had little impact" on the tribe according to one source. The River Crows grew in number, when a group of Hidatsas joined them permanently to escape the scourge sweeping through the Hidatsa villages. Fort Van Buren was a short-lived trading post in existence from 1839 to 1842. From 1842 to around 1852, The Blackfeet chief Small Robe had been mortally wounded and many killed. De Smet worked out the number of women and children taken captive to 160. By and by and with a fur trader as an intermediary, the Crows agreed to let 50 women return to their tribe.
1850–1874 (Big Robber), signer of the Fort Laramie treaty (1851). Painting by Jesuit missionary De Smet. Fort Sarpy (I) near Rosebud River carried out trade with the Crow after the closing of Fort Alexander. and River Crow chief Twines His Tail (Rotten Tail) visited the fort in 1851. A weak point in the treaty was the absence of rules to uphold the tribal borders. Soon, the Sioux took no notice of the 1851 borders and expanded into Crow territory west of the Powder. The Crows engaged in "… large-scale battles with invading Sioux …" near present-day
Wyola, Montana. From 1857 to 1860, many Crow traded their surplus robes and skin at Fort Sarpy (II) near the mouth of the Bighorn River. When the Army built forts to protect the trail, the Crow cooperated with the garrisons. In 1868, a new Fort Laramie treaty between the Sioux and the U.S. turned 1851 Crow Powder River area into "unceded Indian territory" of the Sioux. On 7 May, the same year, the Crow ceded vast ranges to the US due to pressure from white settlements north of Upper Yellowstone River and loss of eastern territories to the Sioux. They accepted a smaller
reservation south of the Yellowstone. Raids against the Crows were "frequent, both by the Northern Cheyennes and by the Arapahos, as well as the Sioux, and by parties made up from all three tribes". Crow chief Plenty Coups recalled, "The three worst enemies our people had were combined against us …". The drawing from the Sioux winter count of Lone Dog shows the Crow in the circle (the breastwork), while the Sioux close in on them. The many lines indicates flying bullets. The Sioux lost 14 warriors. Sioux chief Sitting Bull took part in this battle. In the summer of 1870, some Sioux attacked a Crow reservation camp in the Bighorn/Little Bighorn area. The Crows reported Sioux Indians in the same area again in 1871. During the next years, this eastern part of the Crow reservation was taken over by the Sioux in search of buffalo. Nothing happened.
1875–1899 Finds-them-and-kills-them or the Crow amazon The-other-magpie. Crow chief Long Horse was killed in a suicidal attack on some Sioux, who previously had killed three soldiers from Camp Lewis on the upper Judith River (near Lewistown).
George Bird Grinnell was a member of the exploring party in the
Yellowstone National Park that year, and he saw the bringing in of the dead chief. A mule carried the body, which was wrapped in a green blanket. The chief was placed in a tipi "not far from the Crow camp, reclining on his bed covered with robes, his face handsomely painted". Exposed to Sioux attacks, the Crows sided with the U.S. during the
Great Sioux War in 1876–1877. They enlisted against a traditional Indian enemy, "... who were now in the old Crow country, menacing and often raiding the Crows in their reservation camps."
Charles Varnum, leader of Custer's scouts, understood how valuable the enrolment of scouts from the local Indian tribe was. "These Crows were in their own country and knew it thoroughly." Notable Crows like Medicine Crow and Plenty Coups participated in the Rosebud Battle along with more than 160 other Crows. In the spring of 1878, 700 Crow tipis were pitched at the confluence of Bighorn River and Yellowstone River. Together with Colonel
Nelson A. Miles, an Army leader in the Great Sioux War, the large camp celebrated the victory over the Sioux. In 1882, during the cattle boom, the US government responded to ranchers' demands for more land and pressured the Crow to cede the Western part of their reservation. ==Culture==