Crow (Indian tribe)

• CATEGORY: Tribe
• CULTURE AREA: Plains
• LANGUAGE GROUP: Siouan
• PRIMARY LOCATION: Montana
• POPULATION SIZE: 11,024 (2021 American Community Survey)

The Crow tribe, of Siouan ancestry, split off from the agriculturalist Hidatsa tribe. The Crow originally called themselves Apsaalooké (also spelled Absarokee or Absaroka, meaning bird people or children of the long-beaked bird), and were traditionally hunter-gatherers who inhabited parts of Montana and Wyoming. The tribe was divided into three groups by yearly migration patterns. They were one of the tribes which cooperated with European settlers and the US government (as army scouts, for example). This policy, and the accomplishments of astute Crow chiefs, led to the preservation of some Crow ancestral lands as a reservation, called the Crow Indian Reservation, which, at 2.2 million acres, remains the largest reservation in Montana. Modern Crow populations have been successful in adapting to contemporary White American ways while retaining tribal values. Among their many achievements are the election of a Crow legislator to the Montana state senate and the annual Crow Fair and Rodeo, which creates income from tourism.

Tribal History

The Crow, or Absaroka, are a Hokan-Siouan tribe. It has been said that the name "Crow" came from misconceptions of French explorers and that the tribe was actually named for the sparrowhawk. The Absaroka arose between the mid-sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, after two groups broke away from the Hidatsa tribe. The Hidatsa were agriculturalists who lived along the Missouri River. There are several Crow legends about the basis for the split. It is believed that the first Crow people were Awatixa Hidatsa, who became disenchanted with the lifestyle associated with farming and sought the excitement to be found in a society of nomad hunter-gatherers. Certainly, this is what they became, nomads whose economy was based mostly on the buffalo. Later, after obtaining horses—probably by trade with the Shoshone—the Crow evolved into a mobile and powerful fighting force and became wide-ranging hunters.

The Crow originally inhabited the eastern part of the Rocky Mountains at the head of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers. They were subdivided into three distinct groups. The Mountain Crow (Acaraho), originally the Awatixa Hidatsa, settled in the Big Horn and Absaroka Mountains. They hunted there most of the year but wintered in warmer areas south of today’s Wyoming-Montana border. The River Crow (Minisepere) were a second group of dissatisfied Hidatsa, whose migration pattern followed the Missouri River. The third group, an offshoot of the River Crow, the "Kicked in the Belly" Crow (Erarapio), migrated through the Little Bighorn and Powder River valleys.

These three groups interacted peaceably and protected one another from encroachments of the Blackfoot, Shoshone, and Sioux to the north, south, and southeast, respectively. The Crow allied themselves with the Hidatsa and other nearby tribes, including the Mandan. These alliances were particularly important because the Crow nation was not large (reportedly never exceeding sixteen thousand people) and their tribal land abounded with game, making it desirable to others.

In the 1820s, non-Indigenous people began to arrive in Crow territory. Initially, most were traders who introduced the Crow people to metal tools, enhanced their use of rifles for hunting and war, and provided glass beads as well as other materials useful in Crow handicrafts. However, post-contact diseases brought by White settlers also decimated the Crow population. According to several sources, smallpox was the main factor that dropped the Crow population from sixteen thousand to under three thousand.

By 1851, various trading posts and forts had been built in Crow territory, and the expanding westward flood of White settlers began to force other tribes (especially the Sioux and Blackfoot) off their own lands. This situation put them in serious competition for Crow lands. The US government brought the Plains tribes together at Fort Laramie to define "Indian homelands" in the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851. This action, probably aimed mostly at protecting White settlers from the results of Indian wars, resulted in defining the Crow country as a 38-million-acre area bounded on the east, north, south, and west by the Powder River, the Missouri and Musselshell Rivers, the Wind River Mountains, and the Yellowstone River, respectively.

The generation of fixed boundaries of a Crow homeland represented the first loss of territory by the tribe. It was followed, in rapid succession, by the disappearance of most of their territory and by huge disruptions of every facet of Crow tribal life. All this occurred despite the friendliness of the Crow to White settlers and their service as army couriers and scouts. First, in 1868, the Crow, under Chief Middle of the Land, were stripped of nearly 30 million acres of the homeland granted to them in 1851. They retained 8 million acres bounded on the south by the Montana-Wyoming border, on the east by longitude 107 degrees, and on both the west and the north by the Yellowstone River.

The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 involved subjugating the Crow nation in order to "prepare them for civilized life." It did this by placing them under the control of agents, who were to “help them to blend into American mainstream life.” This blending—not desired by the Crow tribe—included establishment of schools to modernize them, churches to Christianize them, supplementation of their food supply, and an attempted precipitous conversion of hunter-gatherers into farmers.

Then, three successive steps—in 1882, 1891, and 1904—diminished the Crow reservation to 3 million acres, divided into individual farms and ranches. As time went by, the Crow were increasingly forced into mainstream American culture. They resisted in a variety of ways, such as the introduction into their religion of the Shoshone Sun Dance, a ritual which enabled young Crow men to prove their bravery by bearing great pain (it replaced the earlier Crow Sun Dance).

The retention of the rites of their Tobacco Society, an important part of traditional Crow life, was also very influential, as was the development of the Native American Church, which utilizes peyote in its ceremonies. In addition, the strength and solidarity of Crow family life, the retention and routine use of the Crow language, and the annual Crow Fair and Rodeo have helped to maintain Crow tribal identity. Always essential, throughout Crow interaction with mainstream American society, have been the achievements of a continuum of insightful Crow leaders; these statesmen include Plenty Coups, Eelapuash (Sore Belly), Medicine Crow, and Robert Yellowtail.

Traditional Lifeways

The Crow were historically subdivided into thirteen clans, described in detail in Robert H. Lowie’s The Crow Indians (1956). Each of these tribal subgroups (large groups of closely related families) was headed by a man with a distinguished record in intertribal war. Members of all clans were found in the Acaraho, Minisepere, and Erarapio encampments.

Each encampment was governed by a council of chiefs, shamans, and tribal elders. Chiefs were individuals who attained this title by performing four specific deeds: leading successful war parties, counting coup by touching an enemy and escaping, taking an enemy’s weapon from him, and cutting loose a horse from an enemy camp. One member of the tribal council, usually a chief, was elected head of each encampment. At all levels, chiefs lost their power if they stopped living up to Crow ideals.

The Crow men were divided into men’s military societies such as Foxes, Lumpwood, Crazy Dogs, Big Dogs, and Ravens. Membership in the societies was open to any proven warrior. The societies, each having its own rules and customs, competed to recruit the most promising young men. Every spring, one military society was appointed as the tribal police force to keep order in Crow encampments, enforce discipline during important tribal activities such as the buffalo hunt, and keep war parties from setting out at inappropriate times.

Crows almost always married outside their own clans, sometimes by interclan wife-capturing (in which the wives-to-be were willing candidates). More often, wives were purchased from their families for a bride price. Most women were married by puberty. Marriage taboos forbade men and women to look at or talk to mothers-in-law or fathers-in-law, respectively. Other elaborate rules governed the behavior of other family members.

Fathers lavished attention on their sons, praising them for any good action. In addition, all adults lavished praise on youngsters for achievements in hunting, war, and general life (for example, boys returning from a first war party would be praised by all their relatives). Inappropriate actions, on the other hand, were handled by people called "joking relatives," who gently and jokingly ridiculed bad behavior. Using joking relations was much more effective than harsh treatment in a society in which cooperation was essential for tribal survival. Youngsters, in turn, treated all adults respectfully.

The most important tribal religious ceremonies were those of the Tobacco Society and the Sun Dance (later replaced by the Shoshone-Crow Sun Dance), which helped men to prove their bravery. The Tobacco Society ceremonies were held three times each year: at the spring planting of tobacco (the sole Crow crop), when the tobacco was harvested, and at initiations. The Sun Dance was held when needed; it was most often associated with acts of revenge or initiation into war. One religious hero of the Crow tribe was Old Man Coyote, the creator of the world, a smart, clever being who was the subject of many lively and educational Crow tales.

The Crow lived in skin tipis. These skin houses were often twenty-five feet high and could accommodate forty people. They were made of as many as twenty buffalo skins, sewn together and supported by lodge poles. The preparation of a new tipi was communal woman’s work. It was carried out by a skilled woman, hired by the owner of the planned dwelling, and a group of her friends. Inside each tipi was a draft screen, painted with pictures that depicted important tribal events and the brave deeds of the tipi owners. At the rear of each tipi, directly opposite its door, was a place of honor for its owner or special guests.

When a Crow person died, the body was taken out through a hole cut in one side of the tipi, rather than by the door; it was believed that if a body were taken out by the door, another tipi occupant would soon die. Dead bodies were placed on wooden scaffolds in their best clothing, where they remained until their decomposition was complete. At that time, the remains were taken down and buried. Common Crow mourning practices included giving away property, cutting the hair, tearing clothing, and gashing the body. In some cases, mourners cut off a finger joint.

The main food source of Crow people living on the plains was buffalo, which were hunted by driving them over cliffs, surrounding them on horseback and shooting them, or driving them into traps. Deer were another major meat source. Most meat was roasted over fires, cooked in the ashes of fires, or boiled in skin-lined pits. Some meat was mixed with berries and fat and dried to produce pemmican food reserves. Edible roots, berries, and fruit such as wild plums were harvested by women to supplement meat, which was the main Crow food.

Crow people were exceptionally fine horsemen and possessed huge numbers of horses per capita. Many of these horses were obtained by theft from other tribes, and the Crow had the reputation of being exceptionally accomplished horse thieves. They were also, however, very successful horse breeders.

The tools and weapons of the Crow were of fine construction. Their bows were fabricated from hickory and/or ash and horn, when possible. Crow bow and arrow makers were very skilled, and all Crow artifacts, including buffalo horn cups and wooden bowls, were well-made. Crow handicrafts such as clothing, arrow quivers, and various adornments were of very fine quality and were sought after. These adornments enhanced the appearance of a people who were usually relatively tall (many men were near six feet). Crow men rarely cut their hair, letting it grow very long and lavishing much attention on it. Hence, many traders called the Crow "the long-haired Indians."

Clothing, blankets, and other items that modern society manufactures from cloth were made of animal skins. Preparation of the skins began by soaking them in water for several days. Then, loosened hair and scraps of flesh were scraped off, a paste of animal brains was added to soften the skins, and scraping was continued. Finally, the skins were tanned and used to make garments that were soft and flexible in any weather. Prior to the advent of European traders, skin objects were decorated with dyed porcupine quills and feathers. Later, glass beads replaced quills.

Contemporary Life

Contemporary Crow life, to a large extent, has been that of the reservation. In the 1880s, buffalo had become nearly extinct because of hide hunting. At this time, a Crow leader named Wraps His Tail (Sword Bearer) excited some Crows into revolt, but his death at the hands of Crow reservation police ended the movement.

The next forty years saw strong efforts by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) to force the Crow tribe to enter modern life completely. Their program included attempting to force the Crow to remain on the reservation, to become Christian, to follow mainstream marriage and social customs, and to farm or ranch. At this time, Crow children were forced to attend boarding school, which was intended to assimilate them into American culture. During this period (up to the end of World War II), the Crow reacted by constructing a cultural base which preserved the core of their culture. In essence, the Crow went their own way while acceding to many demands of the federal government. This action was complicated by a need to interact with the world outside the reservation, a world in which Crow people were often treated with contempt.

Most Crow thus remained on the reservation whenever possible, where most social relationships were regulated by Crow tradition. For example, Crow people often belonged to a Christian church but married and interacted according to Crow custom. Ironically, the Crow tribe, which had generally interacted peacefully with the American government, was the least tractable Plains Indian tribe in parting with their traditions. Canny and pragmatic, they made the best of the advantages of mainstream culture without losing sight of their Absaroka culture. This feat was not accomplished without mental anguish, and some Crow fell victim to depression and alcoholism.

By the 1940s, the peyote religion of the Native American Church and the Crow-Shoshone Sun Dance were firmly in place in Crow life. The church provided an alternative to straight Christian worship. Combined with other shamanic rituals, the Sun Dance both provided Crow health care and enabled Crow young men to prove courage in a variant of the old way. In addition, the tribal customs of gift giving, respecting the family, and using joking relatives were applied to situations as disparate as winning an athletic event or having a young relative be graduated from high school or college.

In the political arena, the Crow developed political and legal machinery to defend the reservation against further encroachment by White people. Primary among their leaders was Robert Yellowtail. In addition, in 1948, the Crow nation adopted a reservation constitution based on their traditional tribal council but allowing every Crow adult to vote. The council elected officers, including a chairperson, and established committees to solve tribal needs.

Abetted by a federal government policy more sensitive to Indigenous needs, Crow leaders became ever more useful to the tribe. Successful legal action against the federal government, sale of the land used for Yellowtail Dam (named after Robert Yellowtail), and a recreation site on the Bighorn River, as well as royalties on coal discovered on the reservation, swelled the coffers of the tribe. Robert Yellowtail died in 1988; however, others, including his son (Bill Yellowtail), followed him. Bill Yellowtail became a Montana state senator.

By the early 1990s, a third of reservation residents were non-Indigenous, and 20 percent of the Crow population lived off the reservation. In the early twenty-first century, the Crow population continued to grow. A new constitution was adopted in 2001 that established a three-part government system featuring executive, legislative, and judicial branches. In 2008, the Crow nation formally adopted Barack Obama in recognition of his status as the first US presidential candidate to visit the tribe. Many contemporary Crow work for the tribal government, which has improved health care, education, and housing for tribe members with funds from the tribal treasury. They also teach at nearby colleges and other schools, work at many levels in local industry, and successfully own and run ranches and farms. The annual Crow Fair and Rodeo is a valuable tourist attraction that takes place each July. Another annual celebration is Crow Native Days, which includes sports competitions, a parade, and a powwow. Efforts have also continued to preserve Crow culture and traditions through teaching the Crow language to younger generations; in the mid-2020s, an estimated 85 percent of tribe members spoke Crow as their first language.

Bibliography

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"Crow Nation." Office of the Governor Indian Affairs, tribalnations.mt.gov/Directory/CrowNation. Accessed 22 Jan. 2025.

"Crow Tribal Govt." Executive Branch of the Apsáalooke Nation, www.crow-nsn.gov/crow-tribal-govt.html. Accessed 22 Jan. 2025.

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