Crow

By RODNEY FREY

The Crow often refer to themselves as the Apsaalooke or Absaroka, which are commonly translated as “Children of the Large-Beaked Bird.” Although this bird probably was a raven, a misinterpretation by early Euro-American trappers led to their addressing the Apsaalooke as the Crow.

The historical homeland of the Crow was in south-central Montana and north-central Wyoming, along the Yellowstone and Big Horn river drainages, north to the Musselshell River, east to the Powder River, south to the Wind River Range, and west to Yellowstone Lake and the Rocky Mountains. Located in the heart of former Crow territory in south-central Montana near Billings, the Crow Indian Reservation is close to 2.3 million acres (5.7 million hectares) in size, of which nearly a third is owned by non-Indians. The environment is a mixture of grassland prairies, cottonwood-treed alluvial river valleys, and deciduous and coniferous foothill and mountain forests rich in edible roots and berries and suitable for grazing herd animals.

In 1833 the Crow population was estimated to be 6,400. After smallpox epidemics, the loss of the buffalo, confinement to a reservation in 1868, and the allotment process, by the early 1930s the population had decreased to 1,625. As a result of improved health care and economic opportunities, the 1998 Crow population approached 10,000 enrolled individuals. According to the 2000 US Census, there were a total of 13,394 individuals who self-identified as Crow based on the “racial” affinity of one or more of their parents; in the 2010 census that number had reached 15,203, 10,332 of whom reported belonging to the Crow Tribe of Montana alone. The Crow Tribe Apsaalooke Nation reported that tribal enrollment in 2012 was 11,375.

The Crow language is part of the Siouan linguistic family, with close affiliation with the Hidatsa of North Dakota. In the 1990s up to a third of the population continued to speak the native language.

A historic migration of the Crow from the Lake Winnipeg region of Canada into the Bighorn and Yellowstone river drainages of Montana and Wyoming predated the arrival of the horse. After their acquisition of the horse as early as the 1730s, Crow life was socially, politically, and religiously transformed. Among the enemies of the Crow were the Blackfeet, Cheyenne, and Dakota; the Hidatsa and Shoshone were allies. With the signing of the Fort Laramie Treaties of 1851 and 1868, the Crow entered into a trust relationship with the U.S. government and were confined to a reservation. Catholic missionary activity and schools were established, undermining many aspects of tribal culture, particularly ceremonialism. With the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 and other subsequent federal legislation, the Crow began reasserting their sovereignty and entered into government-to-government relations with the United States.

Before the acquisition of the horse the Crow lived among the Hidatsa in earthen-lodge sedentary farming communities along the Missouri River. After the Crow became bison hinters, the four-pole-styled, buffalo-hide conical tipi was adopted. The tipis could be moved easily, becoming horse-dragged travois on which family property and provisions could be transported. Noted for their long poles up to twenty-five feet in length, Crow tipis were typically unpainted. During the 1990s much of population lived on the reservation in rural homesteads or in Crow Agency, Lodge Grass, Pryor, and Wyola. A significant Crow population lived off-reservation in Billings, Montana.

After the acquisition of the horse, a sedentary horticultural-based economy revolving around the cultivation of crops such as maize was transformed into a transhumant buffalo-hunting economy. Large game animals such as buffalo, elk, and deer were hunted using communal and individual techniques, and bow and arrow technology. Coinciding with the destruction of the bison herds in the 1860s and 1870s and the implementation of the Dawes Act of 1887, sedentary farming, cattle raising, and a cash-based economy were encouraged by governmental and missionary agents.

During the 1990s, while unemployment rates remained high, job opportunities were found primarily in education and health care delivery and in local, tribal, and federal government agencies. Cash income is acquired by leasing land to white farmers and ranchers and from a tribal severance tax on coal mining. With the location of the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument on the reservation, limited income is obtained through tourism.

Using buffalo or mountain sheep horn, a composite sinew-back bow was made for both hunting and warfare. Women’s dress styles included a distinctive elk-tooth front and back decoration. Although elaborately beaded articles of clothing and other objects continue to be produced by many families, this craft seldom is commercialized and the products are not sold publicly. Basketry, pottery, weaving, and intricate woodcarving were not practiced.

During the era of the buffalo-hunting economy an annual rendezvous with sedentary horticultural tribes such as the Hidatsa and Mandan occurred. Balanced, reciprocity-based exchanges included Crow buffalo hides and meat for Hidatsa maize and other cultivated foods.

Men were primarily responsible for game hunting, ranching, and tribal governmental and military activities. Women were primarily responsible for household, child rearing, food preparation, and wild plant food collecting activities. Because they owned tipis, women erected and took down the lodges. These dichotomized roles were replaced during the late twentieth century with greater opportunities for women to become involved in political and economic affairs.

While pursuing a horticultural economy, it was likely that women had a significant influence on land use and inheritance decisions. After the advent of a transhumant buffalo-hunting economy, there was no individual ownership of land. Crow hunting territories were defended against enemy use. Individual land tenure was promoted by the imposition of the Dawes Act.

The Crow maintain a matrilineal clan structure with thirteen named clans. The clans are grouped into six unnamed and loosely organized phratries as well as into two primary bands, the Mountain and River divisions, along with a third minor band, the Kicked-in-the-Bellies. The bands are composed of all thirteen clans. Within the clans and extending into the phratry and band groups, members recognize mutual obligations to assist one another.

A “Crow kinship” system is practiced. Cross-generational equivalence is extended to the males in both the matrilineal clan (“older” and “younger brothers”) and the father’s mother’s clan (“fathers”), while sisters within the matrilineal clan are classified as “mothers.” The aassahke (“fathers” or “clan uncles”) continue to provide a pivotal kinship relationship. A clan uncle is any male member of the father’s mother’s clan. Such individuals are to be respected like “medicine,” with gifts of food and blankets provided to them during give-aways. In turn, aassahke bestow on a child an “Indian name,” sing “praise songs” for one’s accomplishments, and offer protective prayers.

Exogamy extended to the members of both the matrilineal and the father’s mother’s clan. There were no proscriptive marriage rules. In seeking a marriage, a groom would give a bride-price of a horse to the bride’s family. Although parents had considerable influence over a young daughter, a woman was not coerced to marry someone she disdained. Matrilocal residence, polygyny, mother-in-law avoidance, and the levirate generally were practiced. No ceremony marked a marriage union, with either a husband of a wife able to secure a divorce easily and free to remarry. Under Christian missionary influence, polygyny is much less frequently practiced and a formal wedding ritual has been introduced.

During pre-reservation times the primary household structure expressed matrilineal, multigenerational influences. This extended family unit typically included maternal grandparents, sisters and their spouses, and the children of those sisters. During the 1990s it was not uncommon to see grandparents residing with their children and multiple sibling marriages with the children living together in a single household, though not necessarily following matrilineal influences.

In a matrilineal society material property and spiritual possessions typically pass along the female line to brothers and sisters and their heirs. Honoring the specific requests of a dying person, property also could go to non-kinsmen and to all the members of the immediate family. On occasion, spiritual objects such as medicine bundles might be ritually deposited into a river instead of being passed to a relative.

Early child rearing was performed by the women of the family. A descriptive name would be ceremonially bestowed, with the name’s attributes influencing the child’s life. Few constraints were placed on children. Pre- and early teens began imitating adult camp activities. No formal puberty rituals were conducted for boys or girls, though girls were prohibited from interacting with others during their first and all subsequent menstruations. Vision questing by young males helped secure a guardian spirit that would guide a man throughout his life. Berdaches were not discouraged and were relatively common in pre-reservation times. Public and Catholic boarding schools have assumed much of the responsibility for socialization.

Crow society continues to be non-stratified and equalitarian. Complementing the kinship-based clans are reservation district-based groups. A central organizing principle around which much of Crow society revolves is understood in the Crow term for clan, ashammaleaxia, literally meaning “as driftwood lodges.” As an individual piece of driftwood may not survive the powerful eddies and boulders of the Yellowstone and Bighorn rivers, an individual Crow may have difficulty surviving the river of life with its potential adversaries, whether the Blackfeet or unemployment and discrimination. By tightly lodging itself with other pieces of driftwood along the river’s bank, the driftwood is protected. Individual Crow are protected and nurtured when lodged securely in the extensive web of mutually supportive kinship, social, and economic ties.

After the acquisition of the horse, male leadership roles such as the “chief” came to be based on achieving a series of war deeds or coups. Four generally recognized coups signified chiefly status: touching an enemy during combat, taking an enemy’s weapon, taking a tethered horse, and leading a raid on an enemy known as a “pipe holder.” The Crow did not adopt most of the specific provisions of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 and wrote their own constitution in 1948. It established a general-council government made up of every adult member of the tribe. The council elects four officers, a chairman, a vice-chairman, a secretary, and a vice-secretary. Both men and women have served in these offices. Various governing committees oversee activities such as land purchases, industrial development, housing, education, and tribal enrollment. Tribal police and court systems are under the jurisdiction of the council.

Conflict within the tribe could erupt between rival suitors or take the form of renewed long-standing feuds involving members of clans or military sodalities. In addition to the counsel provided by clan elders and chiefs, the threat of an escalation in fighting could mediate or resolve a conflict. Nevertheless, conflict between tribal members could end in armed fighting. In the 1990s tribal police and Federal Bureau of Investigation agents enforced laws and attempted to prevent intratribal conflicts. Tribal courts oversee tribal law codes and misdemeanors, and felonies are handled in U.S. federal courts.

Conflict with another tribe could result from the desire for revenge, to gain honor (coups), or to capture a horse. Warfare did not result from attempts at territorial expansion by the Crow. During combat with another tribe much of the coordination of the warriors was orchestrated through the military sodalities, such as the Foxes and Lump-woods. Each sodality had its own regalia and songs and exhibited intense rivalry as it attempted to outdo the others in combat. Ad hoc war parties could be organized to seek limited ends. During the twentieth century Crow men and women regularly served in the U.S. military and were honored publicly as veterans of foreign wars.

Although addressed by a number of names, an omnipresent though non-anthropomorphic creator is understood to be ultimately responsible for the animation of the world. Direct spiritual access is mediated through “medicine fathers” or guardian spirits. Often expressed as an animal such as an eagle, buffalo, or elk, medicine fathers are sought in vision quests. If the quest is successful, the vision seeker is “adopted” by the medicine father and given a “medicine,” a spiritual power known as baaxpee. Represented in a medicine bundle, the baaxpee helps guide one’s life and is applied when one is ill. The Crow attribute their origins and the creation of the world to the trickster Old Man Coyote. Old Man Coyote is traveling alone in a cold and wet world. As four ducks fly over, he asks each to dive beneath the waters and bring up some earth so that he can make the land. The first three ducks dive unsuccessfully. Old Man Coyote asks the fourth duck, Hell-Diver, to bring up some earth. The duck dives deep and finally surfaces with a small piece of mud. With this earth Old Man Coyote travels from east to west and makes the mountains and rivers and the animals and plants. As it is still a lonely place, he molds from the earth an image he likes and blows a small breath into it. The first man is made, but Old Man Coyote is not satisfied. He tries again and prefers his second attempt, the first woman. Old Man Coyote is no longer alone. He teaches the people how to live and pray and gives them their language and clan system and many of their ceremonies.

A variety of individuals perform different religious functions. Herbalists have extensive knowledge of plant remedies to treat specific illnesses. Certain medicine men and women with baaxpee conduct hunting and healing ceremonies, foretell the future, locate lost items or individuals, and officiate Sun Dances and Peyote Meetings. Although access to—and the acquisition of—medicine were widespread among the adult population in former times, being a medicine person continues to entail having a variety of medicines and being publicly acknowledged by other members of the community. Christian practices are coordinated by priests and ministers.

Ceremonies permeate all aspects of Crow life. Individual family medicine bundles are opened throughout the year, and prayers for the family’s welfare are offered. Sweat lodge rituals involve prayer, ritual cleansing, and healing. Youths seek their medicine during a summer’s vision quest. Unique to the Crow is the Tobacco Society. The sacred tobacco seeds are planted and harvested by its adopted members. A bountiful tobacco seed harvest foretells a successful year for the entire tribe. After the acquisition of the horse the summer’s Sun Dance became a prominent ceremonial expression, helping to unite the tribe and providing a means to obtain baaxpee to avenge the death of a relative. Although the last “buffalo-days” Sun Dance was held in 1875, Sun Dancing resumed in the 1940s, though with a different motivation. As many as 120 men and women participate in the dance. Each dancer pledges to go without food and water and “dry up” to help a relative who may be sick or in need. Typically, the dances last three days. During the Sun Dance individual participants offer prayers for family members and the welfare of all peoples, the sick are “doctored” by medicine men, and individual dancers may be given a vision. Other forms of ceremonial expression are found in Native American Church Peyote Meetings as well as Catholic, Baptist, Mormon, and Evangelical Christian services.

Made with Crow-stitch and overlay-stitch techniques, geometric and floral beadwork designs adorn powwow dance regalia, belts, vests, pipe bags, and horse trappings. A characteristic Crow beadwork and painted rawhide parfleche design is the “hourglass” formed by two isosceles triangles joined at the apex. Powwow dancing and singing occur throughout the year, culminating in the annual Crow Fair, which involves up to twenty thousand participants attending the weeklong celebrations in August. Using Euro-American painting techniques and Indian subjects, several Crow artists have gained an international reputation. Among many families the winter is a time for telling Coyote stories and maintaining other oral traditions. The story of Burnt Face is an important oral tradition. A young boy is badly scarred and subsequently ostracized. He fasts from food and water for several days in the Big Horn Mountains. While on the mountain he assembles the “Big Horn Medicine Wheel” as a gift to the Sun. Having given of himself, Burnt Face is “adopted” by the Little People, who remove his scar. He returns to his people and becomes a great healer.

Illness and misfortune can be attributed to both natural and spiritual causes. A variety of plants was and continues to be used for medicinal purposes. An example is “bear root,” which is used as a tea to treat sore throats and colds, made into a poultice for swelling, and burned as incense during sweat bathing. Ritual healing during a sweat bath, Sun Dance, Peyote Meeting, or medicine bundle opening also be applied to effect a cure. A “jealous” individual may use “bad medicine” to “shoot” an object into a person. The ritual healing can involve a medicine man “sucking” the object out. Sickness also can be treated with an eagle feather fan. The fan and baaxpee are applied to the afflicted area of the patient and then removed, pulling out the sickness. The application of scientific medicine typically is viewed as complementary to the use of tribal healing practices.

Upon death an individual traditionally would be wrapped in a blanket with his or her favorite possessions and placed either on a burial scaffold or in a tree. After decomposition the bones and remaining articles would be buried in the earth or a rock crevice. After death, the kinsmen of the deceased would begin a period of mourning lasting up to a year, refraining from participation in most social events. Immediate family members, both male and female, would cut their hair short, gash themselves with knives, and often cut off finger joints. While the spirit of the deceased may remain close to the corpse, it eventually moves on to a camp of the dead. During this transition period the ghost of the deceased may visit its living relatives or may be heard in the call of an owl. If death came in a violent fashion, the ghost may continue to visit relatives until a ceremony placating it is performed. In most families there was little concern with — or articulation of —the nature of life after death. In the twentieth century, Christian practices and ideas increasingly were integrated into wakes and burial ceremonies and in the conceptualization of an afterlife.

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This culture summary is from the article “Crow” by Rodney Fry in the Encyclopedia of World Cultures, Supplement, Carol R. Ember, Melvin Ember, and Ian Skoggard, eds. New York: Macmillan Reference USA. 2002. Pp. 89-92. The population figures were updated in November 2012 by Teferi Abate Adem and in April 2013 by Leon G. Doyon.