Crow Archives - Lewis & Clark Research Database

Blackfeet Burning Crow Buffalo Range

Wed, 18 Feb 2026 18:46:27 +0000

Charles M. Russell’s “Blackfeet Burning Crow Buffalo Range” depicts a scene of intertribal warfare on the northern plains. The composition shows mounted Blackfeet warriors setting fire to grassland, a tactic used to deprive a rival tribe of forage and to drive bison away from enemy hunting territory. Smoke and flame fill the middle distance while the riders move across the foreground, rendered with Russell’s customary attention to horse anatomy, the cut of leggings and shirts, and the carriage of the rider on horseback. As a halftone print measuring roughly 3 1/2 by 5 3/8 inches, the image was reproduced from one of Russell’s painted or drawn originals for mass circulation, a common practice for his work in the early twentieth century.

The 1907 date places this image at the height of Russell’s productive middle career, after he had left the cowboy life behind and settled in Great Falls, Montana, to paint full time. By this point he was widely published in magazines, gift books, and promotional literature, and small halftone reproductions of his Western subjects circulated broadly. The subject reflects Russell’s lifelong interest in the Plains tribes before reservation confinement, a period he treated repeatedly through scenes of hunting, horse raids, and intertribal conflict. The Blackfeet–Crow rivalry he depicts here was a defining feature of the northern plains in the early nineteenth century, the same landscape and peoples the Lewis and Clark Expedition encountered in 1805 and 1806 as the Corps of Discovery moved through what is now Montana.

Russell (1864–1926) is the artist most closely identified with Montana’s visual identity, and his images shaped public understanding of the northern plains for generations. This print is held in the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth, Texas, a major repository of Russell’s work alongside that of Frederic Remington. It entered the collection through the Fred and Jo Mazzulla Collection, an important Colorado-based assemblage of Western American photographs, prints, and ephemera. Russell’s depictions of intertribal warfare and pre-reservation Plains life have been frequently reproduced in Lewis and Clark commemorative publications, where they serve to illustrate the Indigenous world the expedition documented but did not fully understand.

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Marvin Dawes on the Battle of Little Bighorn and Crow Nation History

Wed, 11 Feb 2026 00:36:08 +0000

e all right thank you first of all I’d like to say uh good morning how are you all doing this morning fine okay great that’s great um as I was introduced uh again my name is Marvin dos I’m with the L cor Battlefield National Monument uh and I’m with the inter division uh the lead park ranger um the battle A Little Big Horn you know is one of the most talked about battles it’s one of the most famous battles this battle was a mystery controversial why well you know because from what today that’s called the Reno Creek to the last than Hill you know there was no survivors there to tell of what happened all 225 soldiers annihilated there but it’s a accounts and then also uh archaeology in the field of archaeology uh archaeologists that were out here you know their their findings of artifacts you know spend cartrid cases and uh we we put those two together and this is what we assume of what happened on that day uh throughout the summer uh we have programs uh three three topics and those are uh repeated you know throughout the day uh one topic is the battle talk which uh talk about events that led to the Battle of Little Big Horn in 1876 uh the Battle of Little Bighorn itself then aftermath of the Battle of Little Big Horn other program we have is a US calvalry Soldier in 1876 uh talks about the soldiers uh in 1876 uh those that were at the battle at the time of uh of the battle uh we talk about their their way of life you know like Hollywood version you know you see uh big tall handsome soldiers you know like John Wayne and uh uh Charleston hon you know big fancy blue uniforms yellow stripes yellow bandana and black hats you know it life life wasn’t like that with the soldiers back then or the seventh Calvary by the time they reached his area they were pretty well Ted and uh by the way you know back then when uh you wanted to join the calvary as we see again movies you know John Wayne you know back then uh these these two guys would have made it as Calvary soldiers uh because there was a height limit back then when you wanted to join the calvary you couldn’t be no more than U 5’8 the average height of the soldier in 1876 the battle little Bigg horn is uh 56 so if you were over 5’8 you would have made it as a soldier they’ll send you to the Infantry so these uh two two gentlemen would have made it as Calvary the reason why is because that you know on these campaigns uh the military the Army back then you know the calvary Soldier the horse you know there was a weight limit on that horse with the equipment that they had to carry plus the height the weight of the soldier that’s why the soldiers were you know not that tall and uh so that’s what we talk about you know the life the calvary soldier in 1876 the other program is the Indian village uh this program started off with the cultural the ways of the Indians the tribes at the time Orin the area at the time of the battle of borns uh particularly the Plain Indians uh their way of life uh you know at that time the Indian the tribes the Plains Indians you know their their way of life was a buffalo you know the Buffalo was a Mainstay of the tribes at that time the Buffalo that provided them with food shelter you know every every part of that Buffalo was used for something and one of the things that I talked about in this uh Indian Villages you know the tribes that were here at the time of the battle in 1876 a lot of visitors come out and uh the thing that they have on their mind is this Hollywood version of the Battle of Little Big Horn you know cusser on top of the hill saber in one hand and pistol in one hand and thousands and thousands of mounted Warriors circling around him you know it wasn’t it wasn’t like that uh it didn’t counts shine in two moons so we dismounted and we did our fighting on foot once the soldiers or the remaining soldiers reach the top the bullets that were coming from the solders rifles were very deadly it was like humming bees as it wh by it’s pretty powerful weapon that every Cooling and every Ravine that led up to that hill was full of Warriors we crawled creeped up towards the top every once in a while pop up behind a brush fire up to the top top go down so that’s how the battle with big horn you know there’s there’s so much misconception about this battle and uh as as I mentioned uh the tribes another thing that visitors come out and uh they see the tribes at that time various tribes one of the largest Gatherings of the Plains you know in movies in Hollywood you’ll see the eve of the battle where these Indians dressed in their finest War paints weapons dancing around a bonfire you know Hooper and harling firing their rifles boom boom you know wasn’t like that you know this this Gathering is uh 1875 uh ultimum will be sent out to all the tribes they were told that all the tribes that were still roaming the plains they were told that you must return to your agency or reservation if not after January 1st of 1876 we will pursue you so a majority of the tribes uh will return to their agencies or the reservation in the spring six bands under the leadership of Chief syu refus to go back to the agencies on the agencies they will tell the government why should we sign a paper where you tell us you will put us on a land you will provide us with food you will take care of us they said pointing to the ground said This is Our Land and the Animals the deer the analou the elk the Buffalo those our food they provide us with food sheltered and pointing to the skies the heavens the roof over our home said this is our home so with that these bands they they’ll head out to the PLS as they were called rors so in 1876 America was gearing up for the celebration of the Centennial year you know four the gearing up for the Fourth of July Centennial last thing or least problems or problems that they want us to take care of is the Indian matter Indian policy say we got to these tribes back on the agencies so in 1876 this three military campaign will be lunched so those are tribes that were here and it wasn’t a gathering a largeest gathering and as Chief syu said last thing on our mind was Warfare even though we knew that we were being pursued by soldiers but for the time being we wanted to roam and hunt the planes freely like like our ancestors so in 1876 his campaign was launched pursuing the six bands of the Sue also the allies and Northern cheyen and handful of rap hole in sting we veed off into the Little Big Horn we knew this was Crow country the old men and women and children grew tired we veed off into the Little Big Horn and this is where the soldiers caught up to us tribes that were here you know questions about the tribes that were here about a year ago uh this gentleman had asked me a a question after my program said um you said you’re a crow and I said yes sir I’m I’m Crow I’m native of this area and uh also the scouts the other Scouts were ARA and I said yes sir said uh why didn’t the Crow and the ARA join the Sue and the Cheyenne and fight he said aren’t you all Indians and I said yes sir well we’re all Indians said why why why didn’t they join fight you know traditional enemies you know as far back as history from Revolutionary War war of 1812 and when France England were here they had tribes on their sides as allies but those tribes are traditional enemies in tribal Warfare so at that time the crow Su traditional enemies Crow arapo traditional enemies and Crow and cheyen traditional enemies later the crow shason traditional enemies Crow blackre traditional enemies we had a lot of enemies back then this leads to my uh program the topic of the crow at that time uh here in this area you know the plains the crow uh even though we were also a migratory tribe which we migrated or branched off uh the hia from Missouri Crossing Missouri onto Yellowstone as far as I remember uh through our uh ancestral uh you know uh stories uh that were told to us by our ancestors and as far back as I remember the crow Aboriginal territory at that time as far back as the late 1600s was a present day Milk River area from uh Montana North Dakota area cutting back across uh towards present day uh Glacier Park uh King Mountain Area uh there’s a lullabi in the crow uh lullabi where uh also a story of a young child uh grandmother who uh seeing a little saying that my child you know born inama Jes King Mountain uh today you know King Mountain Glazer Park so those are the stories that we you know the Lis those know how we know where the curl Aboriginal territory was and then from there straight down to uh Yellowstone present day Yellowstone Park cutting back into Wyoming uh down below Buffalo Thermopolis area then straight over towards black hills and then back up towards the Milk River so that was the Aboriginal territory through oral history of the crow now those names those areas were mentioned in a lot of the oral history and as I mentioned Lis and also songs sacred songs and that’s how we know and then in 18 As Time came out when the Europeans came a lot of changes and uh his word will start to see Fort ly treaties treaties that was sign government the tribes then we see the territories designating uh each tribe the headman or the chief as they had come together they would State their Aboriginal territory or where their ter territory was one of the earliest Chiefs a Kula Chief sits in the middle land said where my four poles sit is were my home today the present area of the Three Forks area to The Milk River and then down here uh Wyoming and then uh on this side of Wyoming back into ystone is what he as where the crow territory that time and then from there from the 1851 Treaty to 1868 on up um each treaty that was signed every time you know the the government would take away land here there so at one time the crow Aboriginal territory was about 33 million acres to what I had mentioned earlier to today 2.2 million Acres the Cronan reservation and uh you know we’re we’re fortunate you know the crow today that we still take our Aboriginal territory we’re fortunate that you know a lot of people think that just because the crow scouted for the government for lieutenant colonel George arms Custer that is why we are given this land no that was not the case as I mentioned Aboriginal territory again uh couple years ago one of my programs this guy uh who was European you know walked up to me and you know he was he was pretty ticked off you know he said uh you mentioned your you’re Crow and I said yes sir I’m I’m Crow goes well he said you know I believe the Sue and shyen should be the ones living here said they’re the ones that were here they fought for this land they should be put here on this land this should be their land not you not the crow and I want to know why why are you crows here is it because you scouted for Custer and I kind of look back and then people were starting to gather around me and pointing a finger and I me I said okay wait a minute I said let me tell you how we got this land I said in the for ly treaty you know all the tribes of the planes were gathered each headsman Chief was told to come forward so the government going down a line issuing land to the tribes first tell the shonis you live down here in Wyoming the rap hole the you can live in South Dakota area and Cheyenne’s down here black Peet and Seno is up here top Montana going down Nest per is over here in Western Montana and going around and finally it came to the crow said but this land here said this land here is very handsome it’s very beautiful and we’re going to give it to the one of the the most handsomest tribes the Plains and that’s a crow the guy kind of laughed and I went back in uh the late or late 1700s about 1800s one of the first explorers that came to the PLS in their first Contact the tribes were the crow and in their journals they wrote the most handsomest tribes that were Came Upon men were the men of the Crow tribe or the crow Crow people people and I I kind of threw threw that on him so again you know the crow uh here at the time of the battle the crow Aboriginal territory in 1876 the Army would start to use tribes as Scouts also for the tribes at that time when with the for ly treaties you know designate or uh put on the agencies some of them could no longer hunt or some of them couldn’t even weren’t allowed to carry firearms anymore a lot of things had changed the impact of the Europeans with Fort L treaties so in order to to maintain their their warriorship uh in 1868 in one of the treaties uh the treaty Pro uh prohibited to take arms against their enemies uh so that means that they could not carry the forarms meaning that they could no longer go out and raid you know capture horses and uh capture weapons from the enemies which gave them the warriorship you know meaning that they to gain status to be Warrior ship and uh they couldn’t do that so in order for them to to maintain that warriorship that you know status this is when the Army uh uh in uh 18 uh in 1866 the Army uh reorganization act said that Indian Scouts were enlisted men who while they were not solders were nevertheless declared by the Attorney General of the United States to be part and partial of army the service of Indians was provided for by the act of Congress approv approved June 22nd 1866 the language law of the law as it appears in section 1112 of the revised status 1873 being as as follows now this is what the tribes you know in order to maintain that warriorship where they no longer could go out you know their enemies so they join an army to maintain this warriorship and this uh act uh continues the president is authorized to enlist a force of Indians not exceeding 1,000 who shall act as Scouts in territories in Indian Country they shall be discharged when the necessity for their service shall cease or at the discretion of the department Commander it was further provided by the law that Indian Scouts so enlisted or employed by the president were entitled to to receive the same pay and allowance as Calvary soldiers which at that time and for many years thereafter these soldiers or the Indians serve as Scouts were paid $13 a month the same as the enlisted soldiers on this campaign in 1876 you know the C who uh were being pushed back towards West back further in their Aboriginal territory as I mentioned earlier you know the Sue would come in the shyen uh the rapos so at that time the South the East area the East territory of the cro uh Crow territory was literally occupied by the Sue at that time the crows would face crisis you know so this was a time for them to join the Army because they knew that the Army the United States Army was here to remove their traditional enemy puru out of the territories and take them back so that was an opportunity for them to join with the Army also the the Ross they too uh General alred cherry out of Fort Abraham Lincoln in his campaign he had acquired arikara Scouts the same as the ricra like the crow when the Sue came in they literally robbed the araras of their food capturing or you know uh stealing children and you know women so they they too that was an opportunity for them you know to join as Scouts cuz like M Crow they knew the government Army was here to remove their enemy so this campaign that was lach you know we see the crow um Fort Ellis present day uh Boseman Montana at that time the crow uh in the area of uh what we now call the Mission Creek uh this was where the first agency was and uh from there the Detachment of uh Scouts under Lieutenant James Bradley uh will be his the detachments of Indian Scouts total in about uh 50 in numbers as they headed down the Yellowstone later the majority of them will head with or ride down towards the mountains to join up with General crook uh one week before the Battle of Rose but or the battle Little Bighorn the battle Rose but um this 6 hour hour battle that was fought there present day uh outside Shon Wyoming the crows did fought in that battle here the Detachment of or the uh commanding officer uh General Cher uh John given and general Cherry will meet present day rosett Montana and this is where they’ll send Custer down the rosett with 12 companies of the seventh Calvary and in that command we’ll see six Crow Scouts and these Crow Scouts are uh curly white man runs him White Swan Harry mcon um half yellow face uh these will be the scouts attached to the seventh Calvary now as they March down the rose but early morning they arrived behind what we all call the wolf mountains uh about 4: 4: 5 a.m. now these Scouts will serve as uh these were the eyes and the ears of the command and the crow you know they they knew this area uh traveling at night you know they knew what area they knew what what was out there um in the records of uh this campaign the events uh later uh in the record of events said that these Scouts performed a duty in the field of Colonel gibbons’s wing of the Yellowstone Expedition until June 21st when uh Colonel Lieutenant Colonel kuster’s command arriving oppos it camp near mouth of the Rose but six of the scouts were detached to the company to his command they participated in the attack upon the Sue Village in the Valley of the Little Big Horn on June 25th five being with major Reno and one with kusser when one was wounded four had headed out from the field the one remained with major Reno these four four scouts or five Scouts would be with attached to Major Marcus Reno and uh except for one crow Scout Curley uh who at the time of the battle um by the way Curley uh the time of the battle was uh 17 years old uh he was the youngest of the crow Scouts um the other five would remain with Reno’s command C would ask uh C’s command if he stay with his command and permission granted and there um they’ll head up towards what we know call weird point today the highest point that uh you see up there from there into the medicine tail medicine tail and from there is where curlyy said later on the anniversary who was out here said this is where I last saw cusser and curly was considered as uh one of the survivors or the only survivor of the battle A Little Big Horn uh curle was told that uh this is not your fight you must leave who was told by uh the chief Scout Mitch Mitch Boer um I mentioned earlier or I read earlier that uh where it says they participated in the attack upon the Sue Village actually they didn’t participate it you know they were released once the village was was located um two of them will be heading out towards the other side of the bluff uh where there was a large horse herd uh the other four would remain up on top of bluff so these uh Scouts from uh we talk a little bit about the history of the crow to this point to uh to these four four Crow Scouts who uh served in the military with the Army status uh being recognized as soldiers being paid the same pay as a soldier which was uh $13 a month and when they were on this campaign they got an extra 40 cents per day average uh day of the campaign that time was from uh 225 or uh about uh about uh 225 days to 125 days so you know times uh 40 Cent plus of what they get paid so after this campaign later uh they they would be you know collecting you know pension or if they passed on a family the wife was likely receive that that pension um I like to read a little bit about uh the scouts they’re uh when they were born and what they’re served as Scouts uh first of all uh curly who uh ranked his rank was Private uh Indian Scout uh he was born in 1856 at the little roseb but creek near the roseb but area um who was with custers colum on June 25th possibly witnessed a fight of the Custer column and later carried the news to the streamer Far West later Curley uh would be interviewed you know after this battle he was one of the most popular uh when after this battle you know they the uh media would come out they wanted to interview somebody about this battle and of course the last Scout that was with kuster Curley so he had a lot of you know uh he had a lot of tension back then it was he was like a celebrity and uh it was stated that later some of the crow Scouts got a little jealous because of he got so much attention and uh these interviews uh later consisted of uh Lieutenant James row you know with uh Thomas leforge interpreter interviewing Curley on uh the uh curly uh passed away in uh May the 21st 1923 and uh he’s he’s buried at the Lorn Battlefield National Monument the Scout white man runs him who uh ranked private was with also Custer’s command um earlier accompanied Sir George Gore on the western hunting trip in 1856 with the Custer column then on June 25th he was here at the Battle of Little Big Horn um white man runs him was also later interviewed by uh Colonel Tom McCoy in the Grahams uh book uh Custer Smith um white man runs him passed away on June 2nd of 1929 uh is buried at uh lch grass and uh Harry marason uh private born un unknown uh served in the Army Detachment of Indian Scouts um who participated or was in the area the time of the battle and uh died passed away on October 9th 1922 uh buried at St an’s Cemetery in LG grass and goahead ranked private Indian Scout with Custer column uh who was on top of the hill um he is also uh when he passed away on May 31st 1919 uh he’s buried at the kuster battlefield National Cemetery and uh the last not least uh Scout who was also in charge of the scouts by the way uh under Mitch Boer was half yellowface now there’s a little story about half yellowface who uh was not recognized even to today where a lot of people think that he should received or be recognized half yellow face uh his rank was Private uh was in a valley and on the hilltop with major Marcus Reno uh he was in the Infantry with Lieutenant James Bradley uh when Reno reach a Hilltop uh they uh set up the second day uh water carrier um volunteers to go down the river bring up water for the wounded um in this um little little jail where um the soldiers went down under the protection of Sharpshooters on the side um filled up cantens and brought up to the top once they reach the top uh one of the soldiers a young Soldier by the name of Madden uh was shot in the hit Madden Rose down the hill by that time everybody was back up on top uh nobody didn’t want to go down there and save uh man half H face up on top he’ll drop everything without cover uh Sharpshooters or anything he’ll run down the bottom there and he’ll pick up half aace throw him on shoulder and he’ll walk up to the top uh half Hof face saves man later uh the Army DC uh the Army uh decorating these water carriers and the volunteers and the Sharpshooters Congressional Medal of honors all those soldiers were mentioned but nothing was mentioned of half yellow face a lot of people feel today that half face should be recognized for his heroic bravery at time the battle A Little Big Horn you know those mentioned uh well that you know just a little bit about the crow uh the Aboriginal territory of The Crow and how the crows came to be here um today as I mentioned you know 2.2 million acres and all the lands that were taken away you know section here here there you know we’re we’re fortunate that um that we’re still here in our territory um even though lands are taken here and there you know we see the big horn mountains the Big Horn Lake they are in the Cronan reservation uh there’s a little story about the Cronan reservation uh the cro the Big Horn Mountains and the Big Horn River you know Nam after the big horn sheep and uh we’re fortunate that those are still in the crow reservation and uh i’ like to thank um all of you here visitors um I hope uh shed some light on your story about the Battle and also the curl at this time uh we have a few minutes if you have any questions um go ahead and see some answer some questions here well in C we say it means it’s good means it’s good to see you may have a good day I hope thank you very much right and thank you Marvin Daws with the National Park Service from Little Big Horn Battlefield National Monument so um we’ll give him a little round of applause for his efforts today thank you for coming out we appreciate it all right all Next program will begin in about 20 minutes we will have Wales bull tale and he will be speaking on the crow way of life so feel free to come again for e e

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Howard Boas on Crow History and Lewis & Clark

Wed, 11 Feb 2026 00:36:08 +0000

well good afternoon everyone and welcome to the tenam many voices I encourage you to come in and have a seat and join us we’re just about to get started with our 1:00 program the tenam Min voices is part of the cor Discovery 2 traveling loose and Clark exhibit it’s a m agency exhibit with a National Park Service being the lead agency if you spend some time here today if you go out to the keelboat for instance you talk to members of the Army Corps of Engineers if you go out to the Dugout canoe you talk to someone from the Bureau of Reclamation so it’s a multi- agency exhibit and it’s a multi- partnership exhibit here in the tenam many voices we have a wide variety of presenters that share with us a wide variety of perspectives both on the lwis and Clark expedition itself but also we like to hear from the PE from the descendants of the people that were living there long before Lewis and Clark arrived we’d like to hear from these indigenous or American Indian nations to share their story their perspectives and that’s what we have today with our 1:00 program we have we have Howard bogus who is an enrolled member of The Crow Nation he’s going to share some of his people’s history and culture Howard is a oral historian has been learning his history and culture of his people since he was six years old so we’re very privileged to have him here let’s give him a warm welcome to the tanam voices so you got me on oh okay all right thank you uh want to thank the National Park Service for allowing me to come here to speak with you and uh talk to you about the history of the people who were here when lisis and Clark came uh one of the things that people don’t see in the in the Diaries and and of the Louis and Clark and and stuff like that that there was people here there was culture there was societies there was religion all of that was here and it was all basically the same as the stuff that Lewis and Clark brought here and uh Jesuit priests and uh other religions that brought religion to the crow people afterwards but uh anyway uh I’m an enr enrolled member of the Crow tribe of Indians and uh at the age of 6 years old I was designated by a cow cro Indian Elder my named George Washington Hogan and uh when you go down on the Crow Nation you will find many Washingtons you will find many Lincoln and uh things such as this because at that time the Indian people named almost all of their children after a president or somebody that was very very important so you find them types of names down there but Mr Hogan when he adopted me uh that does not mean that I left my my family and went to live with the Hogan Family whoops my outfit fell off here my uh speaker fell off in the back of my belt but uh anyway uh when uh Mr Hogan when he adopted me um I became a a member of the Hogan family so I had okay so I had two families uh to bring me up and when Mr Hogan uh adopted me he he he he asked my parents if I could be brought up as an oral historian so I’ve studied oral histories all my life plus the written histories I’ve put together a library of over 8 around 800 books on the cow Indian people and the other Indian tribes of Montana and in thousands of loose leaf pages I I don’t know I I got so much I don’t even know what I have anymore but uh anyway when when when he uh asked me to do this then he and in Crow tradition then he designated two people that would be my tutors when I was very young and one of them was one of the people was Robert suar yellow tale who was actually the first American Indian that became a superintendent of a of a tri of a tribe of Indians in the United States and he was one and Mr yellow tale became came back and he became the superintendent of the Crow tribe of Indians uh and the other person who he designated was Robert Summers how who was who was my my mother’s older brother so I had a clan uncle and and and and an uncle who were my my teachers and these old these gentlemen would take me out and through the hills and stuff you know and you know I can remember now you know when you in the 40s and 50s men we had we were still driving Model A and old junker cars and stuff such as that you know battle tra around the hills and these guys would take me along and say you know this is what happened here on this hill side this is come and look at this these rocks and this the the rocks that this marks a prayer site or a battle site or or it’s a trail marker or something such as this you know and so I’ve actually spent most all of my life hiking the hills and looking toward uh my friend Mike penfold here goes with me all the time anymore because I have I lost all my peripheral vision so I only have central vision also they don’t allow me to drive but old Mike here he takes me all the time and and uh but anyway we go out and we we we uh find the paintings and stuff out here we we visit paintings here that have been carbon dated at 1,000 years old so the you know there was a culture there was you know and that was here a long time uh we we we walked the trails we have a highway system today the Indian people had a highway system one of the main highways is just right out here just west of Great Falls it goes from Alberta Canada to New Mexico and all you do is you follow little piles of rocks all the way um one of the things that’s always uh very interesting to me is that the I I believe that the Indian people got along a lot better before the white men came along before they was being pushed into smaller groups uh because at at in in our beliefs no one owns the land the land is there for everybody and the land is there to to take care of everybody uh in our and we and in our structure of Life uh our structure of life is a family is is a family structure because I pray to my my father the sky I pray to my mother the earth I pray to my grandfather the sun I play I prayed to my grandmother the moon these are the things that brought us into this into this life in this earth they’re the ones that brought us up they tutored us they taught us they fed us they took care of us so our our really our our way of life and our religion was our family and our Earth our Sky our sun our moon you know it’s it’s like uh my father this guy he looks over my mother the the Earth he showers with the rain my mother the Earth brings up the green grasses the trees whatever it takes to feed us or to feed the animals that we’re that we are going to consume without it our grandfather the son without our grandfather the son this could not happen because we need the sunlight to take care of it but you know we need time to rest so our grandmother the Moon she watches over us while we rest at night so that we can get ready for our new life that begins in the morning because in our cro in in our croad tradition our lives are one day at a time a life is one day at a time and it is for all of us yes we always plan for the future but our life is still only one day at a time and so that’s this is how our belief our culture was and this was a belief in a culture that was going on at the time when Lewis and Clark came up through the Missouri River I drew this map right here this map right here this is Mandan right here and uh I drew this map off in Crow Indian oral stories I drew it off of the information that was given by sits in the middle of the land when he signed the 1826 treaty at Mandan with the United States government that was the first treaty that the C Indian people ever signed with United States government so when uh they signed this treaty uh the general he says well sit in the middle of land he says what where where do you live how can I find you if I need to contact you because the 1826 treaty it didn’t say I’m going to give you something I’m going to take anything it was a treaty of friendship because the crow were recognized as a nation by the United States government not as a tribe of Indians not as a reservation we were recognized as a nation one of the very few tribes of there was only a eight to 10 tribes in the entire United States that were recognized by United States government as a nation but anyway when uh when we signed this treaty here and he said where do you live well he says my Crow people live under my Lodge we as Crow when we set up our lodge we use four main polls all of the rest of the tribes use three main poles to set up their lodges but Crow used four so we set up one he says my one pole sets at thei River Big River the Missouri River or the Yellowstone the AA runs into it this is up here on this my second pole it’s down here and it’s what where the it’s the Gap Where the Buffalo come through Spearfish South Dakota that’s where the second pole was set for the coration the third pole was set way down here in the southwest and uh it’s at a place that is called that you can visit today it’s the gurgling Waters pooo Papa Waters and it’s where the waters are boiling from the ground it’s a beautiful place to go to our fourth pole set where the rivers mix the headwaters of the Missouri River where the Jefferson all three of the rivers come together here at the Three Forks and this is our cron Nation sets under our law L because our lodge is round if you noticed the the the reserv the the nation was in a shape of a heart and I couldn’t figure it out I I study father desmid quite a little bit and uh father dmid went back to uh St Louis when he got to St Louis they asked him that where have you been where’ you come from he says I just came from the heart of the cron Nation we have to remember that father dmid drew a good share of the maps of the American West he was a priest a Jesuit priest but yet he you know he had to have a a way to finance himself because uh the Catholic church was not financing the Catholic church was not financing uh father dmet father dmit was a renegade study him oh he’s fun he is fun but uh anyway when when when he got back to St Louis he said he was he had just came from the heart of the crow country when I use the oral stories this country over here this is Plat River Country this water all runs into the Big Horn River this run water all runs into the Yellowstone River this water runs into the from the Missouri into the Missouri here into the Yellowstone and then Yellowstone Park up here yeah Crow Indians at one time Yellowstone Park almost 80% of Yellowstone Park was in The Crow Nation we should have kept that and give them the rest of the reservation but uh no it’s it’s it’s very interesting of the history and the people who went here but one of the things I like I always like to talk about uh the culture uh we had artists and our artists when they made a painting a thousand years ago you can read it today and it tells you a story um that’s one of the things I forgot to bring along with me I was going to bring along some photographs of of of some of the paintings and uh there one of the things what I find in the paintings when I see them all the time is that they generally have they generally have the number 13 marked into it there’s generally 13 little marks you if there’s a whole circle of marks you divide them they’ll divide out into because the 13 moons we have 13 full moons in a year the Indian people use that as our calendar the 13 full moons we even had a calendar believe it or not the 13 moons on the Turtles back the next time you see a turtle count the little squares on his back there is 13 that is our calendar that was our calendar yes so you know they was we was doing the same thing as a white man different way uh the other thing that was very interesting it was you know like I say you know the the religion part of it is how how when we prayed when actually when it going to come all when when it all comes down we all prayed to the same person up here when we die I I was buried on the top of the ground because of the fact that if I was buried down under the ground my spirit can’t rise and go up and I need to do that and and uh you know it was until 1894 that the United States government passed the law and said I had to have 5 ft of dirt on my face yeah one of the things that uh the non-indian people I don’t say I don’t I don’t use the term of white man very much I don’t I I I think it’s a derogatory term but I I generally say the non-indian and one of the ter the things that the non-indian people did uh get from the Indian people you go to any the cemeteries you’re always buried so you face the east Indian people were always tried buried so that they could fa they they would face the Rising Sun when I set up my Lodge I would set up my Lodge my openings when I set in the back of my Lodge I would sit there in the morning and I could sit in my Lodge and I could had watched the Rising Sun from the back Lodge so East was a very very important part of of of our of our way uh 13 you know like I say everybody thinks 13 is a great a bad number ah not for us it’s great no fact is I was in Washington DC a couple of years ago and I was visiting Nick rhof West Virginia and uh when when we were visiting Mr Mr Ray Hall he says uh well you know this might be a bad time for you to have propably to do cuz we was trying he’s actually put together a bill to try to uh put protection on uh cultural sites historic sites Across the Nation Indian and not Indian but he’s getting a lot of flak over it because I mean it it it protects a lot of land so but anyway when uh when we was talking to Mr Ray Hall he says well this is my 13th term he says this might be a the beginning of my 13th term he says this might be a bad time I says no this is the most wonderful time for us I said because 13 is our is our good number and like I say when you go around the the paintings you will find them always have 13 in some way or another uh in in the paintings uh some of the paintings I mean you you read them uh you get them get them and as you see on my belt buckle here I have lodges beaded into my belt buckle and the lodge is my home my home is very very sacred my home is my church because uh in in American Indian people we don’t go build a million dooll building so we got someplace to go on Sunday anytime that I go go out here my feet touch the Earth and I can see the sky I’m in my church I’m in my church and and I go there quite often to do this but uh what a lot of times you I like to talk a little bit about the prayer okay I do a prayer something happened in my life I don’t know maybe a death maybe I’m not getting along with people or somebody who got hurt that’s very close to me or something like this I go out to do a prayer and when I go out to do my prayer I go Before Sunrise to where I’m going to do my prayer I do a prayer twice a year on top of pompy’s pillar and I go up there I have my little place that I can set I can sit there the entire day people don’t even know that I’m there but I go Before Sunrise and I don’t come come back down off until sunsight at night and when I up there I I pray for what was is is going on happening in my life but I don’t sit there and pray the entire day I’m sitting there and I’m thinking what is the bad things has happening in my life what is what is the way that I can can can fix this uh this more it’s in our belief is we we need to know who we are within we need to know who we are as long as we know who we are we will do well but the day that we don’t that we find that we’ve lost ourselves and we became you know uh maybe we start drinking maybe we start using drugs maybe we do you know we we start doing things but you got to remember who you are and take care of take care of that that person as long as you always know exactly who you are you will do well but when uh I like to talk a little bit about Lewis and Clark now Lewis and Clark entered Crow country right here right here they traveled up Crow country right through here Crow people people were on the Sun River which is west of Great Falls the two Medicine River Crow people were living up there at that time there was Crow people living on the Milk River which is way up here but Lewis and Clark they entered cro country right here traveled up here and out the other side of cro country down at three fors then they returned Lewis made this entire trip back Clark P just drip down to Yellowstone uh there was one of the groups went down to through the Missouri River here again and uh prior made the journey with the horses across over here on these yellow lines so they traveled about 1,700 miles and never spoke to a crow and a lot of people wonder so why did they travel all these miles right through the middle of the crow people they seen signs of the Indians all the way they never met a crow for one reason one reason only mosquitoes these crows they was smart enough that you get back away from the rivers into the hills the high mountains you get away from the mosquitoes and mosquito time they left they left the River Country this was the time when Lewis and Clark was doing all of their things in Crow country and they stayed on the rivers they stayed down in the mosquitoes they got ate up the croww gone what was very interesting at this point right in here where they made the canoes or they made the canoes they camped there 3 days Lou and Clark did or Clark did in his group within 12 miles of where Clark was camped there was a crow Sundance going on at the very same time there was thousands of Indians there it was on the Clarks Fork River as we know it today but then to the to the crow people the Cheyenne the sue the blackbeat this is the river where we all come to dance this meant all of the tribes of Indians come there to the Clarks Forks River they would do Sund dances and they would hunt they would they would take care of their hides their meat and think and get a year supply of meat and then then they would start venturing back home nees Pur I mean there was many many tribes shonne all of the tribes would come there because the Clarks Fork River we didn’t didn’t fight on that River when we all came to that River we know that that was a place that you could set down beside your enemy break bread eat hunt together maybe we even got together and we went off and raided somebody’s horse P horses see we never stole a horse I want you to know that we never ever stole a horse we captured a horse because to capture a horse was a very honorable thing for a crow yes to capture a horse is a very honorable thing when I be when I when I wanted to become a chief I had to do four things to capture a horse from within an enemy’s Camp was one of the things I had to do within the camp that didn’t mean that he was running on the hillside out here I stuck into the camp and I cut the the rawad that was holding that horse my friend Mike he’s a sue over here Mike’s laying in his lodge he’s sound asleep but he has that cord tied around his belly cuz he don’t want to lose his favorite warhorse I sneak into his camp and I steal his horse see but really in Crow I captured that horse because I did a very honorable Brave thing I took his horse while he was hanging on to the end of the light the cord yes and so when when when we got the when Clark came down the river we uh we didn’t get the first nine that was taken further west of the of the Three Forks it was nine that was taken over there and uh the black feet claim them them nine horses that that was taken I want you to I want you to know these guys had Shon and nesp horses Shon got most of their horses a good share of their horses from the NES Pur because the the NES Pur immediately started breeding horses to get a certain type of a horse they wanted a particular horse the apaloo so they started breeding to get the appolo that’s what the Appo came from and uh but they were strong horses small horses very very good horses us Crow knew a good horse when we seen one you know and here comes Clark down the Yellowstone River you know he’s just rambling along and he’s making maps and he’s doing all of these good things you know that he’s supposed to be doing but us Crow are sitting up on the hillside counting horses and you know and one of the things that in all my years of studying the military might protect their encampment but they would put their horses over here on the hillside three miles away to graze you know so they would just very easy to get to so we would just come down and we would relieve him of these horses and uh where uh according to the Diaries uh Clark left his horses approximately one mile from the camp where he was making the canoes uh we found a site that pretty much fits the entire diary as to where the horses was being kept because it uh says that from that position there it was one mile approximately one mile to the river crossing for the where the Indians who took the horses crossed the Yellowstone River and going south in in down into Crow country and uh so we we pretty much believe that we found the spot pretty much where the horses was being held but uh no they was they was nice horses and you know we was good the first time you know we only took half of them you know and do Gunn it he went on down the river you know and they got down near where Billings is today and that’s where they crossed the river with the last 25 head of horses that they was left we’d already get took 24 in a CT and when they crossed the river prior traveled about six 7 hours and he was at a place called fly CRI today uh fly Crick is is is a is is starts from a basin this Basin is large like this 200,000 acres in it but it only has one little dry stream that goes out of it to drain it one of these big old Montana Cloud bursts come along and here was Prior he was camped on this little Dry Creek and all of a sudden I mean he has a Roaring River between him and his horses and so he spends a a few hours trying to get his horse her back together but when he went to bed he was tired and he was sleepy so he really went to sleep and he got up in the morning and when he got up in the morning he just didn’t have any more horses uh one of the crow guys wanted to let him know who got the horses so he left a moccasin and uh so we had we we had a pretty good h of her of of horses but now I’m going to tell you a story about these horses uh the crow horses the horses that the crow T took from the Clark they were taken so easily there was no danger of any kind in us taking the horses so in our Crow tradition we could not keep I could not I I’m I’m the person that took the horses I could not keep the horses I had to give them away as gifts so you know really you know Clark he made a lot of pro Indian people very very very happy because I we gave away 50 horses 49 horses in a CO as gifts because in Crow tradition we were not allowed to keep the horses because there was no risk to our life we could only keep a horse for ourself that we risk our life to get but anyway when uh after after that you know then the crow they just took took off and and took the horses and they went kind of into the Southwest Mike and I been working on a trail that goes into Big Horn Canyon National Park called the bad Pass Trail these horses was headed right for the bad Pass Trail bad Pass Trail is a is an area that when you walk you step over this rock and you stumble over the next and you have next step you have a a rock roll under your foot I mean it’s a it’s a it’s a bad Trail but it’s a it’s a trail that’s probably 10,000 years old and uh very very well marked but and it’s marked with piles of rock some of the the the the rock piles in badp Pass Trail they are 10 15 ft apart from here to the other end of the camp they may be five or six piles of rock they will be this High probably a ton or two Rock in in this pile but you know what every one of them rocks are every one of them rocks is a prayer as I’m going down the trail I pick up this Stone I carry this rock it becomes part of me my my sweat gets on this rock I carry this rock for a while and I talk to this rock and then when I get to where the places where the prayer where the prayer piles of rocks are I get up to this pile of rocks and I spit on the Rock I put part of me on my saliva I put the rock in the pile when I put the rock in the pile I say thank you grandfather for the good journey behind me give me a good journey forward and I go on the next Indian person that comes along behind me does exactly the same thing I can take you to piles of Rock down in the crow country that is growing yet today because in our belief we cannot go go past these piles of rock and we we have to stop and do prayer say a prayer Sandy and I one time we was going up into the prior mountains and she was driving along and and uh I said stop we need to stop and do the prayer well let’s we’ll do it on the way way back and I you know I said no you got to do it now Sandy and I went up onto the prior mountains we spent the entire tail on the prior mountains had a wonderful day we was coming back down off of the prior mountains that night we got within 300 ft of that that that that rock pile she blew a right front tire just blew the whole side of it out I didn’t stop and say my prayer on the way up and ask for the good journey yes no we we believe in this very very strongly we do it yet today but uh you know that’s that’s why I like to talk you say tell you a little bit about Le and Clark when they came here I mean we had people who were painting the history on the Rocks the paintings that are on the Rocks today that are a thousand years old uh right now I we’ve got near 400 located on the Yellowstone River and his tributaries uh when you sat there and you you look at these and I don’t come come up here and say okay I’m going to paint on the rock 5 minutes I’m going down the I’m going down the trail no Takes Me Maybe years to choose my spot because I want absolute perfect light at a certain time of the year things such as this I go up here I abrate the wall Till It’s Perfectly smooth I take a a black Riverstone almost every abrasive stone that we have found so far is a Black River Stone so they packed this rock a long ways to do their do their paintings but they abrak this wall perfectly smooth and these walls in this one particular spot that has been carbonated 950 to 1,000 years old this Rock today is absolutely perfectly smooth Sandstone they have break this perfectly smooth they would have put a lot of House Painters out of business business if the house painters could figure out how they made the paint because they paint their paintings on the walls the paintings we we think are just something but no that painting is part of me it tells a part of a story it tells it it tells something about my people and uh some of the paintings we one of the paintings that we find it has a circle it has inside of the circle coming to the middle the shape of lodges all the way around in series of 13 there is 13 lodges make to make the circle on the bottom of each Lodge on the outside of the on the outside of the circle there is 13 fringes but the lodge is our home is our church that the lodge means people that’s where the people live so that that that that particular painting is very sacred to us because it tells us of of of the people okay there’s another one there and that’s right beside excuse me but uh there’s another painting that’s right there beside of it and uh the painting that’s right beside there it’s got what we call a two-headed water monster on it anytime that we find something that has two heads in the paintings it means one thing I actually it means two things actually good and bad good and evil one one head is for good one head is bad and I’ll tell you a little story uh that the time took time about in the late 1800s uh Chief plenty C had been on a raiding party we went down come down in Nebraska and he got some good Sue horses I mean you know our neighbors always had good horses and Crow always needed more cuz to to to to Crow horses were wealth the more horses I had the wealthier I was because I could always trade horses for anything that I wanted but anyway when plny cluz was returning he uh got back to the Big Horn River the Big Horn River was being flooded man he got to the river and oh man we can’t get across and we’re only a day and a half Journey from home good long day we could probably make it it didn’t know what quite to do to do big shoulder blade big shoulder blade was a very tall man uh at that particular time most inro Crow people were 6 feet and more taller very very very big people not fat just tall thin people but anyway big shoulder blade he was a very big man he was riding a very very large horse and he said well I’ll go into the river and he says I I’ll I I’ll find find the way to get across so he went and chose his place for where where he entered the river when immediately when he got into the river big shoulder blade and his horse was caught by the water and it started washing him down so immediately big shoulder blade he starts singing a chant this chant song it is to the good and the the evil of the water monster he’s chanting and he’s praying that the good the good water monster will get a hold of him and the good water monster will take him to the land the bad water monster will take him into the water this is the belief this painting is on the wall thousand years old that story is a thousand years old uh the other pain painting is there is just of a lodge but the painting that’s in the center the ball in the middle of it is green do you know that in the state of Montana there is only five paintings that have green in them one is over here at Hela along the lake the weather the other four are on the Clarks Fork River the other four are all within probably less than 30 feet distance of part now it’s it’s uh uh and so green is was something that was kind of hard but we we feel that that green was for Earth the mother the grasses cuz the land the Earth turns green so that that that’s part of this part of that particular prayer that big shoulder blade was was talk was singing when uh when uh the crow people would travel like I say they would Mark the trails with the markers and they had this highway system you can go out right around I I can go around here just about any place in the country out here and I can can choose a valley a river and I will find a a trail that is marked along that river valley maybe a ridge uh one of the things about the American Indian people was they were never afraid of anything that I can see I was never afraid of anything that I could see but I was afraid of what I couldn’t see that was what was bothered me more than anything so when I traveled most of the time I traveled on a High Ridge I Could See For Miles nobody could sneak up on me no that’s the way and that’s where I we find most all of the trails and we’ve followed these Trails crossed Wyoming Montana I have a friend who followed the same particular tra in Colorado and New Mexico no it’s it’s a I can get I can I can go out here probably within one day in this area right here and find the trail right here that takes you to Manan you know why the black feet the crow that’s just shown where Nomads we don’t stop to plant to grow the Mandan down here in the river they grew the stuff that we want the English the French everybody brought their stuff here the Mandan when they brought it to Mandan all of the tribes come here there is many many trails that come to and down am I getting out of time okay I I I always talk to the last second so you know that’s that’s one thing I always tell people you know about crow about Crow history we don’t we don’t have short songs we don’t have short prayers we don’t have short stories because in our songs they talk about our history in our life our prayers talk about our history in our life our stories talk about our history and our life and as an oral historian I have to tell you in detail as to what’s going on this is why I’m talking about something and all of a sudden I’m over here talking about something else because I have to tell you the details because otherwise you’re going to get the story messed up you you need you need the details and and and that’s how an oral historian is taught I’ve been taught all my life that when I tell a story I have to tell the details but the Lis and Clark Venture was interesting to the American Indian people uh I call it the beginning of the end it was the beginning of my of the of the American Indian way of life see I I I call you a Native American you are Native Americans I am a crow American Indian Columbus gave me the name of an Indian when he came and I’m proud to be called an Indian I’m always very proud to be called an Indian because I’m very very proud of my Heritage and I’ve studied my Heritage my entire life I just turned 66 years old two days ago and I’ve got 60 years of history behind me yeah yeah thank you Howard thank you for sharing your history and your culture and your accumulated years of knowledge with us we appreciate that very much here in the ten many voices there are regular programs every hour on the

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Burton Pretty On Top on Crow spirituality and history

Wed, 11 Feb 2026 00:36:07 +0000

well good afternoon everyone and Welcome to our final program here in the tenam Min voices for today and welcome to core Discovery 2 core Discovery 2 is a national traveling exhibit it’s been on the road since January of 2003 traveling on the Lewis and Clark Trail and we’re actually now on our return Journey we’re on the home stretch we’ll finish up in September in St Louis and that’ll wrap up core Discovery too as we travel all these different communities along the Lewis and Clark Trail we set up this 10 many voices and we invite in a wide variety of people to share different aspects of that Lewis and Clark expedition but also to share the history and the culture of all these indigenous Nations all these American Indian nations along the Lewis and Clark Trail and we have with us this afternoon Burton pront and verton is a crow spiritual leader uh he was telling me back in 1986 he represented the indigenous peoples of the Americas in a c Italy for a world peace and prayer day was it World Day of Prayer world day of prayer and he was there with the dolly llama with Pope John Paul II and Mother Teresa and representing the crow people and the American Indian people in general he’s going to talk about Crow history and culture religion and spirituality so let’s give buron a warm welcome to the ten many voices thank you very much first of all I’d like to welcome all the visitors that came to abala Country we call ourselves abala in our own language our traditional name abala back in the day when a fur trapper came out here our first encounter with the non-indian was a fur trapper that came to our people before mon existed before Wyoming existed at that time the fur trapper came to us and connected with us and asked us who we are what are we called and we told him that we’re called abala in our traditional language and then he said what does that mean and we told him it means very simply Children of the long beaked bird the long beak bird so from that encounter he went back east and told the other non-indian people back East that he met a group of Indians out in the Plains area that call themselves abala then they asked him what does absalan mean and he was very proud he says children of long beak bird and then they asked him one other question they said which bird is that and a Gentleman says you know scratching his head he says I I forgot to ask him that question but you know there’s a lot of crows out there so they must be the talking about the Crow tribe so today 2006 we’re still called the Crow tribe the correct interpretation of the long beak bird is the Raven we are always called The Raven people by the other planes Indians so at least that fur trael didn’t misinterpret it that long beak bird as being the turkey right somehow Crow sounds a little better than turkey otherwise we’ would call The Turkey tribe today anyway as a gentleman introduced me I was part of uh a world gathering for peace in a CZ Italy in 1986 Pope John Paul II at that time had gathered the different traditions of the world to assemble in ay Italy to pray for world peace I found it very interesting that that day in October of ‘ 86 a selection let me go back just a little bit a selection committe in New York City knowing that the PO had invited the indigenous people from the Americas to represent them nominations were made of about 75 people spiritual leaders across the Americas from January of 1986 they met several times in New York City where there was a kind of an elimination process eventually in June of 1986 they selected the two individuals to represent the indigenous people from the Western Hemisphere my uncle John pretty on top myself were the two that were selected so in in order to prepare myself for this big undertaking for World gathering for peace in a SE Italy I followed my Crow tradition as a child growing up by my grandfather I was told that our leaders in the past Chief PLU died 1932 uh medicine Crow two leans um bellrock all of our great Chiefs among the obala went and fasted up in the mountains receiving a vision from the Creator they came back home and became prophets for our people this is pretty much the same way as the one that was nailed to the cross that you call Jesus Christ he too went into the desert didn’t he for 40 days and 40 nights fasted thought food and water eventually receiving a vision came back and became a prophet became the savior of all people with that in mind there was a connection with that spirituality and our spirituality here in abala country because of our history as a child growing up with my grandfather him sharing the stories with me how these individuals in the past leaders of the crow went and fasted for 4 days and four nights without food and water came back and became leaders for our people I was fascinated as a child growing up so I too at the age of 27 or 28 I went up the mountains and fasted since that time until the present day I’m standing in front of you I have fasted 12 times without food and water and each time there was a different experience that the Creator blessed me with on the fourth morning with that in mind before I went to AI back in 1986 I went to the Crazy Mountains behind Big Timber Montana before Big Timber existed before Montana existed the abala that was one of our sacred mountains The Crazies we call in our traditional language aaia translation means Jagged Mountains if any of you are familiar with the Crazy Mountains there are about 11,000 th000 ft high and it’s above the timber line those Jagged Granite Peaks our language is very Des descriptive so that back in the day absal called that sacred Mountain aaia Jagged Mountain often times our young leaders at that time went up in the mountains faster and came back home our connection with that sacred mountain is very strong going back in our human history to the point point where being a small tribe tribal people other Plains tribes would often come and challenge us for our what we considered as absalan land our hunting areas at that time when we were outnumbered and chased by the enemy we would often go into the Crazy Mountains aaria and knowing the other tribes knowing of our connection with that sacred Mountain they would turn away and leave us so that was kind of like a fortress for us with all that in mind I went up the crazies before I went to Ay Italy and fasted for four days and four nights to prepare myself mentally physically and spiritually to represent the indigenous people that day I was very fortunate to be selected so I went in that way after my fast we traveled to AI landed there the Vatican came and welcome us at the Rome airport and the Vatican picked up our tab of going and coming back also uh 10 years previous in 19 we went in 1986 so 19 I think no no I take that back a short two years before that time which would have been about 1984 Omar Gaddafi had went to Rome airport with his terrorists and shot everybody up and there was over 100 people that were killed that time Omar kenafi made a threat in 1986 that he was going to come back to Rome and do the same thing so when we arrived in Rome all the people that were there welcome us from the Vatican representing the pope and they took us to the side area where the normal entry into that country they took us to the side area and they put us into limousines and they drove us to the Vatican during that time of N9 days they had three plain clothed Italian police they with us so they were with us for the N9 days we were there eventually we came back now I met Mother Teresa the doy Lama John Paul II all the Archbishop runs from canbury England was there but we gathered together with one voice the Buddhist the Hindu the Muslim the Shinto Faith zorran the Jewish the Christian churches into one and we represented the indigenous people from West hemisphere with that in mind the respect that was shown to us was something that I didn’t expect they laid out the red carpet for us that day when we wore our headdress and our buckin outfits and we raised our pipe in prayer for peace I can always remember the audience I can remember the the cameras flashing all around us and when we prayed in in our tradition language when we raised the pipe in that outdoor Plaza outside of St Francis Basilica you could hear a pin drop the media couldn not come near us because of the security we’re a section off I sat here Mother Theresa sat right across from me that was quite an experience afterwards I met Mother Teresa and I told her I says Mother Teresa Native American I come to you in peace she she was only about this tall very small lady she says Americano IND Diego and I said that’s close enough and I extended my hand I said it’s an honor for me to meet you I extended my hand she took one step away from me like this put her hands together and went like this she was greeting me in her way so I took a step back from her and a both of us are going like this now with all the media around us and she had that big smile on her face and then she went like this so I took a step forward we shook hands and she gave me a bear hug I always remember that she gave me a bear hug and I told her I says Mother Teresa can you please give me a blessing and for such a small lady she’s my color for such a small lady she had big hands she put her hand on my forehead I had my headdress on I went like this so she touched my H head and gave me a blessing then she took a step back and says you give me a blessing I said yeah I can so I asked her open your hands like this which she did and I had my pipe with me so I took out my pipe and I stood in front of her like this and I pointed at her forehead and I made a circle around her and at the conclusion we gave each other a bear hug and about that time security took her away and took me away but that was what an experience also I want you to know this that our C culture has taught us that all people on the face of this Earth our brothers and sisters our elders have taught us that there’s no distinction between God and all of his children on this Earth no distinction between color races of people nor there’s any distinction between male and female therefore with that in mind I went with open arms to pray in the C traditional way using the pipe it’s a experience in my life I will not forget thereafter I met John Paul two more times John Paul II it’s history now because John Paul has passed on Mother Teresa also has passed on so that’s part of history now in the November 10th issue of the Time Magazine if you open it up right in the center of that article November 10th issue of the time you’ll see a full page it calls a summit for peace in a Cy Italy John Paul is pictured with Archbishop runy from Canterbury England Russian Greek Orthodox priest on either side of him picture of Mother Teresa down at the bottom as a picture of my uncle and myself and I’m the one with the white buck skin raising that sacred pipe that’s something that is part of history and I’m I’m very proud of that and I thank the Creator for that in our cow culture and in our history going back to our C creation story Upsala creation story we’re told that God has made us the Absa people out of Earth formed us into his image and breathed life into us and set us on this Earth at that time he put us in this place where we exist today this is our c human history our Origins our beginnings as human beings our creator blessed us and put us here with that in mind the Creator told us in our human history that there will be times when there are skirmishes coming into other people coming into our area of land to try to take it away from us but he told us in the Covenant that one of our great Chiefs back in the 1700s Chief no vitals sheep de Chief noal was one of our great leaders and from that Vision Quest that he had made as young man God gave him the gift of tobacco told him that if you use this tobacco to pray with me and to smoke with me I will listen to you that Covenant that he had made as long as you are a people on this Earth you’re not going to number in big population wise but rather other people will come to your neck of the wood to take away the land that I have given to you because it is the best that I have created so with that in mind in our human history our encounters with our surrounding Plains tribe the Su the shine the arap would often team up and come to our neck of the woods to annihilate us but through The Graces of the Creator there was a battle that occurred outside of PR Montana all the s had come to us to annihilate us they had us cornered and it was the creator of that day that saved us riding a pinto horse a red pinto horse when they had us completely surrounded this gentleman that rode a red pinto horse rode fearlessly and attacked the enemy went into their ranks killing the Su the sh and rapo came came back to us joined us and the second time he went in there the people knew that the second time he came that their arrows could not touch this person it hit and fell he went through killing some came back and the third time he attacked all the crows being outnumbered some have said 20 to1 that day some have said 17 to1 but we were completely surrounded and on the third attack all the crows gathered their courage and follow follow behind all those people they chased back to the dtas and that’s part of our history that we still exist today and from that Covenant of the Creator blessing us in that way that he will come to us in time of need for us to call him by his first name IG Bala his name translated means first maker that he has blessed us in that way and that Covenant that he has said with our people still exist today back in the uh after our first encounter with the non-an people that came to us we’re told that the B the yellow eyes that came to us came to us in big numbers it was best for us to make agreement with them become allies with these people which we’ve done PLU on his vision quest was told that you need to shake hands with the Bosa and be friends and be out I with them therefore you have a better chance to exist in this world for x amount of years so survival we shook hands with the US government 1825 we signed the Friendship treaty with the US government that day we became allies with the US government by shaking hands we helped them when they came across our abala land in turn when we had a skirmish with other tribes they too would support us so this friendship treaty was put in place in 1825 in 1851 our first treaty with US Government Fort larmy Treaty of 1851 set aside what we considered as absal land at that time the four areas that set aside the absal land would be the Three Forks area going in a direction where it meets the Big River we call OBS solid Big River would be the Missouri to the north it goes downward to the Powder River into the Black Hills so that was our boundary to the east to the South was the area that what is called Wind River today which takes you halfway into Wyoming that was our boundary to the South and to the West the boundary was the headwaters of the Yellowstone River which takes you into Yellowstone National Park that covers 38 million Acres at that time consequently in 1851 when we signed that treaty with our leaders thumb imprints back in 1868 the G government came back and told us that they gave us too much of land so from that treaty that they had broken with us they took away 30 million left us with 8 million from other sessions of land with the government today we have 2.2 million acres and also today we have 11,000 Pro enrolled members we’ve never been big we’ve always been small compared to the Navajo over 250,000 navajos in Arizona and New Mexico area compared with them we’ve always been small but the Lord has blessed us the creator has blessed us in a way that we still speak our absal language today which is other Plains tribes have lost their languages and losing their language they have lost pretty much their culture as well here in abala we still speak the ABS language my brothers and sisters what I just said with you inala is very simply along with the color of the skin that God has blessed blessed me with is my language and my spirituality we’re told that our language is sacred because it came from him so we still speak our language today probably 90% of our people that are 35 and over speak the absalan language our challenge today is a 34 down to the newborns they’d rather speak English than they would Absa because we have technology that has kind of put a r B in front of our our people because from early morning we turn the television on our children watch television they hear the English language up until the night when it’s time for bedtime we shut it off so today our challenge is our young children we need to somehow get in touch with them and have them speak the Absol language that’s so important for us part of our history we have Rich human Traditions among the Absa and and strong in spirituality that too has a place within us this morning there was a dance presentation that I MCD and we saw little babies that were 2 years old with their little traditional outfits out here dancing that’s the emphasis we put forth to our children emphasizing that it is good to near your culture and your traditional teachings as I speak today I have in my computer I’m the public public relations director for the co- tribe in my computer today I have put in place the traditional teachings of our elders given to us from generation to generation oral history oral Traditions teachings and those that I remembered for my grandfather when he was still alive and I was a little boy growing up with him I remember the dos and don’ts do this do this do this he just don’t do this don’t do this don’t do this I call them the dos and don’ts of our traditional teachings and I put into my computer the ones that I remembered number one listing number two and I have 92 dos and don’ts at this time we no longer teach them among the abala today the reason I recorded all this is that in time when I’m finish with that project I’m going to get a copyright have it printed and I’m going to sell that but I’m going to make that free for the abala so they will never go without our traditional teachings today within our culture we emphasize not only our language but our traditional celebrations such as dancing such as Indian hand games Indian games that we compete against each other within our cruel spirituality today and within our culture ladies and gentlemen we have seven clans that we follow each and every Tribal member belongs to one of these seven clans were a tribe that followed their mother’s Clan at Birth I belong to the whistling water because my mother is a member of the whistling water so all of her children including myself are a member of the whistling water at Birth but our father’s Clan has are pretty much like in the Catholic church I’m also a Roman Catholic by the way being asked to be a Godfather a God parent at baptism we have that responsibility when we stand next to a child or an infant during that baptism that we will be their spiritual directors with that in mind within our structured Society we live in today the clans of our father become our spiritual advisers and those people that pray for us we call them our clan uncles and aunts of that same Clan so with myself my mother being whistling water at Birth I became a whistling water but my father’s Clan belonging to the big Lodge the big Lodge Clan within the obala today are my extended family of spiritual advisers and spiritual people that pray for me it is often times when we go into the sweat lodge within our spirituality that we go to cleanse oursel mind physical the four beings so so that once we cleanse ourselves in that extreme heat in that Dome that looks like an looks like one of them Igloo from Alaska that round Dome this one that’s made out of Willow covered with u canvas and blankets and rocks are taken into that small area enough for about seven or eight people in that one area they dig the ground about this deep heat the Rocks outside they bring it in and put it into the that deep cut off area and when the men all go in there together the men would say a prayer and splash water on top of that to provide this sauna for us this is a cleansing that we do for ourselves today anyone that is going and traveling and doing something extraordinary often would use that way to pray for each other to give guidance for that individual another way of prayer also among our people as youth the piote the Native American church this too is held in the teepe we go inside we pray all night and within this sacred way I’m because I’m a Catholic I’m going to use the comparison of the two ways being a Catholic when I enter the the church we sit down often times the priest will pray and then smudge the area with incense to purify US during that Mass the Catholics believe and I too believe that the bread that he puts into that sacred cup and blesses it and becomes the body of Christ much in the same way when he blesses that wine becomes the blood of Christ with that same analogy in the Native American church when we take that peity button and we bless it it becomes the body of Christ when we bring in water and bless that water that too becomes the blood of Christ so we we take that in that sacred way there are sacred songs that are sung and prayers that are used for that night we give up our sleep so in exchange the Creator will bless us with our prayers for our family and relatives among the abala to day not only the the Clans but there’s individuals that go into the sun dances they will Fast for three or four days without food and water that too is used today as I speak Again part of our spirituality the tobacco society that God gave a covenant made a covenant with us that if we use the tobacco to pray to him that he will bless us that too is being used today I am one that goes up in the mountains and fast for four days and four nights and that too is part of my spirituality to me if I go into a Catholic Church in St Peter’s Basilica in Rome or St Patrick’s and billings Montana or St Dennis Parish here in cow agency when I prayed to the Creator in that environment or whether I’m outside on top of the Crazy Mountains when I pray to the Creator it is to the one creator that I have I’m praying to whether I’m in a Catholic church or up on top of a mountain so with that in mind God is everywhere he is near us as in those special times God as we pray to him will connect with us and bless us in that good way this is our spirituality also on the flip side we have the games that I mentioned we have the hand game tournament uh every year around April and May we have the hand game tournament where all the six different districts among the abala will go and represent each district with a team by team I mean young men and women some young men will sing the guessers up on the main floor right up in front and back will be all the women that participate so it’s for men and women they have the junior category which will be 30 and under 31 on up is the adult category we have the arrow throwing tournament each spring they have arrows about this long with a pointed iron attached to the the base which is pointed then feather is attached to the top so when they throw they throw out a Target arrow that they throw first and everybody throws their Arrow to try to hit that Target Arrow there again this is a game that the Absol used there are many others like that that we still use today going back to our human history our first encounter that I shared with you with a nonin person that came among us we call him BOS cheeta today standing here 2006 we still call the non-an people B translation means yellow eyes apparently that individual at fur chop that came Among Us that day that connected with us asked us who we were and went back East apparently had some type of disease where the yellow of his or the white of his eyes were yellow so they call him Bida translation means yellow eyes so to this day it’s not a put down it’s just the way that things happened back then that we still call the non- people Bia yellow Wise It’s not a put down don’t take me in the wrong way also today in our history as in the past to the present day animals are very important for us we have horses before the horses arrival we use dogs dogs would often be used in transferring one from one location moving camp following the Buffalo herds to another Camp the dogs were used in that way to car the travels with personal belongings that were put on top of travels and then when the horses was introduced to us it meant easier for us to move from place to place because horses are bigger and much stronger than the than the dog so with that in mind during that time when the horses were introduced to us it was like getting into to the new era of our people we went from the dog days to the horse days and then from there we went another step forward and that was the introduction of elala goes by itself the word that we have for cars Vehicles the old modalities that you crank up front like this back far as they start up and use those automobiles Fords were out here before John Dillinger was John Dillinger was out here but those are different transitions between one generation to another from modalities today we have what is used by everyone Vehicles four-wheel drives and all this one of our traditional teachings is to respect aawa the mountains were told that back in the day before the arrival the Europeans out here the medicine herbs that were taken from the ground to doctor each other with different ailments we would often go to the ohawa the mountains to get those herbs the medicine people would take those herbs with the different mixture of things that they would help each other with common coals coughs and others that was among our people back then so as you can imagine people today going to the pharmacy get their medicine the mountain back in the day was our Pharmacy that’s where our leaders went to get those herbs and plants to mix and to help people we’re told to respect the ohawa Crazy Mountains the Big Horns the wolf mountains the big horns on reservation also we’re told in our tradition to respect each other and to respect all people this is again one of our traditional teachings one must respect themselves and respecting others and we’re told in our tradition I said earlier to respect all people because the white race the yellow the black and the red all those four races of people are brothers and sisters this is what is taught to us as children growing up so with that in mind the oriental people the yellow the white people the black people African-Americans and the red the indigenous people of this land were told that all these four colors are created by Him and put on this Earth to live in peace and harmony with each other so that is our traditional teachings which we’ve still follow today so when we see our brothers and sisters that come among us we welcome them we embrace them sharing good things with them our culture has taught us that our history is so important that it has to be printed today this oral history that we have used from day one up until up until recently of oral history has often changed so with that in mind we’re told and reminded we need to record it on paper black and white and we have done this I’m very happy that we’re starting to do all this also we’re told in our tradition that every morning when the sun comes up from the East all people are on this Earth need to recognize that God has blessed you with another brand new day that has never been used by anyone be thankful to the Creator that he has blessed us with a beautiful day again raise your hands to the Creator and say ah hope thank you and be the best that you can be not necessarily for yourself but for other people around you it is good when you share good stories and use your words very carefully in a way not to hurt anyone but rather rather build someone up it is good that we do this in that pipe ceremony I’m going to emphasize the importance of understanding about that ritual when I use the sacred pipe in prayer and I pray sun people often ask oh these uh abala or these indigenous people must have many gods that’s untrue when I raise that pipe to the sun my question is this who created the sun some rocket scientist and Einstein the Creator made that sun and put it in its place therefore because God created the sun his spirit is within that son when I lure to the mother earth I smoke with Mother Earth when I smoke with her who made the Earth God his fingerprints on Earth therefore God’s spirit is within that Earth when I prayed to the water with that pipe who created the water e first maker I prayed to the winds in the four directions who created the air Peter therefore his spirit is within them so it’s through them that we reach the Creator with our prayers much like in the Catholic Church being a Catholic when he used the Rosary in prayer it is through that Rosary that we reach the Creator when we open up the Bible read the scriptures the Sacred Scriptures it is through that we reach the Creator much in that same way our interpretation of life and our spirituality is in within those elements sacred elements of those four sacred elements if God at this moment took all the air from the atmosphere who can survive what can survive nothing if all the water that’s here that God has put in place if the water has all disappeared who can survive nothing and if the sun quit coming up from the East to provide us with this heat give us energy without fire we’re nothing all those four sacred elements including the Earth is within our bodies when you touch each other hold hands you feel the heat that is inside us that fire is within us the water when you move around sometimes you feel the water slushing around you can feel that as well how does Earth come into us all of our food comes from Earth into our bodies therefore Earth is part of us and all of us as we sit and breathe that sacred air is within all of us this is our spirituality I’m going to leave a portion of this time for questions and answers at this time I’m going to conclude see if there’s any questions at this point from anyone if you have a question for Burton please do raise your hand I’ll bring the microphone around that way everybody can hear your question any questions for Burton pretty on top any part that I that you like for me to talk about that I have not discussed please bring it out and I will share that with you all right well it doesn’t look like any questions Burton okay I’m going to pass off the question here at this time they have to take a test and if they pass it they can go they fail it they have to stay here for another hour I’m just easy all right well that’s

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Patrick and Sharon Stands-Over-Bull on Crow History and Stories

Wed, 11 Feb 2026 00:36:03 +0000

feel good okay well here we go then all right I’d like to welcome everybody to the Ten of mini voices and just to let you know we are of course adding one more voice to our story today part of our traveling exhibition here in the crow agency area is to bring many folks from the local area to share and so today is my great pleasure to introduce Sharon stand over Bull and Patrick stands over bull um tell you a little bit about our presenters today they’re going to be talking about Crow history and lore and Patrick right here to my left he has been a past co- tribal chairman he um has his Bachelor of Science and secondary education and has taught for many years at the ply coup High School um at the high school he taught history social studies and Crow studies he’s also an ordained minister of the or of the Aro Creek Christian Center and so um it’s real honored to have you here Patrick today and then I’ll let you know a little bit about Sharon uh Sharon stands over bu has her Bachelor from eastern Montana college she also has a master’s from Montana State University in Boseman and School administration and she has been a teacher and principal uh she currently is working at plenty coup State Park um with the friends of Chief plenty coup Association she is also an ordained minister so we have um some wonderful folks here that wear many hats here today and attended many voices and without any more time we want to welcome both of you to the tent and we’ll give you a little round of applause and let it let you speak Patrick so thank you thank you I guess I can start right off by uh you did all the introduction pretty well and I don’t think there’s any further need to talk about myself I will be talking a little bit about TR history and my wife Sharon will tell some stories so without without further Ado you know I’d like to uh well first of all I guess the CR history is so vast that I have about 15 minutes to talk and and it it be be well if I just kind of condense it into one area of History uh one of the things that important in our history is that the crow reservation one of our travel Chiefs way back in 1500s name was no intestines no vitals he’s the one that kind of found a place is here and he called it the great spirit put this in the right place and at the right time and so one of the things that kind of interesting to know is that uh the Cru tribe of Indians have never been prisoners of War there’s only two Indian tribes and the Nations that have never been prisoners of war and that’s the part of the Cal Indians now in Florida and during the Great Indian removal of 1828 under President Andrew Jackson the the the Trail of Tears SoCal took place and part of the simal tribe went and hid in the Everglades and they were there until always was quiet and they come out so they never really they never really had a a treaty or a uh relationship with the tribe where the with the government where they were prisoners of War you look at the other tribe uh that were fight especially the the the PLS Indians Chief like stinu and Red Cloud and S crazy hordes and the rain in the p and all those uh shant and Sue chiefs were famous but at the same time what happened to them eventually they were all CAU and they become prisoners of War uh down in Southwest tribe the the hicoria and the patch San car inded you’ve got the gerano and those uh leaders down there that were resisting the the westw movement of the white man the Europeans they eventually were caught all those Indian trap that resisted down especially down in Arizona the theore and the tribe they were put under the stock car they were captured and put in a stock car on the Railroad and they shipped them back e and that the last they heard of that that Bunch sbu eventually was killed by his own people in in South Dakota so you see that Chief uh Jo Chief Joseph of the next p also he was famous for his speak I will spe I will fight no more forever but he was caught resisting the movement but the Crow Indians never have resisted they were friendly with the the Europeans our leaders told us way back then their advice was that there’s a group of people coming and and they’re just like the ants there’s so many of them they’re blueeyed and blond haired don’t try to fight them be friends with them they will never be able to stand against those people and that was the advice of our people probably by by no intestines and no vitals uh that was their advice that we had so ever since that time the crws have been a a friendly uh tribe of Indians we were never a big tribe but we were we were very uh able to maintain our our uh our people and our way of life uh the westm movement of the 1825 the goal was discovered in 1849 in San Francisco go was discovered in P Peak uh go the Black Hills and it was a large movement of miners coming from the West it pushed uh the Su and those uh those engines in that area Westward they were they were losing their hunting ground and so the crows on the other hand they turn around and they they help those wagon trains that would move to the west of the homesteaders and they would protect them against the cheyen and the sus and the the black beets and the rabbit holes and so as a result we have been good relationship we have a good land if you look at our reservation we have three mountain ranges we have excuse me three uh three valleys the the the little Horn Valley here the pig Horn Valley the next Ro the valley and and then the prior Creek Valley and the arrow Creek and uh we have three Mountain R the prime mountains the big horns and the Wolf mountains and so we have a very very good land here because of our relationship with the government uh we have some leaders that are not feisty so to speak but they have good advice that gives to us and even today we are still uh very much uh uh at peace with the government the the first treaty we had was in 1825 and that was called a CR friendship treaty and that treaty didn’t really stipulate any special Provisions but it just required that that the crows made a commitment to protect the white man in the movement West down the years we uh come along in 1851 with the first Fort laramy treaty and this Treaty of 1851 one provided 39 plus million acres of land for the cro Indians that’s a lot of land and the south southern boundary it goes all the way down to L Wyoming the northern boundary goes up to up up to uh popular Montana and then the eastern boundary is up the Potter River and the Black Hills so we have a big area with the 1858 51 treaty when that treaty was made there was never any any uh uh I get fence or anything reservation boundary set up and 11 years later I believe it 16 years later in 1868 that would be what 7 16 years later the Congress of the United States said hey we’re going to look at this line that we give to the crows uh they were press by the basically the Sue Indians and those people in that area because of The Westward Movement they were being pressured for by the white man with with a hunting area and when they look this way in the Plains Indian the crows had all that land with all the Buffalo and elk and plenty of berries and a lant of Plenty so the S and the RAB holes and the ton the black feet they canif and they got together and they tried to Wi out the crws and this is the result of this battle you’re going to see this afternoon Battle of the arrow Creek and that was one of the results of the the plan’s movement uh the plane Warfare the PLS Indian and and Congress look at that the pressure from the sus the sus are a big nation they convinced the government that hey look at the crews got too much land they’ve got too much hunting ground why don’t you cut some of it off and give us someon and they were already talking treaties at that time in the 1850s and so they went back to call the second Ford ly treaty and they called all the Indians down there and our chief was sit in the middle of the landine or cheap black foot he took a delegation they went down there and they cut from 39 million Acres they cut our land back to 9 million Acres it took 30 million Acres away and what the what’s really amazing about this story is that the chief Blackfoot and his delegation did not really understand what was going on their interpreter was a Frenchman named CH I forgot what his first name is CH and he was a half breed french man interpreting for us and he was the one that wrote all the provisions in that 18568 treaty 18633 that 17 years after 1851 Congress said that it never ratified to 1851 Treaty so we’re going to take 30 million Acres away to provide more agage hunting ground for the other tribes well they came back and about four or five years later the crows had a meeting and they begin to it wasn’t supposed to be there but it was too late 5 years after the larmy treaty and by the way Fort ly treaty was not in the town of Fort ly Wyoming Fort laramy is over at by torington Wyoming where they was a fort laramy there that’s where they called these two treaties in the 1850s and 1860s and so as a result of that 9 million Acres we have this landine here and it’s still quite a few acres and if you look at the 1851 Treaty the northern sh reservation was on our was was in our reservation boundaries so that reservation they have belonged to the crow by the 1851 treaty and so a lot of arguments can be put up today but it’s a lot of water under the bridge also the 9 million Acres they start giving away to the white settlers as they come in around the turn of the century 1890s through 1900s a the line was seated for a minimal amount of money the Western area the West the West uh uh portion portion of our reservation was given away for from Roseman Montana all the way to Hundley proy Montana all that was given from the middle part of the Yellowstone River was given away for as Homestead for non Indian I think they got about a million dollars for it and then over here on the North side the the tarpet Creek area where we have our gold Co mine that was given up called a seated trip that was given up for about $900,000 and that money were used to build this canal uh they were they were already projecting to build the ill Dam and up there they built that canal and they paid the crow they took their own money and they pay them 25 C an hour using horse teams to build that canal and when you think about those things it’s kind of It kind of uh feel that you know it’s not a right thing when you sell your land you seated you get the money they use that money to pay you 25 cents an hour to build a ditch and today you go over to the the born bench over there there’s a the Big Horn Valley there’s that big Canal that comes from the Yellow Tail Dam and that that land is fertile and we call that the Bre Bre basket of the croon reservation and all that is up there used to be the world’s largest wheed farm one track cam Corporation died by the name of Cam developed the open field mining called the the uh dry line farming technique he developed that technique to to create wheat in that area and it was from the big hornn put Big Horn all the way down 50 60 Mi below pass Harden that ought to be what used to be one track of wheat Fields even the Russians and the Chinese would come and listen I me look at that place and they wanted to know how to develop agriculture in their land in Russia and China so you see there’s a lot of good things it was the blessings of the great spirit when we see these things happen no vital was probably a prophetic Chief when he said that this land is in the right place it became that way today you look at it we have our eastern part of reservation is underling with coal there’s a lot of from B Montana to the Sheran the B of the the ground is covered with natural gas we have a few spots of reservoirs of oil within our reservation we have our sarber Creek oil field that’s been producing for many years but see this is why when the chief said it the great spirit put it in the right place we were we were blessed I guess but by by saying that we listen to our Chiefs that time even to this day we we still listen to those chief of I was going talk about Chief penuse one last chief of the crows but time is running out and uh we are a blessed people here we have coal we have water abundance of water we have all kinds of minerals underlaying this reservation all we have to do is develop it but we have a hard time agreeing with one another of how we’re going to do it it’s been 30 years that we talked about developing we only developed one coal mine and that’s over at sing Creek and that was done under my Administration but nothing happened since then for over 30 years this reservation stagnated no development nothing going on no water compact but see this is a blessing that we’re we’re not taking advantage of the blessing of the great spirit we have very rich land we have agricultural land that is that is all over the wheat and alala and all over that’s why we call it the breast basket of the crow reservation the Big Horn Valley Big Horn Ben and so you look at history of the crows we are very very fortunate people I think it’s 1730s the membership the crew trap was only about 600 down in up to 1930 we got up to 8 8,000 today there’s about 12,000 crows approximately today on the crow travel membership so we’re growing but we’re still a very small uh people you look at that you’re going to see this battle of the pr Creek that battle that was one of the results of the The Westward Movement of the Plains Indians where the Su and the shines and the rabal hols and and the black feet got together they were going to wipe out the Crowes completely annihilated from the face of the earth when they came to that battle at PR Creek it was 20 to1 so the numbers that I hear was 20 to1 for everyone crow that were 22 Warriors but the men held on and that’s why today we have our we’re still a people that are still blessed we are still enjoying the fruits of the blessings of the great spirit and that’s about and con condensing from of the the history that I can give you and Sharon’s going to talk about some some some stories of the crows some are legendary some are fiction but I believe that these stories have taught us our young people a lot like I said I taught high school for 20 years and a lot of these Indian stories and uh allures have been a great benefit of our young children children to learn about their history uh old man coyote I was going to talk to you about uh the star Boy A guy by the name of kab a Grandma’s kid or he’s also known as IU and he was a guy he was a young boy that was raised by his grandma and eventually he originally originated from from the from up where the star people and she’s going to talk you about it it’s a good story remember that name IU you don’t hear that much there’s a lot of crow storytellers on this reservation but I don’t hear too much about IU you could hear about k b or Grandma’s Boy but she’ll tell you about it there’s also stories about little people with the pr mountains I’m going to be talking about these when I speak over at pomp Spiller this coming weekend I’ll be speaking there on Saturday and and Friday at pom pillar and I will be speaking on some of these stories about the little people and uh and uh the Big Horn how the big horn Ripper is name a story about the little boy that was thrown over by his stepfather and he survived he was hanging on the cliff for many days and some bornn sheep came and rescued him and they gave him the medicine and the name of the big horn the from that episode of History The Story Goes that if the crows every lose the born River that’s the end of The Crow people so there’s a lot of stories to tell to share with the people America thank you I’ll turn it over to my wife to her story it’s kind of warm here I appreciate the invitation and I am privileged today to share a little bit of what I know thank you good afternoon we are surely in a a time a season of Summer it is very very warm but but this is what summer is all about and it’s a privilege for me to come and have the opportunity to be a part of this Lewis and Clark Gathering core of Discovery 2 we as a crow people over the years have been known to be a a a people where the women are very important they um do a lot of the um decision making and we as a people have um been a nomadic people in the past and the Warriors back there they would be out hunting and uh fighting enemy tribes and it was the women’s responsibility to be at the camp taking care of all the necessary uh I details that needed to be done such as child rearing such as food Gathering as with berries and roots and setting up a teepee and keeping the inside neat and clean and providing for their family be Shing be sure uh to have everything ready before the sun came up so that their husbands would have some good to eat something healthful something that would give them strength before they would leave for the day as they went out to either hunt or to uh fight enemy tribes and so we as a crow people the women uh make a lot of the decisions and uh today we always talk about how the woman uh in the home is the one who takes care of the household the finances and uh the other day we were talking about that and one man thought well he didn’t know if that was really true but I believe for the majority of crow households it’s the woman who is in charge of many of the things in the home and so today I just wanted to uh tell you about a story that my husband just touched on very briefly uh we were on our way to uh Boseman Montana many years ago and as we were going through uh on the highway my mother looked to the left she and I were together and she said those are the Crazy Mountains and I’m going to tell you a little story about the Crazy Mountains and so as I listened she told about the time that the crows were camped around the Yellowstone River we as the crow people know Yellowstone River as the Elk River Asha that’s the name of Elk River to us Crow Indians and there’s an encampment uh that was always held right on at the edge of the river in a certain area near living Stone Montana and every year the crows would end up there for a period of time and they would would Camp there and I imagine the times that they were there were uh in times of Summer well on this particular summer day uh one of the men of the village decided Well he was going to go on a Vision Quest and so preparations were made and he went in a sweat bath and got himself cleansed and the elders prayed with him and so he made ready to go and finally I believe it was the next morning he left and he went up towards the Crazy Mountains not taking anything with him just as he was and he continued and he walked for I don’t know how many days without food or without water but he was seeking a vision he was seeking uh the great spirit to lead him to a place where he could come back and tell his people what he had heard and so as he went and continued on up toward uh the preves of the mountain and continued on for some days he became so faint that one that he finally just killed over and fell into uh the a crevice with a o a rock overhead and so he lay there for some time and while he was in in that area under that rock he uh was in a trans and he then had this vision and a voice came to him and the voice said uh uh I want you to listen closely and what I tell you you take back to your people who are camped there uh along Al River and so as he listened The Voice told him there are many many people that are coming people that you have never ever seen before they are coming and they are going to be so numerous that you will not be able to withstand them and so my advice to you is when they come that you will be a friend to them and he gave him uh an illustration like it today it must have been a hot day like today and this voice said when you see a buffalo carcass out on the pr Prairie and the meat is just there in the hot sun uh there will be flies that will be flying around this Buffalo carcass and pretty soon as the Flies are just swarming over this Buffalo carcass pretty soon these uh fly will lay eggs and they will turn into worms and then pretty soon this Buffalo carcass will be overflowing with worms that is exactly what’s going to happen to your land these people are coming from afar and they’re going to come just a few at the very beginning just a few but they’re going to keep continue to come they’re going to continue to come and you’re going to know that as they come the Buffalo is going to be gone the Buffalo is is going to be wiped away and they are bringing another animal that have white faces some are black some have spots but they are not the Buffalo they do not look like a buffalo they are smaller than a buffalo but these people are coming with their animals so I want you to go back and tell your people these people are coming they have a different color skin than you do their hair is a different color even their eyes are different but when you go back back you be telling them that we can you cannot be fighting against this people that’s coming because they’re going to overtake this whole land that is now yours and so the man woke up from this trans this vision and he got up and he found enough strength to finally get back to the crow Village and he had to Fort the Yellowstone River the Elk River and as he came to the river he must have just been so thirsty and so warm out he no undoubtedly jumped in and was refreshed and as he crossed and got back to the other side that evening uh the as the Tepe fires were burning and um Elders of the crow encampment came together he then related this story that there is a people coming and we have to get along with them because there are going to be too many of them for us to go against and so we must always remember that we have to do whatever we can to live together on this land because this is what’s going to happen the Buffalo are going to vanish and our way of life is going to change and so this was the advice given to him on his vision quest he came and told his people and I believe that may be one of the reasons today that we as the crow people The Crow Nation have never been at war with the US government and I believe maybe that’s why today we live in a beautiful area we have three mountain ranges we have a Blue River uh River Blue Water uh filled with fish that many come from all over the world to fish at and truly what Chief PLU said we are in the right place and so that’s the story that I have of the time that my mother and I motored to Boseman and I’ve never forgotten it and it all has come to pass and so as I mentioned we are a matrilineal so Society we women take uh take uh the lead in many things and even today that is the case I believe it’s us mothers that try to uh push our our children on to get higher education to do what they can to that they would be successful in this time in this world in which we live I know that happened in my own family my grandmother U didn’t have an education but she worked as much as she could and so she finally was able to send her children to go and get an education and so they went on and got college degrees and so today this is what we need to do is to encourage our young people to go and become skilled that they will have a cable skill that they can be employed and be a contributing member of society in the society in which we live today uh another story I just wanted to share was uh way back in the days when uh we were still a nomadic people and uh the people would move they’d follow the Buffalo and they didn’t all stay together there was the river Crow and there was the mountain Crow and in this particular story this is the story of a mountain Crow woman and she was a woman that was very uh um very exceptional everything she did she did to the best of her ability if their lodges were all there and you went in her Lodge it was was so neat and even the Buffalo uh shoulder blades that were used for cooking or for eating as plates they were so white and so clean she did everything meticulously well as they moved one day it was a time of berry picking like it is right now our people out in the prior Valley are going out berry picking and I believe this is happening throughout this reservation for service berries and so it was at that time and so they finally I got moved to another place and people were setting up camp and uh this woman was setting up her camp and getting everything together and one of the women was woman was so anxious to get to the berries oh she just hurried and she just put up her Camp just halfhazard and as quickly as she could because she needed to get to the berries and uh this uh Other Woman put everything up the way it should be and did things in border and but this woman she just put her Lodge up and put things in threw things in there and off she went over to where all the berries were they were just hanging from the bushes just purple and um so inviting and she was over there and as uh they were still working and this woman was over there trying to get uh as many berries as she could she uh she heard the women at the camp heard a scream they heard someone crying and yelling for help Big B and so here a bear had come a bear had come and so this woman that was so anxious to go and not waiting for the others went and she was already very much injured and eventually lost her life and I believe the uh the message to this story is that we need to do things decently in order and wait for others not always to be the first one to run and get as much much as you can and so that’s the uh the story about uh the berry picking at that time I do have other stories that I plan to share when we get to Pomp’s pillar but at this time I believe we have 10 minutes and if there are any questions and answers I mean questions will uh attempt to answer them is what I should say and again I want to thank all of you you have any questions do you have any questions for Sharon or Patrick well I just feel that this is um beautiful Endeavor the ls and Clark expedition uh came and as a result I believe that we as native people have had uh a change in our lifestyle and today uh we are out in uh American society being a part of this great nation and uh we are so happy that things are going well for our people people have jobs we live in dwellings not tepes like we did back there and it’s wonderful to go and on a cold winter morning just turn up the thermostat and uh house gets heated up and warm and to turn on the faucet and to uh get running water we have all the niceties that all Americans have and that’s a privilege to all of us I also would like to thank him the the group here for inviting us uh I think we come from a special place that I should mention prior and we got the name prior from this group that came in 1806 when they were camp at pomp pillar one of the members satday Nathaniel prior came and explored prior Creek and all the way up to uh PRI mountains and as a result it’s PRI Creek and PRI mountains and PR Montana so when I was when we were looking at this in our youth history class uh some of the kids don’t even know where the name prior came from and uh when I begin to tell them you know they they learn to appreciate that there is an ownership of this Expedition for us prior people you know we uh we uh got our name from it again I want to say thank you very much and and uh appreciate the time and effort thank you all right well uh with that um we too would like to thank you guys both Patrick Stan and Sharon Stan oful for coming and speaking in attended many voices today um it’s been a real privilege and it’s been really nice to hear what you’ve had to say and the stories You’ shared and I’m sure we all look forward to next week at pompy’s Pillar where um we’ll get to hear a little bit more from both of you it’ll be really great um I do want to let everybody

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Conrad Fiser on Northern Cheyenne History and Lewis & Clark

Wed, 11 Feb 2026 00:36:00 +0000

glad to have you with us this is the tent of many voices and it is part of a traveling exhibit that has been following the Lewis and Clark Trail since January of 2003 started in monachello the place of Jefferson’s dream went on across through the eastern states then from St Louis to the Mandan villages in ‘ 04 in ‘ 05 from the Mandan Villages all the way to the Pacific Ocean and now here we are in ‘ 06 and we’re doing the return Journey just as and Clark did 200 years ago and we’re delighted to be here at pompy’s Pillar thank you all very much for inviting us here and thank you all for coming out to visit with us and to see all the festivities that are going on here this is a commemoration of that event 200 years ago Lewis and Clark crossed the continent and they could not have done it alone if they if it had just been Lewis and Clark it would have been another of those failed expeditions to the West so with that in mind I’d like you to remember the people who assisted Lewis and Clark on their Journey the Native Americans gave them food they gave them directions and they often helped them with their transportation needs so with that I’d like to introduce you to our next speaker today we have with us Conrad fiser who is a member of the Northern Cheyenne tribe he is also the tribal historic preservation officer and an educator at Chief Dull Knife College he’s going to be talking about Northern Cheyenne history culture so let’s please make him welcome thank you very much first of all I’d like to thank uh Mary Ellen and and the rest of the folks for inviting me over here to be part of this signature event Clark on the Yellowstone as I was leaving this morning I wasn’t sure exactly how long it was going to take to get here and as I was about 20 mil away I noticed that time was getting a little short so I thought to myself well I said if I’m late I’m going to have to come up with something for for being late and I thought about the about Indian time and how Indian time usually means you’re either 15 20 minutes early or 15 or 20 minutes late so fortunately uh I didn’t have to use that but uh that did cross my mind real real quick I needed to use some excuse this is actually the first time I’ve been here and uh it’s such a wonderful site to see all the folks that are gathered here as part of this signature event I know there’s a lot of folks from out of town that are also part of it and many different tribes when I had gotten a call to do the presentation I wasn’t exactly sure what this would entail and I think it’s mostly based on the audience and wanting to uh at least tie something into the Lewis and Clark event I guess I should first start off and say that uh the Cheyenne people had some kind contact with the the uh explorers that came from St Louis limited contact over near the uh present day border of North Dakota and South Dakota along the Missouri River however it was very very short uh one of our some of the leaders at the time had uh refused or rejected the medal that was was offered by Lewis and Clark and this was based on the prophet sweet medicine who said that uh um and he was a prophet that gave us our spiritual ceremonial ways the structure the political structure of the of the cheyen people in one of his prophecies he mentioned that someday we will encounter this Strang looking man with hair on his face and that he will bring with him an animal with a long man a strange animal and that we were not to be part of uh his enticements because if we do and he would also bring a strange animal with split hooves and the Animals meat would be sweet and that we would take a liking to this meat and then we would be under the uh opes of this strange man um and so that was part of the and there were a number of other um prophecies that he that he uh gave to the cheyen people but as far as the Louis and Clark this was something that sort of tied into to the coming of the European into what we considered our homeland the Black Hills area it was sort of uh strange that some of the prophecies that he predicted uh have come true in many way ways we’ become more dependent on uh the Western way of life today we love beef beef is good uh we’re in the process of revitalizing our buffalo program and uh I think there’s a trend toward ethnicity in terms of living at least partially some of the old ways just a brief history about Lewis and Clark first of all I’d like to give you a little background on the Cheyenne people the origin of the Cheyenne people uh their migration just to give you a little background about who we are where we came from where we went what our role was in the shaping of the Western Plains Wars many of you may or may not know that the Cheyenne were involved in many battles with the US government uh during the 1800s and we sort of shaped the plain’s Indian uh history along with several other tribes one of the last tribes to to uh throw in the tow so to speak uh many of you know the battle of the Little Big Horn or as we call it where long hair was wiped away I’ll be talking a little bit more about it here uh later just like to thank everybody for being here here and me being part of this uh my Indian name is Travoy been passed down from many generations with the Cheyenne and with lot of tribes the people the faces may come and go but the names are always carried down in a lineal sense so the name Travoy has been with our family for many generations normally those are those names are inherited um through your lineal descent the Northern Cheyenne are part of the Algonquian speaking language family the alangan speakers include uh the Ottawa the Mohan the kapoo the poaty the cre the black feet and our closest family or the closest language family would be the arapo uh and this is based us on oral history and also on uh linguists who can trace the languages back to their mother language and if you put all that together our history start in the uh Hudson Bay Area in fact that’s where a lot of lot of tribes have their origin stories the land of many many lakes or Turtle Island and as our oral histories indicate we call this time the ancient time where there was no horses no dogs cold weather we were mostly hunter gatherers didn’t have the bowl and arrow used Spears fished in The Lakes uh and this can be verified through um scientific data and also through our oral histories sometime there was an event that occurred a pressure that moved the Cheyenne Southward in our oral histories it indicates that there was great disease that forced the movement and also famine into the uh Great Lakes area in our oral histories uh it says that we had crossed the great Marsh so great was the marsh that our Scouts were uh afraid to cross this vast Marsh for the fear of being lost and it was uh they used long poles to be able to find their way around and as we know it today it’s on the western part of the Great Lakes area and uh we lived in the close to the Min to the Great Lakes area for a while uh cultivated uh wild rice fished small game Hunters ate a lot of bird um there’s a hill there that is called uh Hill of the skunks and in this area we we uh had an annual skunk hunt and uh so we feasted on skunks every fall I’m not sure if I do that today I’ve never eaten a skunk but uh that’s part of our oral histories I don’t know if we’ve got a skunk Society or not but uh and also um this was the time of the bow and arrow in our histories we call it the time of the bow and arrow so if you look at it from a scientific perspective it’s probably 1,500 2,000 years ago that’s about the time scientists say that the bow and arrow was uh invented here in the northern country little later on we uh moved even further south into the down to the Missouri and where the Minnesota River Cross and by and that was during the 1600s between the 16 hundreds and 1700s we became let me back up just a little bit in the in Minnesota we lived in small Dome shaped huts and uh then by the 16 1700s we started moving Westward lot of pressure from the Eastern tribes uh kind of a trickle effect we became part of the Corn Belt which is the area where you grow a lot of corn and tobacco and beans and squash that sort of thing and at that point we became a sedentary tribe conducive for farming and because of the pressure there we slowly moved our way northward into the dtas all the way up to North Dakota in Southeastern North Dakota is a river called Cheyenne River starts with an S the Sue call it where the Cheyenne plant corn and that’s a documented Palisade or what is commonly known as the beasterfeld site so his in historical times and also in our oral history and also uh from other tribes that was a known Cheyenne uh Fort and uh as we started going Westward we start to see instability of of the climate um at that point we we moved suddenly Southwest we had a lot of pressure from caboy uh they by this time they had acquired the gun whereas we still had the bow and arrow and we have many stories about the defeat by the Asino and the chipas because of of the their ability to acquire the gun before the Cheyenne folks did by the early 1700s we had moved into the Missouri area and at this time we had acquired the horse so we went from a fishing bird gather wild rice cultivators to a to another transition to being farmers and now we were in another transition phase into a horse culture and at this time we also became allies with the araro and had a loveh relationship with Mandan and the groan and of course the feared a cine boy because of their their uh the technology that they had acquired from the fur Traders further up north and it’s about this time in the late 1700s that we start seeing visitors from the west from the north and from the south there was actually uh folks from Mexico that would come up and visit the tribes the the uh the senary tribes the Mandan rarra and Hada and in our oral histories um we have stories about um M the Mexicans coming up north to visit uh the Black Hills area about this time there’s some confusion whether or not not the Cheyenne had actually uh met the the uh non indan non-indians and it was at this time that we discovered our the center of our universe and that would be beb or as we call it NOA this became this is where we we found our political social structure this is where the Prophet sweet medicine uh gave the arrows the sacred bundle of the Cheyenne people we were also in that phase of becoming a horse culture we we were still growing tobacco and corn but we’ plant and then we go out to the Plains and uh acquire food the Buffalo was the primary source of food at this time and it was at this one of these times when the Cheyenne had planted food on another river called the Cheyenne River starting with a CA that uh and they plant this corn and what they did was they’d have these Plum bushes for most of you they’re familiar with Plum bushes they have these thorny Thorns coming out and what they did was they tie the plum bushes together and they’d make a fence to keep out other animals particularly Buffalo and deer and during one of their return trips to harvest the corn they noticed strange Footprints and they weren’t moccasin Footprints these had a strange uh print to them and they they couldn’t figure out who it was but we do know that there was uh uh routes being traveled by by Mexicans and non-indians around the Black Hills area and it was about this time in 1806 I think on Lewis and Clark’s return trip that he offered the medal to the cheyan people and initially it was refused but eventually and the and the the purpose of that was that the cheyen knew that this was uh Bad Medicine based on the the Prophecies of our of sweet medicine so that was that was our uh encounter with Lewis Lewis and Clark the however we did ask him for to teach us how to uh trap Bieber and other pelts we didn’t know the the the the way to trap them to where they could be sold uh commercially and uh we never heard back from him after that so that was kind of our he promised he’d bring back the traps but he he never did come back we’re still waiting for him by the way although we don’t have any more Beaver so the point is moot during this time we went through this transition of being a horse culture called the time of the Buffalo from the from the Palisades in eastern North Dakota to the time we acquired the horse uh Edge just changed the social organization of the cheyen people as with many other tribes number of of advantages of the horse is that uh we didn’t look at the horse initially as being a beast of burden we looked at him as in Practical terms as feeding a lot of families so probably the first several few horses were probably good eaten until we figured figured out that they could also be used for as pack animals and of course as we know the horse has many advantages versus a dog dog can only carry so much uh weight uh movement is fairly slow whereas a horse uh you know you have a many advantages just Superior to to to the uh dog to the canine and uh so it changed dramatically the way we viewed our hunting our Warfare um our trade it became a trade item of value to the to the sedentary tribes further north and this would be the Mandan and Hada and raro um so we sort of found ourselves as being middlemen as we made our way past the Black Hills and further south and the incentive for M moving south by the 18 early 1800s was that the horses uh came out of Mexico so if if you have something of value you want to go to the source and this would be to move further south and but first of all we had to uh we we had to to try to convince some of the ples Indians that were in our way to move further south and that was through Warfare and so the Kwa the pon the kamachi the crow the shishoni were some of the groups that we fought uh during that time um by the 1850s uh we were pretty well established uh all the way down to Oklahoma and New Mexico we covered uh eastern Kansas or uh Western Kansas excuse me western Nebraska all along the Rocky Mountain front in Wyoming here in Southeastern Montana uh Colorado uh and we developed um a political system where we had the Council of 10 major bands there was 10 major band of Cheyenne and you had uh out of that 10 major bands were the 44 so uh and then we had four Omen Chiefs that sort of made up the structure of the of the Cheyenne and this was also the beginning of the if we look at the horse we start to see this phenomenon called the uh counting coup and I think that was evident in many Plains tribes became more of a status uh symbol uh Rank and Prestige and the the idea of course is to touch the enemy without killing it e either with your hand or or with this uh stick the killing of an enemy was secondary but the primary purpose of receiving recognition was to count coup on on the enemy and also the scalping was also uh uh considered a trophy but it was it was also not the primary purpose for for uh getting recognition and so horse stealing became sort of a uh a real special skill and the cheyen were no different than any other tribe in in acquiring these types of skills became very very expert Horsemen this was the beginning of the separation between the northern bands and the southern bands of the Cheyenne people this was also the beginning by 1850s of Westward Movement uh to California and some of the the other places Santa Fe Trail became established uh later the Oregon Trail and much later the Boseman Trail so you start to see these divisions and of course this led to uh many many wars for the Cheyenne people not only were they warn with uh primarily at this point the pan the Kwa the shishoni and the crow uh but also with uh the US government at time as I mentioned we found ourselves in the um mids of a of a this uh Buffalo trade forts bent was established in Southeastern Colorado to trade with Buffalo we still were friendly with the tribes over in in North Dakota we still had these ties with them uh we traded horses for guns and other Western Goods um we we sort of deviated from making arrowheads because by that time metal points were were the choice of use and metal kettles number of other things uh European Beads number of European trade items but the primary Focus was Buffalo and uh by that time there was it was just a a traumatic change for the Cheyenne people not only for the for the uh Cheyenne but also for the animals as well I always uh say that you know there was a number of different diseases that were coming into to the Plains Indians at the time small pox was was one of the uh primary diseases but also with the animals the Buffalo uh acquired brucelosis from the exotic animals coming in from uh uh Europe so it wasn’t only just the and also plants so it wasn’t just the people but it was also the animals and the plants that were being affected uh tremendously really a time of instability because you have uh not only changing to a horse culture but also the of Western Civilization into what we call considered uh Cheyenne territory so just a tremendous change for the Cheyenne people in terms of their political structure their social structure and also the whiskey Traders coming in from Mexico so we kind of took a liken to those to that fire water also not very good for us and as a result of this conflict the gold rush in California westward migration uh Discovery discovery of gold in the Pikes Peak uh and also the Black Hills in the early 1860s uh number of events occurred and that would be the plains Wars um the first Treaty of the Cheyenne was the friendship treaty and that was near the Black Hills and later on there was another other treaties Fort laramy Treaty of 1851 another treaty in 1865 and then uh 1868 Fort laramy Treaty of course none of them none of them ever held they were all broken so but we tried to we tried to be friendly and and make treaties as a result of these conflicts uh we have a whole host of battles that I just want to name a few that may or may not sound familiar uh the fort fetman fight uh in Wyoming occurred in the mid 80s M mid 1800s gentleman was bragging about how he could uh ride through Indian uh country with 80 men um and come out Victorious while he was half right he drove into Indian into a bunch of Indians but he he never made it out so uh so his prediction was half true uh the wagon box fight is another one here Wyoming um and these all occurred in the mid 18 hundreds the Powder River Battle where we start to see the rounding up of Indians that weren’t uh didn’t necessarily want to go to reservations and these are all Cheyenne battles the uh Tongue River Skirmish Battle of the Rose some of you probably know that that was a Prelude to the battle of the Little Big Horn and of course the most famous that everybody knows is the Battle of the old big horn and also after that after that battle was uh Chief D knife P battle uh with the US government and after that was the Wolf Mountain battle um or Battle of B Billy but let me just go back to the fetman we call it 100 in hand because of the fact that uh one of our spiritual leaders had had a vision that 100 soldiers would be handed to the Cheyenne people so the Cheyenne know that battle as 100 in hand the battle of the Rose but we know this battle as where the girl saved her brother during the battle the uh one of the uh Warriors was caught in a crossfire and his horse was shot under him and uh there was in impending um death looming the sister who had actually been part of the the uh battle saw this and she ran the gauntlet to save her brother and came back and this was witnessed by uh a number of Warriors and also by the calvary and so the Cheyenne know this as where the sister saved her brother Battle of the Little Big Horn is what we know as where long hair was wiped away uh and it we call it that because early on uh during the battle of the was in Oklahoma in 196 1866 General George Armstrong kuster had a battle with the Cheyenne he did capture a village but some of his men were killed there and after that battle was over he smoked the pipe with the with our sacred Arrow keeper Keeper of the arrows and after the after the smoke the ashes were wiped on the ground on his boot the sacred Arrow keeper wiped the ashes into the ground and when you smoke a pipe you’ve you’ve committed yourself to to keeping that promise and that sort of sealed his his Destiny according to the Cheyenne that if he ever fought the Cheyenne Again that his his ashes would be wiped into the ground so today the Cheyenne know this battle as where long hair was wiped away so we had this uh intimate relationship with Lon hair Wolf Mountain the Battle of Wolf Mountain was after the Battle of Little Big Horn and we we know it as where big Crow danced in front of the soldiers he was a warrior that uh to show his bravery would dance in front of the soldiers and shoot at them um uh to show his bravery and his medicine and uh unfortunately after the four third time of dancing uh he was mortally wounded but the odds were against his favor anytime you see a bunch of people shooting at you and you’re going back and forth you’re probably going to get shot soon or later and that’s kind of what happened here and of course when we were we finally uh threw in the tow in 18 uh 77 the spring of 1877 we were moved down to Oklahoma to Indian Territory a lot of you know that this was considered Indian Territory a lot of the Eastern tribes were moved over to Oklahoma territory in a uh event called the Trail of Tears uh the Cheyenne were no different some of the Southern bands had already established a reservation there uh for the northern bands this was a long trip on foot we stayed there for a year and a half by 7 1878 um through the leadership of Chief D knife and Chief littlewolf and some others wildhog um Turkey Leg some of those folks we decided we wanted to come back up to our Northern home Homeland we felt this this was our our homeland and it was an incredible journey of endurance and uh unfortunately part of the band was captured in Fort Robinson and uh Northwestern Nebraska and there they broke out a lot of folks were killed finally we made it to our homeland here in the North Country uh and in 1884 the Northern Cheyenne reservation was established uh here in Southeastern Montana in the present Community called lame deer and uh it’s an area that we hold dear to our hearts and that um uh we we try to maintain its uh PR pristine condition we’ve we’ve uh not allowed any type of natural um or Economic Development terms of our mineral resources because our our ancestors fought long and hard to secure this area for for the northern cheen people um another battle was the San Creek battle I don’t know how many of you know about it but it was in uh um Colorado so we had a long hard uh history with the US government the shaping of federal Indian policy here on PLS uh the last confrontation was on during the reservation days when uh a couple of young gentlemen decided that because they had killed a cow they weren’t going to go to to jail they said we’d rather die as Cheyenne Warriors and so they the night before they uh camped on a on a but and they told everybody they said bring the soldiers bring the Indian police cuz tomorrow we’re going to ride down this hill and we’re going to die as Cheyenne Warriors and this was during the reservation days uh and that’s what they did the next day they rode down in front of a firing line consisting of soldiers out of my city and also the local Indian police uh one of them head Chief made it through the line the other one uh was killed as he was coming down the hill so that was the last confrontation with the US government was in 1890 and that was during the reservation period today we have close to 450,000 Acres of reservation land uh in Southeastern Montana vast coal reserves there um Ira form a government Indian reorganization Act or the Howard wheeler act um and that sort of briefly covers the Northern Cheyenne people uh at this time I know I seen the hand go up five minutes but uh like to ask if there’s any questions that you have that I might be able to answer I know that was quick and you probably didn’t know what I said but that’s okay yes was it common to have have um a woman be interested in being a warrior to go to a battle that sort of thing that’s a good question the question is uh when the battle of the roseb but occurred the woman saved her brother how often did they were they participants in every battle depended on the situation uh more than likely the older women would be um would do the the uh caretaking uh making uh prepar ations for those that were wounded um some of the older women never you know they were just as stressed as those that were fighting out there but yes there were women warriors within the tribe that did participate in uh in the battles in fact there’s a Cheyenne proverb that goes something like this and I may not have exactly the quote but I’ve I’ve uh mentioned this a number of times uh no matter how strong a Nation or how powerful their weapons the nation is not defeated until the hearts of the women are on the ground so I think that’s a very powerful tribute to a woman warrior among the Cheyenne people thank you for asking that question anybody else if you’ll raise your hand we’ll come around with a microphone and and everyone can hear your question a couple of things that you left out we had an article in the paper recently where Dr Joseph medicine Crow noted that counting coup also included killing an enemy raiding the horses of others and then leading into battle and those all caused loss of Indian lives and I also noticed that you left out the battle where the cheyen warrior tallbull was killed by retaliating paon forces with the help of the US Army and Massacre Canyon which also involved the paon you have a question so why did you leave those out well if if uh I guess if we had old day I we could get into intimate detail and just the response to to uh medicine Crow I think that uh every tribe is unique in their perspective of what counting coup is so to say that Joe medicine Crow version is indicative of all tribes uh is is very wrong and so you know he may be right according to the crow but the Cheyenne have their own unique uh interpretation of counting coup and I think that’s that’s really the wrong attitude to have when you start to generalize about Native Americans and that they were a simp and give them a simplistic view of who they were just because they lived in teepees doesn’t mean that uh every tee was the same very unique and diverse and in their own ways so thank you for bringing that question up and I hope that answers your question have a question back here we could talk about it some more later but you know we I’ve only got uh 40 minutes to do this uh normally when I talk about the history of the Cheyenne it takes me one semester to do this so you know this is very brief and to talk about a specific incident such as TBO U I think that’s a defeats the purpose of talking about the history of the Cheyenne people yes uh you mentioned briefly the effects of small poox on your tribe and I would like to have you enlarge on that because from what I understand decimate is not the right word to use because it only means one tenth of the people killed and I know the most of the tribes lost many many more more than than some up to 90% and how did that affect the tribal order and the tribal history good question uh with any group I think that when you lose the majority of your people you’re losing a lot of people that have specialized skills and I’m looking at it from a anthropological perspective you’re looking at a lot of talent you’re looking at your spirituality you’re looking at your mother and father you’re looking at your sisters your brothers uh you’re looking at Warriors that have a chained a certain status so in essence you’re losing your history your way of life and that can you know we all know that can be devastating uh if not only if to disease but to Warfare I mean you know not only were they losing to other diseases but you know when you have Warfare you’re also losing a lot of Young Warriors uh to those particular events so yes um I would say that this was uh really traumatic um uh historical trauma and and we still um today we still have a lot of that embedded in our history in our stories any other questions one right here and this will probably be our last question okay if you counted Co coup on me you would receive an honor what would I receive a dishonor within my tribe how how did that work that’s a good question if you re if you if I counted coup on you and and what would that leave you you know I would uh suspect that that if you didn’t die at the at the scene and wasn’t scalped uh uh I’m not sure exactly I can’t talk for other tribes yeah but if somebody counted if you counted coup on me um I suspect that there would be some type of social control that that would address that but that’s a very good question I’m sure you wouldn’t hear the end of that for a long time especially if you were a female all right ladies and gentlemen thank you very much thank you

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Crow Storytellers: History, Vision, and Creation

Wed, 11 Feb 2026 00:36:00 +0000

everyone Discovery 2 core Discovery 2 is a national traveling exhibit it’s been on the road since January of 2003 traveling along the Lewis and Clark Trail we’re actually on our final final leg of the journey we’re headed towards St Louis will’ll be wrapping up core Discovery 2 in September late September we wrapping up core Discovery 2 what we do here in the ten many voices is we invite in a wide variety of presenters to share different aspects of the Lewis and Clark expedition but also to talk about the culture and history of all the different American Indian nations along the Lewis and Clark Trail and we have with us this afternoon we have a collection of crow storytellers to share some of that Crow history and culture with us and we’re start first with Patrick and Sharon Stan over bowl and Sharon is going to start with the first story show and good afternoon I would like all of you to uh do the sign with me today is a good day today is a good day and so I would just like to share a little bit about being a Crow Indian uh I was raised as a Grassroots Crow I’m proud of my Heritage that’s what the uh the great spirit the good Lord uh chose me to be was a crow woman and so I’ve learned many wonderful things over my lifetime from my mother my grandmother and her mother and so I feel I’m very rich in my Heritage and so as we look at our Crow people we are a people that’s a matrilineal people the woman has a lot of uh uh say in the family life I’m sure it was way back in our Warrior days as it is today we have the responsibility many times that are a little bit overwhelming at times uh during the days of the Buffalo when our men were out in the War uh Waring and uh going to get Buffalo and um stealing horses and all the things that it took to be a warrior we the women were at home we were the ones who were the Tepee uh we the ones who kept the Tepee we when the people moved and we were a nomadic Society at the time uh it was the women that put up The Lodges was the women that uh reared the children was the women that disciplined them was the women that cooked the food was the women that got everything ready before their men went out to battle one of the uh things that they always made was pikun I don’t know how many of you have heard of picun but it was so rich in nutrients and vitamins it would sustain our Warriors for many days and so the women played a very key role in the household of the Native Crow people and so um even today that carries on I believe among the crow the women are also very important they make a lot of the decisions sometimes uh I guess we might be a little bit too forward but nevertheless I guess as we look back at the time when our great great great grandmothers lived They too had to be strong and they had to go and do all that they could well today I’m going to tell you a story story about a story my grand my mother told me I was on a board for uh at Montana State University of which I’m an alumni in Boseman but one day we were motoring up to Boseman and as we went by the Crazy Mountains my mother told me this story and it has stayed with me all these years and she said there was a time when uh the crows camped here and it’s um before you get to Livingston there’s a kind of a area that is circular and the crows often went encamped right there by the Yellowstone River which we crows know as Elk River eash Asha can we say it eash Asha that is the the crow word for the Yellowstone River well we were all camped by the banks of the EG gash Asha and while we were there there were many lodges that were pitched at the Tepe fires were going there was joy in the camp people were very busy doing what they needed to do to get the camp uh to a place where it was comfortable as comfortable as they could get and which was um Gathering wood and being sure that they had enough food maybe there might have been some meat out there draw drawing and so as uh we were camped there it was uh a time I believe it must have been uh during the warm season because the men were going out and this one man in particular decided Well this was his time to go on a Vision Quest and we must visualize this being the time when there were no people but native people in the area that was all there were and so as this man was going on his vision quest uh he crossed EG gash Asha Yellowstone River went across and started up toward the Crazy Mountains and these are the mountains that are are located near Big Timber how many of you know where the Crazy Mountains are okay near Big Timber and he started out and uh of course taking no water no Provisions with him but being dressed you know very minimum and then he went and he went for days I don’t know how many days but finally he came to a point in his uh Vision Quest where he fell I believe he fell under a crevice of a rock and then he was just there and in the track that he was in while he was there then someone came and spoke to him and this person that came and spoke to him said this land that you treasure this land upon which you and your forefathers have lived for many many years I guess as we would sit for eons of time this land that you so dearly love there’s going to be a great change coming and so then the voice that spoke to this man said uh I’m going to give you an illustration when you’re out on a um out hunting for buffalo on a hot summer day it’s probably a day like today and you’ve killed the Buffalo and maybe there’s a piece of meat that you’ve forgotten or decided Well I don’t really need this piece or maybe you were so busy that it’s still there well this meat is there under the hot searing sun and pretty soon the fly are everywhere and they start to get up this piece of meat and the Flies are there and then what happens afterwards you know there’s the maggots and then the maggots turn to worms well pretty soon this whole piece of meat that’s laying out there under the hot Prairie Sun pretty soon this whole meat is going to turn into a bunch of worms it’s going to be crawling with worms and that is exactly what’s going to happen to your land there’s a people that you have never seen before and they are coming and they’re going to come but there’s going to be a very few at the very beginning but they’re going to come a little more and a little more and pretty soon you see this meat that’s all covered with worms that’s what’s going to happen to your land and so I’m telling you in advance when these people come they are going to be so numerous that you will not be able to withstand them you they will come and they will they will have yellow hair some of them some of them lighter hair they’re going to be lighter skinn than you they’re going to have eyes that are blue they’re going to be people but they’re of a different tribe and they are coming and so my advice to you is when you get back to the encampment I want you to tell them when they come you need to be friends you need to be a friendly people because it’s coming to a time that you’re going to be overrun and so the best thing that I would advise you to do is extend your hand of friendship and so the man on the Vision Quest returned and returned to his people and that evening they built the fire and all the elders came around to listen to what the man had learned as he went up to the Crazy Mountains and when he uh we got everybody together they all sat down and he said this is what I heard from the voice that spoke to me that there’s a group of people coming and they’re going to be bringing an animal that is not the Buffalo the Buffalo are no longer going to be as numerous as they have been and in time the Buffalo will not be here and that’s going to be a very sad day because we have our life in our sustenance from the Buffalo we follow them and wherever the buffalo go that’s where we go because back then we were a nomadic people and those days are going to be gone but in its place there’s going to be a new animal that we have never seen before some of these animals are they’re smaller than the Buffalo some of them will be white faced some will be brown brown with spots some will be black but they’re coming and so we need to get along with these people and so over the years as time went on and of of course um different ones came also Lewis and Clark as what what we’re celebrating at this point in time uh well then the people the Europeans started to come and they became more and more and as uh the man was told in the vision our land started to dwindle and it became smaller and smaller and so here we are today I believe we started out uh with all the area Yellowstone Park the whole area but finally now today the crow people live on an acreage that is two and a half million Acres compared to what it was many many many years ago but I believe that as these men went out and they uh looked for advice by fasting and going and seeking uh I believe as he came back and told his people that our people uh listened and they listened very with a very uh uh with with concentration they didn’t just Slough it off but they took that advice and I believe today that’s why we as a Crow Nation have never had an h a battle with the US Army in fact uh you know there’s many times even during the time of the Little Big Horn battle we had some of our Crow men the crow Warriors that were scouts out there and so I believe that crows had a listening ear there are friendly people and today I believe just like P Chief plen cou said the last chief of the crows that it is so important that you and I and all the people that are here that we live together in harmony and that we are going to have a life together and we’re going to do the best we can to continue this friendship throughout the time that the Lord gives us on this place called Earth thank you I’m going to sit down if you don’t mind I have a problem with my back and I can’t stand too long but uh I want to thank the the park service for inviting us here uh to speak what little we know about the crows the crows have no written history everything is oral that’s why some stories are a little bit different from another version nevertheless there is a history that we have our history I’m a history teacher retired three years ago my information is basically from other guys researchers and what I do research on myself and I finally put up with a a document I’m about so sick which I don’t want to carry with me today I pretty much have it up here then I don’t have much time time for another reason uh there’s so much to talk about when uh our culture and our history 15 minutes is such a minimal time to try to explain but I will give you a little bit of History contemporary history and then go back just a few years actually I can go back to 1500s when I when we first recorded the some of the written history that we have some that were written and before that you know there was no written history everything was oral and so thank God for uh Joe medicon Crow and uh another forgot what the other guy name they went and got their master’s degree and uh rote their Caesar on C culture and Co history some of my information come from there plus what I have on my own so I taught uh many years at pentac Cruz High School for history I want to kind of pick up on where Sharon left Shar my wife and she just spoke and she mentioned about the man that had a vision that was told to be friendly with the with the Europeans when they came you see the one of the results I can show you today is that of all the Indian tribes in America the crws probably aside from the the SEMO that’s down in Everglades in Florida there are only two tribes that have never been prisoned of of war the rest are prisoners of War so many times those Russell means and I have go into round and around arguing about some of these things is that the crows the reason we friendly is that look at the land that we have uh no vitals in 1500s said this Crow line is placed by the good spirit in the right place we have three mountain ranges we have three river valleys at one time we owned the largest wheat farm in the world the Russians and the Chinese came up there on the on the bench of the heart born River where they come and they learn about dry land farming from the crow land so you see that we have a history that’s very very blessed by the great spirit uh we are very fortunate we can hunt you round we can fish year round and uh we live in a in a in in peace with Mother Earth so to speak and so I’m going to sit down and continue here uh the crows had three bands there were three bands of Crow tribe one is the kicking abilities they are located from around LOD gr some of you know where LOD grass is at that area around up to the brig briger Trail on the other side of the mountains that is their habitat the the the kicking abilities don’t tell me don’t ask me where they got the name Joe medon Crow has a version for that then I’m a mountain Crow from the Big Horn River this way up through the bman trail around around Prior that to the bori up to bman that was where the mountain Crow habitat is then we have the river Crow around croen and black LOD and all the way up to up to the Milk River up North toward toward belnet that was the river Crow habitat so we have three bands my chief was the last chief of the crws his name is Chief penu and he was uh designated the chief of all chiefs at one point represent all the Indians in America and so we have a history that is uh uh well I guess blessed it would say and as we come along our reservation being friendly with the with the the the the The Westward Movement the the Wagon train and so forth when go was discovered in 1849 and the Pikes Peak Discovery in Colorado the Black Hills and the different areas the goal was discovered there was an influx of miners came and there was a push of the PLS Indian from our hunting area and because of that we uh we had to uh uh go back and look at our our treaties our first treaty was in 1825 called a friendship treaty it was with the US government it’s no stipulation of a land area whatever was designated all it did was it said that we would protect these wagon trains when they come through on their way to the West Coast that the crows would ride alongside them but PR PR them from the black feet and the different tribs around the area the next treaty was 1851 it was comprised of 9 million acres of land the southern boundary went all the way down to land of Wyoming the northern boundary was all the way up to almost by popular Montana the Western the eastern boundary was up to the the pow River in Black Hills and the Western is all way up to the national park for we have 39 plus million acres in that Treaty of 1851 okay 17 years later in 1868 the government says hey Congress never ratified that treaty we’re going to go back to negotiating tables and talk with you ples Indians and the reason for that was it was a great push from the through Indians from the from the Black Hills when Black Hills was discovered they were pushed by the white Miners and there were their hunting grounds were deprived they were depleted and so they looked to the planes and they saw the land that we have plenty of Buffalo elk deer and they said hey you know let’s take care of those Crews let’s take the line from them and so because of that the government are trying to prevent a Warfare which they never have they went back to the negotiating tables and this time they said well we’re going to draft up a new treaty new reservation boundaries and this is going to be our land and our chief at the time was a chief named chief sits in the middle of the line or a chief black foot they went down there to laramy Wyoming and by the way this laramy is not in the city of laramy Wyoming the laramy is Fort laramy is over by torington on the Southeastern portion of state of Wyoming there was a a fort called Fort laramy and that was the treaty all these Plain Indians went down there and they cut our landine by 30 million Acres our delegation came back their line was from 39 million Acres they came back with 9 million Acres and so the majority of the Indians don’t even know even our delegation couldn’t even speak English but there was an interpreter name of by the name of Ching I believe he was a French half that that lived on the cor reservation he was The Interpreter to me this is my personal opinion I believe he was the one that that wrote down all those those uh Provisions in that 1868 treaty depriving us of 30 million acres and so we have 9 million Acres when we come back six years later the crows had a had a kind of a Town Council all the people got together and they wanted to reval that treaty that was that was written they went over it and chief sits in the middle of the landine sit there and said I never said that that was never in our negotiation somebody put it in there 6 years was too late too much water under the rich those speak and so our reservation was down to 9 million Acres okay and there in Wyoming some from the Wyoming border Montana Border North up to harden today in that area there was 9 million acres and so the influx of the the the Pioneers that they headed west the government would come and negotiate with our leaders we’re going to need this for Homestead are they call them seated areas for we lost the Eastern the northern part of our resent called the SE strip was given away and then this line right along here from the midle part of ow Stone to bosan was given away for about a million dollars around the 1900 and so these lines were given away piece by piece not much of it was we got a claim a while back and they paid us at cents an acre they paid us for the price back in 1800 and so it was a very disheartening thing but again there was too much water under the bridge by that time you know the place was settled and everything was all in plays and it was hard to negotiate we made a claim and the government said all I will and so this is a short story and I’m trying to keep it short of the CR reservation history contemporary history that we are we are today that we still got the three bands of C we still got a lot of our our uh values that we’re trying to keep and people tell me that what is your culture how many can have a let me see how many of you can see or Define what the word culture means anybody want to anybody want to take a shot of that what is culture okay people think culture is bunch of feathers and we dance at cow Fair time that’s not culture what is culture culture is your language our culture is our only identity that we have and the culture that we have if when we speak our language we know who we are self-identification and so it’s important that we keep our language when we’re losing quite a bit I taught Crow language for 10 years in high school it was hard because a lot of our younger generation are not interested I couldn’t get him motivated so I I I taught Crow history to have him an ownership and there was a little bit of motivation but in majority the language is 99% gone I would say my family my kids my grandchildren they speak Crow and it’s important I I believe to say that who we are is how we speak how we our language you take 10 different PLS Indian tribes tribal members together you take a shy you take a sue you take a black feet put them all ATT 10 in a row dressed in an oldtime regalia and they the white man any one of you can say hey tell me which is a crow you can’t even tell the difference once you see an Indian you see them all the only way you can tell the difference is their language we all speak a different dialect okay with that any questions I’ll leave it over for my brother Gran over there any questions all right thank you thank you and thank you to Pat and Sharon STS over the bowl we’re going to move on to our next set of speakers here and we’re going to have with us we’re going to have Grant bolale and Linda door bolale to continue with some more Crow storytelling so let’s give Linda a warm welcome the ten voice good afternoon ladies and gentlemen my name is Linda Bale and I’m reading this story for my husband uh Grand buale the story is called The Creation story of The Crow closer oh okay there I’ll start all all over again my name is Linda bolale and I’m reading the story for my husband Grant bolale the story is called The Creation story of the crows it’s an old story that was told by one of his great great uncles or grandfather’s yellow BR the sun looked down on the earth the earth looked blue in the distance there seemed to be something special about the Earth the sun the sun kept looking down on the Earth but only saw huge waves of water and storm clouds the whole earth was covered with storm clouds the sun had sensed that there’s something was trying to communicate with him something was happening at the bottom of the sea the sun came kep looking down toward the Earth but there was only the Sea and the clouds then ever so slowly the clouds parted for a long time nothing happened finally the sun saw a pointed Rock standing out of the ocean then ever so slowly the sun saw some being moving about the rock the son wanted to see for himself what was happening under the clouds the sun became per personified that the sun changed the sun changed himself into the figure of a man the Sun shaped the front part of his hair into the shape of a tobacco plant he parted his hair in the middle and braided the left side and tied unequal dowy feather dyed red in his braids he wore the right side of his hair loose and a chicken hog was tied to the back of his head long stems of grass were stuck on the top of his head he painted his fa forehead in the red paint and yellow for the lower part of his face around his neck he wore a man many strands of necklace made out of bones with large round aalon shells tied to the top of the necklace his war shirt was decorated with weasel skins along the sleeves and the front of the shirt the shirt was decorated with dyed porcupine quilts he wore his lakans with stripes of red pain from the front part of his waist hug the neck and the head of a wolf at the back of his waist was the back part of the wolf his moccasins were decorated with dyed porcupine quilts from the hills were Fox tailes everything he wore looked bright and cheerful he carried his pipe the sun landed on the flat surface of the surface and sat down on a cushion of a buffalo rope he took out his pipe and shouted at some of the at at some ducks in the water he said little brothers come and sit and smoke with me in all the waves there is nothing better to sit and smoke with friends and talk about different things there were three Ducks there was a large duck a middle duck and a small size little duck the smaller duck came willingly however the large duck duck was reluctant the large duck said how is it that you came down before when we needed you we were calling you you never came the sun said in all the universe one of the good things that we do is that whenever an elder brother is in trouble we dropped everything and came to his Aid the son and a duck sat down and smoked tell me said the son to the ducks in all your wonderings have you ever suspected anything being other beings on this Earth the smallest duck answered the sun yes there are some beings under the ocean that wants to live good that’s what I wanted to know said the sun with your help I can create life on this water stated the sun if one of you go to the bottom of the ocean bring me back some mud I can create land land and living things he said the oldest duck puffed up his chest and said I will go that would be fine it is always to have ceremony in everything that we do said the son the son made made the duck stand in front of him and sang a song over him and blessed him the son then told the duck to hold his breath close his eyes real tight on his way down to the bottom the son told the duck to bring back as much mud as he could he also told him the dug he also told him that the dug would be able to tell mud by the soft quality the duck Dove Dove down until only the bottom of his wet feet could be seen then the duck disappeared into the murky dead never to be seen again the son waited and waited finally he said we must try again then the middle siiz duck went down in the water in the same way the sun waited until the duck floated to the top with a seaweed in his mouth what I suspected was true there are some beans in the bottom of the ocean in all the universe one of the good things that that is we we should not attempt anything over four times when we fell on the third at at a temp it is good to stop said the son looking worried the sun began his ceremony again the little dug walked around and Drew in huge gulps of air the duck went down into the water and disappeared the dug went down down until he felt something soft the duck knew that he had found mud he took as much as he could and his web foot and his beak the dug went up until he ran out of air and became unconscious but the duck floated to the top the sun quickly grabbed him and pulled him out of the water and revived him the duck coughed the water and became disappointed with himself elder brother I found mud but I lost it on the way to the surface stated the little duck come here let me see said the son the son examined the little duck and found small amounts of mud on his web feed and on bead we have enough mud I can create land and living things said the sun the sun rolled up the mud into a ball the sun sang his creation song then he blew on the mud wherever they hid on the water became land that is why we have small Islands to huge continents if there was more mud there would be more land than water when the son sang his creation songs immediately to the east he heard a wolf hauling the wolf wanted to live so much it took a little creation power to make him come down to life then again they heard a coyote yeling at the distance why that must be a old man coyote sking about said the son oh man coyote would make Mischief when I make my children go and be on guard against him said the son to the duck whatever men do in this universe there is always an opposing sight go and be in minister to the old man and coyote said the son the son looked about the land and he said it would be good if there were living things on the land the son suth the wolf and he said to him go to the west and create the things that you like then he told the duck to go to the South and create the things that he liked the wolf went to the west and hurriedly create tall mountains large rivers lakes trees grass grasslands then he created large animals that could run fast the wolf was in such a hurry that he missed large areas and they became deserts the duck went to the South created an environment that birds like he also created tall mountains and trees rivers and lakes he made mistake of creating ex insects and reptiles so that the birds could eat them in the beginning there were only insects and reptiles in the South the sun lighted what the wolf and the Ducks created so he went to the East and created a combination of what the wolf and the duck have created the wolf had finished creating the Western lands then he saw that they had forgot in the north he quickly ran to the north and create the same TI of type of land he created in the west but before he could finish the time of creation had passed this is the reason why there is more snow lands in the north that is how the land that we live on had been created this is no story told by yellow BR a cousin of my husband’s grandmother Grant Bol thank you L thank you Linda for sharing that uh creation story of The Crow people and the Crow Nation here in the ten many voices thank you and let’s thank all our storytellers let’s thank all our storytellers Pat Sharon Linda for sharing these different aspects of crow culture and history with us here in the ten many voices remember folks that we do have programs each hour

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Haywood Big Day on Crow history and culture

Wed, 11 Feb 2026 00:35:58 +0000

all right everyone like to welcome you to our um one o’ program already just fly by again you are inside the T of many voes and this is a really special venue we’ve traveled all over the country um from the east coast to the West Coast and now we’re going back just like Le and clar did in 2006 they were heading home toward St Louis months be in St Louis F are ass story to come in and add a voice to thisal Historic Trail that’s really what makes it so special there we go um should we try again so once again you are inside the 10 of many voices and this is where the L and Clark National Historic Trail really does come alive we bring in folks that have all kind of ways reasons you name it some sort of association with the Lewis and clar trail to share their story with us and add it to this and that’s what really keeps these legacies alive these historic things without uh people to remember it it’s kind of dead and so in here we get to remember it and live it day by day in this hour we have a really special presenter his name is Haywood big day he’s a member of The Crow Nation he’s going to be speaking on Crow history and culture so if you would please uh help me welcome Heywood big day to the Ten of many voices thank you ladies and gentlemen this afternoon I sure appreciate it that you all came over and many people I lived about 30 miles or 40 miles south of uh Bellington there was a little town name called prior and there’s where I came from and there’s where I liveed but I’ve been going around through this universe like down under insight and everything and so now what I’m going to tell you about it it’s they asked me one of the one of the Rangers was asking me she said that uh what what does uh cultural and history I I asked I asked her and she said that what do you want me to to do I said and she said okay for yourself for you cow Indians where did you come from how did you get here that’s a tough question who I was where I coming from and so now I’m going to tell you about where I come from and I where I came from who I am what I am and where did I’m I have to sometimes I have to mention about the stages and uh if we do have any questions questions and I’ll do some answering right after I get done and within about half uh half an hour or 35 minutes I’m I’m going to go back to doing a time of uh before the fire before the fire the crows were Liv on the ground and they Liv like this cave and we Liv over there around by Minnesota where there’s a lot of lakes where the swamping area and there’s a lot of herbs over there that we ate and there’s a lot of there’s a lot of plants over there that we ate and that’s how we survive and in at that time that I don’t know how many generations that they went by but that generation has been gone and the second generation the there was a medicine man came over they don’t know where he came from but he was there all right and after he was there all right and he beginning to he beginning to tell teach the people you people don’t you have any fire they said no what what the fire is so he had some he had a two two cherry trees and he put one cherry tree down and he put the other one right on top of it and start rubbing it as he was rubbing it then there was a buffalo drop over there it was old and he wrapped around it and about few minutes later it start the smoke coming out and as the smoke coming out then Sparks and turn into fire after it turn into fire and the crows they’re beginning to scary that’s that’s too much that fires so so that’s how that the beginning and that um then that same man was saying that I’m going to teach you how to use that bow and arrow and he pick it up a choke cherry tree and start shaving it and make the bowl and he picked it up these grass there’s a certain kind of a grass that they weaved it they weaved it and they stretch it and they put the they put the bowl on there and he make the arrows out of that same tree that choke cherry tree as he make the bow and he went along the creek and there was a little kind of a little little creek uh bottom he found um and an arrowead and he was pretty close to the Buffalo and and he started shooting that Buffalo as he was shooting that Buffalo and that Buffalo dropped and he looked at it the the Indians were looked at it and they was wondering what’s going to be happened this is this is too much we got the fire and we killed the Buffalo a buffalo’s dead and the buffalo’s right there and we can’t do that and so this man he said that this is what you’re going to be survived this is what you’re going to survive with it this is the height the skin the height he start helping these women how to how to time as the year goes by they beginning to be tanning and they’re beginning to be wrapped around and during the winter time to survive with the Buffalo and the Buffalo as we ate every piece of a parts of that Buffalo we used it there’s no waste even the hopes even the inside even the inside side we eat them and even today the crows we still eat the eat the tribe we still eat the eat the inside of BU and and part of the part of the bones all the bones on that on that Buffalo we used it especially from the hind quarter to to the to the Elbow on the high quarter there was a big bone and that’s to mash something like a sludgehammer and a hammer and the rest of them and even the inside the marrow that’s the best part of the food and we eat with the with the meat and we Barbe uh uh grill grill them and we C them right on top of the Open Fire and so so we we ate that and and as the year goes by we came towards to the to the South and somewhere along the north Kota or North Dakota or Minnesota somewhere along in the area and one of the one of the elderly person that went up on a Hillside and start fasting the man that teaches he’s the one that teaches how to do the fast and so as they fast and during the night time there was some Spirits came over and talked to him they talked to him and here’s a here’s a tobacco the tobacco was turned into not the tobacco that today that you were smoking no it’s a different tobacco and we still have them and sometimes that uh today they still planning them and as they’re planning it and it grows up to about 8 ft high I’ll tell you more about that too so during at that time that man he got that tobacco and he start here’s how you do it and he start smoking with the leaves and and he prayed and and doing at that night and he saw the vision and he saw the mountains then he beginning to start telling his people that you got to you’ve got to when you’re die what you going to do about it that tobacco what is it going to be is it is it does it going going with you to the happy hunting grounds and he said no I have to adab I have to to adopt the the person if the tobacco was telling me that to adopt a person so I’m going to adopt the person so if I do adopt the person he’ll continue going on as as the as the so so that tobacco has been up in North Dakota somewhere along there and there was two brothers s these two brothers were the ones that was the ones that um found it the other one the he do say went back to the north Kota along the along the river then the crows were start heading out towards to the South and as they’re coming as they’re coming along they sto like that Village down there you’ve seen the village and I’m sure a lot of people will see that Village they they camp like that okay the village that I’m going to talk about it it was that that Tepe that Tepe how did they discovered the Tepe there was a there was a lady that walking towards to the woods and he and they looked at it and these these elderly men they looked at it and they it looks like a a a woman when you go over to the TV Village you look at it in your mind think about a lady that was walking and when the woman uh scraped the hide and turned into to a bug skin and he put a 12 14 16 and 18 them them are the them are the the pretty good high and they all put it together when they stop and Camp the sewing every other four days every other three days three to four days at they move out they they bre up and there and doing at that time they once they once they start moving they moving out with the with the pack they moving out with the as the year goes by they found a they found a Timber W over by um moula some place and we called the we called a Timber W uh the timber underneath there there was a sand and so they found they found the the PBS these timber wolves and they picked them up and they raised them and as they raas them the timber wolf we call them Bish you know the the pine trees the Sab that’s what we call them the dogs that during the time Bish that’s what we call them and the Bish that means that we travel and we put the dog travys if you heard about that dog travys and that’s the time when we’re using the dog Travelers and later as the year goes by then the Englishman or Frenchman or somebody that came into our reservation they came through that Missouri and they stopped over at U Mile City about so many miles north over here that there was a mile city and they stopped over there as they stopped over there they’re beginning to have a u have them horses and they took them into the reservation as they took them into the reservation we saw the horses and them our fur Traders we call them and they come over to our reservation into our camp area and we traded off with the horses with the fur and and so there’s no name for it the horses we call called them similary of an elk e and e that means horses e elk similary of a of a horse we call horses that’s our Indian language so and as the day goes by we traveled with that and we go up towards to the to the West we migrating with the Buffalo and as the the white people bringing in their their goods like the wo beads needles threads and all of them all them items that we work with they bring them over and we trade them with the Pelt we trade them with the Furs trade them with the Buffalo ropes we trade them after we start trading them then we built the lak and we used the W it’s a lot easier because the during the time of the the first time that they’re doing some sewing the the plants that here around here here in state of Montana there’re some out in the they call it yucky plant that yucky plant on the end it was really sharp like a needle and you break the the the top part and you pull it and the string will be coming up down and that’s how they s their magusin in at that time then the white man bringing in their needles and the threads and that’s what we use right now my marusin it’s we saw them with a needle and a and the threads that’s what I and also the The Bu skin pants that I have the bead work they tack them down and so the white man brings them over so as the there’s where they stop and they start taking the the their their goods out to the to the Indian village and at about this LS and leis Lon Clark and throughout one of these one of these Travelers were coming to the reservation up in Big Horn and and up in Big Horn and coming back them but the crows were migrating there’s three B PS of crows one was down by m city they usually start migrating going up towards to Wyoming to the up to Potter River and there was another band from Mil City they go up to uh Missouri up to up to Mell and heading out towards the Great Falls the center Lodge from the Big Horn area and going into to all the way up to M Missoula and as they’re going along with the they go alongside of the Buffalo and as as they’re going along through the Buffalo uh they Camp by sight by sight and you’ve seen the people that they ride and they make boats and they had a battle crows actually they don’t battle you have to you have to you have to hit me first before I before I it was a Revenge it was a Revenge that they have to hurt us they have to hurt our family to and we do the Revenge and Once We Do the Revenge they we have to let them taste their own medicine and that’s why we get some of them were about battle and some of them they don’t it was a Revenge so a lot of times that there when I seen some bats they say they had a big battle yes there were some big battles but uh different kind of a tribe that came over to our reservation but they’re not pushing in us but it was a deadly deadly Sports when you play basketball or football that you have a you have a you have a opponent so that’s exactly and the best man wins so as the year goes by them them F Traders and uh and this lson Clark was happened to be in that bun and going into the reservation and he start migrating back and forth and go out through this Yellowstone going through the Yellowstone and going through the Missouri all the way up to and we known him but we what I hear from these old people I they talked about it but not really they don’t talk that much because the Lou and Clark but they’re they talk about the lot of these F Traders and that’s that’s how I learned these and also now today as as today that we live in the crow reservation there’s so many thousands of Acres there was a power our third weekend in August and the the outfits that I was using there’s a lot of them and there’s a lot of parades going on like in Friday Saturday and and Sunday and Monday they’ve got a they call it the parade dance so as the as of today that we had these all this all this outfit that I was using that I had a you seen I’m going to talk about myself now youve seen this War Bonnet when you see the the there was an Indian was using the war Bonet in the in the magazine or book you say it was a chief and they write it down as a chief some of them it was um there’s no tail some of them has a tail the tail it was a chief at one time there was a chief and I inherited from my great great grandfather from back in I believe one two three y yeah my great great grandfather was back somewhere around about 8 late late 16 or early no late 17 or early early uh early 18 H and he beginning to be a a chief power back over in uh uh Livingston R by Livingston between Livingston and bman they had a one day they had a power and and he beginning to be a chief and as as he was a chief power and from then on it was in handed down to the generation to generation just like this my name is big day and down down as the the guy the the person that had this big day he was U he was a a warrior and he met a a different tribe and had a arm wrestling was fighting and everything and he he got the whole nine yards at that day and so that’s what they that’s why they call him he was a a big day as he was a big day that was his big day and during a time of uh over in absor or over in bman and they ask him the when they start writing the their names and when they start and they told they told the guy that he said it his name is um his name is uh big day he got the he got everything that one day so they start writing him as a big day so a lot of these crows we use in our last name an animal or a ground bird in the ground or all them uh all them all them uh native names that’s what we go about it and that’s he’s uh he achieved achievement and all that achievement and a warrior as he was a warrior they call him a big day that day and from then on on his children their last name was big day all the way up to myself and my grandchildren and my grade uh if there’s any questions feel free to ask and we if you have any questions please do raise your hand and I’ll bring the microphone around that way everyone can hear your questions question do we have any questions about Crow history and culture yes we do how do you pronounce the traditional name of the crow the traditional the traditional Crow name it’s a the the black the black bird got a big peak knows the crow you’ve seen there’s two different kind a black bird around over here one of them was a one of them is was a big got a big peak and so that’s what that’s I’m saying uh I’m one I’m the child of the a black bird got a big peak that’s any any questions where did the uh Crow Nation uh what area did they cover we’re starting it out from um where the great Leakes were run by Twin Twin Cities and we came up to the up to North Dakota and as we coming up from the North Dakota uh we’re part of the hiod dosy that’s one family so we’re splitting the sheets at that time and and one of them goes for the corn and the other one it was the tobacco the crows they it was a tobacco they’re the ones that brought the tobacco all the way up to the to the mountains and there’s where the there’s where the crows are and and they and some of the crows the the Potter River all the way up to the head of the Potter River and around by uh thopas matii around in that area we migrating there’s like I said there’s three bands Center Lodge and a mountain area and also the down the river around by m city and so this is the whole area that all the way up all the way up into PR all the way into Canada I’ll put it that way so this is the whole area that we during the winter time the Buffalo they go towards to the to Missoula TCH to the Missoula and as they’re going towards to Missoula it’s warm the weather is warm but the Snows are pretty deep but in Bosman it’s a big Valley we call them Al Big Valley in that Valley there’s elk there’s Buffalo so we migrating in there until the until the I were broken that was in last part of February or first part of March and they’re beginning to start coming through the through the mountain area where the where the where there less snow and we broke the trail and into the flat area heading towards the buildings and we migrating all the way the center Lodge it goes all the way into the big big horn Big Horn and they start uh migrating going up towards to Missoula by the time by the time they get down to Missoula they start coming up down and into bman there’s where they usually hang around by February no December December January and February around in that area and once once the once the snow kind of melts down a little bit then they’re coming coming over towards the flat area around by around in this area did you go back to the use of the tobacco what did the coronation use it for uh would you that she wanted to know what the coronation used tobacco for okay now tobacco it was a big challenge the challenge it’s a it’s a tobacco it’s a it’s a plan and they offered and they prayed as he the guy the guy that owns tobacco I adopt this this uh this man this woman that I adopted I want her him to be LIF long time time so he put it in the ground and he prays and after he was praying that tobacco goes up to 8 78 ft long yes he’s going to lift here up to 100 to 125 so if it’s not say like about 5 ft he’s not going to make it up to so it do it’s a challenge just like this uh just like this uh a put in an extension on that that challenge it’s um the where they mark their the The Rock Ledge uh what they call that The Rock Ledge with the pets the the plys I seen some books they say that it was was um thousand and many years ago but it isn’t it’s still in active it’s still the same as yesterday and today the reason why I knew about it I witnessed it because my son was an artist at the Eastern he graduated from the art uh got his bachelor’s degree on it art so he he’s an artist and he’s a painter and we were studying it and I looked at it in my in the old days when we coming back from uh this was back in 19 early 40s and when we coming back I used to horse horseback riding to no trailer so I used to ride horses to go to Prior so sometimes I come through uh we camp over in jol Ed and these old people they say that they want to look up the pet and so we I I usually go out there there was one old man was telling me that here pick this uh Sage fish and so I picked it up the sage fish and I don’t know what I’m going to do with it but she he told me to carry that and I didn’t even know that it was that powerful and it tells you the what is it going to be happening for the next 3 months what is what the weather is going to do where the powow going to be where the buffalos are going to be where the algs going to be it tells you if you go through the the route of what the procedures of the right away just like if you want to go to the bank and if you want to borrow the money you have to fill out all them papers just exactly the same thing you have to do the proper way before they could come over and communicate with you for each each day and each month they have a they’ve got a away uh to come over and our question is we we come over with the tobacco you were talking about the tobacco so the tobacco that we put it in the Peace Pipe and we and we prayed we prayed and we asked questions and we go through the procedure and about and they tell us when to coming back maybe a day or two they come we they told us to come back and you’re going to ask me who told you some way somehow they usually let us snow so yeah so that’s what it is on that any um I’ve heard that the um crazy mountains are sacred to The Crow and I know you know you may not want to talk about a lot about some of those things in public but is there anything you can tell us about the Crow’s relationship to crazies what what the crazy would you uh he wants he understands that the Crazy Mountains have some sacred significance to the Crow Nation he’s wondering if there’s anything that you can speak about in public about that relationship okay okay that’s over and just right outside of Livingston the crazy Mountain why they have to call them a crazy mountains and when the leaves were beginning to be blooming and that’s in May no first part May when the leaves were beginning to be blooming and the crows they want to go up on mountains and fast and as they going up the mountains and there’s a certain area that you past that area uh they’re not go uh the spirits are going to harm you and if you’re not go away if you’re not if you’re not going away that night you able to to have a snowbound and you come down a little further and the rain will be harm you you’re going to be soaked and W and and a cold wind and the you can’t hardly build a fire because the wind was so blowing so hard and you came down a little more then it’s so hot down the bottom a little more down down the hill so they told the crows when you go up on mountain and try to try to Vision there’s no way he doesn’t have any children he’s for himself nobody T Pentacles went up there and came back he said that was a crazy Mountain crazy Mountain so that’s so if somebody was harm you and you’re running away and you’re trying to meet him and he harms you harms you and you call that man or a woman he’s a he’s a crazy person that’s what so that’s what the Crazy Mountains is crazies so so yeah that’s that’s why they call call him crazy Mountain he doesn’t have any I’ll I’ll put it this way he doesn’t have any children if he had some children like in Prior there’ll be a lot of crows over there today we used to live over there we used to live over there and we’re migrating with the Buffalo and but it’s a long long winter I understand that Crow Nation never did battle with uh the white people that they were mainly friendly can you comment on that uh yes yes the white people once they came over it’s a it’s a long story but I’ll make it short this was before the this is during the time of the dog that I was talking about it during at that time there’s no horses and there’s no dogs there’s they Camp over by m moua and one old man went up on a mountain and he saw this right at the cloud and he saw a man blinking his eyes got a beard and got a yellow yellow eyes and a long hair that much that how far that he saw in that cloud and that man was a foot and as he was looking up there and by God I better I want to talk to him that man he’s a strange man he’s one of the clouds so so from then on he never he never had a communicate with him so he doesn’t have any communicate with him since that he does and communicate with him and about four to 5 days he came down every day he was up there for about four four to 5 days and no communication so he came down as he was came down and went down through the valley and got in a camp about he went in the sweat lot and do the proper way and about two two nights or three nights he he began to Vis uh dream he had a dream there was a bunch of ants coming over there red ones you want to kill them sure he had a dream so he got up went over there and dropped them down and killed these red ants and then there’s another one coming over he start jumping down then the second one he said you can do with these but you can’t do with this one he said all right if I can do it just bring him on over I’ll do the same thing so he does the same thing he Dr Trump these white ANS the white ones they’re coming over and there’s more coming over and there’s more coming over the third one then the fourth one he said he saw a big big water far as it can see they’ll be coming over so now today there’s a lot of white people and after that t pic CL and at that old man told T plan clues that you work with the white people you work with the white people and so they work with white people General kuster doing time of the of the battle of the Little Big Horn the crows they want to help him General kuster and general kuster he found that out he turned into to be a bad combat and after he does that and the papers hasn’t been arrived no telephone no no no Telegraph magusin no Q West either so so that day he got all his ranks back and everything and sent major Reno nearby the camp and he told him the the Indians told that we don’t want that man we want that yellow yellow one that yellow man not him so major Reno continues going into the big hor and so he so the crows there’s only 13 of them 13 of them at that day the camp crier told them that that morning the Morning Star came over the camp cry said that you crows if you’re amongst with that battle you’re going to have a u there’s seven of you going to have a bullet wound or Arrow wounds sure enough it is seven of them will got shot and they took him down to the m city and uh about a year later they brought him back they survived and so from then on uh the crows we never the reason why that they don’t fight with him because he had a the night before they’ve got a moonshine the Moonshine doesn’t asso associated with our power so that’s why we don’t battle with him anym or well time’s up yeah I think we’re uh think we’ll have that be our last question let’s thank uh Haywood big day for sharing Pro history and culture with us thank you thank you ladies and gentlemen and enjoy the Heat and feel free okay thank you Haywood and remember folks we do have program

The post Haywood Big Day on Crow history and culture appeared first on Lewis & Clark Research Database.

Howard Bogus on Crow history and Pompey’s Pillar

Wed, 11 Feb 2026 00:35:50 +0000

gentlemen welcome back to the tent of many voices we have some dedicated visitors sticking around for some of the very last programs here at Billings Montana at the pompy pillar um if you haven’t been in our tent yet welcome to the core of Discovery 2 we have been traveling for three and a half years and all the Rangers here have quite a few experiences to share with you however at this hour we have a different presenter who’s going to share with you about the Native American history here at pompy’s Pillar his name is Howard bogus and he has his own biography for an introduction so bear with me Howard bogas is an enrolled member of the Crow tribe of Indians he’s the former director of The Big Horn County Historical Museum at harden he’s a former board member of the museum Association of Montana a board member for pompy’s pillar Association here board member for Yellowstone County Lewis and Clark commission as well as the Yellowstone County Museum as well as the chief plenty coup advisory Council where he is a charter member and the frontier Heritage Alliance in 2002 he was awarded the Montana historical society’s trustees award for contributions to Montana history and Indian culture and in 2003 awarded the Montana State parks’s volunteer of the Year award for research of the core of Discovery and the crow and volunteering in changing the display at the chief plen coup Museum to involve Clark on the Yellowstone and the Crow Indians in 2004 he was awarded the Peter jagen Jr Award of achievement by museums Association of Montana for furthering museums into being more important to Montana tourism by research of the history of Montana in 2005 he began working with Elias goes ahead on researching the Battle of Arrow Creek through a grant of the frontier Heritage Alliance from American Battlefield Protection Program he has walked and mapped the old Indian Trails of Montana and studied Indian battles that were Indian to Indian the trails of Trappers in the military and Indian battles that followed and led to the trails of the immigrants that came to settle Montana one of the greatest things he had studied was the Indian drawing of the people who lived here 1,000 years ago that tell the stories of the battles the history of the life of the people their attachment to the Earth the Stars the moon the Sun and their religions excuse me one second the religious beliefs these paintings are the stories of the people and how something that was painted a thousand years ago on sstone Cliff tell us the happenings at that time many of the same images are used today on canvas by young Indian artists of today who have never studied the artwork of their people today we call them the the American Indian so let’s give Howard bogus a nice warm welcome to the tent well I say sh uh welcome U welcome to Crow country and uh you know and uh this be the which is is Poppy’s pillar we call uh p p is be a ma because of the of uh the mountain lion’s head that’s in the Sandstone up on halfway up the pillar which most people don’t get to see it’s not marked or anything but it’s very very visible right there but most people walk by it and don’t really stop and look back at it cuz it’s thing that you you see it on the way down or when you’re going up you have to stop and turn around but uh that’s what we call this place because of uh of this stone mountain lion head that’s that’s halfway up up there it’s natural just blown in by the wind and the Sandstone the weather whatever it took but uh anyway when uh C Indian people have used this pillar uh we did a little dig right out here where that piece of lawn is out there and uh in that there we found stuff 10 11,000 years old I mean so uh you know the Indian people have been using this pillar for for for a long time and uh what we what we seen was uh we found out uh there was chips there was some arrowheads uh points uh other little things but uh no it was kind of a a very neat dig and it was very neat to find out what it was I talked to a farmer here yesterday and his father farmed this area right here up right up the belly here and uh he said my dad told us he said when I broke the land we when we farmed the land he says you can still see the teepe Rings you know at this time because where people use the land it changes the color of the land it’s kind of hard for them to see them but you he like he said from from sitting on the tractor and looking straight down on them he says you can see that these or these old Tepe Rings and Things was uh cro Indian people used the Crow Indians the sue the shyenne the rapaho the shason almost all of the tribes used the Yellowstone River the Yellowstone River was the highway we didn’t use canoes none of these tribes used canoes they used horseback and they traveled Up and Down the River or they or before that they used dogs and travys to go up and down the river uh so that was the way that they was traveling here but uh one of the things that the Indian people would do uh the pillar here is is a place like no other place travel the entire Yellowstone Valley from the very far reaches of the headwaters south of Yellowstone Lake or all the way down to to to the mouth down at the Missouri you will not find another place like this pillar where there’s just a big Stone coming up out of the ground there’s none no place else uh there’s one up the other side of Livingston that I was told it was like this but I went up and it had a little neck going out to it from the hill so it had not uh got to be just an island like this pillar has uh but the croan people and all of the tribes of Indians would stop at the pillar they would rest and camp and we have to remember it was a it was a very very important Landmark very very important Landmark uh where the just on the other side of the pillar where the old bridge is that was the crit River Crossing we don’t know how many million years that River Crossing is it’s old it’s been here for a long time and uh the Indian people used it the Buffalo used it I always like to tell people I would like to sit on top of a pillar a million years ago and just see what went by that would be great for me but uh no it was this was a place that was always well used by lots of uh under the cow Indian people uh when they come up here and do the Vision Quest or prayer uh when they came to do their prayer they came before the sun rose they had to watch the sun rise and they had to say in their pray prayer thought until they could turn around in the evening and see the sun set a prayer was from sunsrise to Sunset and it was and as it was told to me if you didn’t stay and do the entire day there then your was more than likely then your prayers would not would not be heard and listened to and and would not come true for you and your prayers is always something that you did so that you could uh set the guiding lines of your life uh so that uh you you would kind of wish for things or you would and a prayer wasn’t always said for just myself if I if I go to there to do a prayer I don’t say it for myself myself I say it a lot of times I will sit there and I will include all my friends or other people that I know that need help or from or for my tribe people uh so you know a prayer wasn’t for just you a Vision Quest was a thing that was done by the C Indian people on the pillar when you do a Vision Quest normally they’re done three days and three nights there’s no uh if we don’t do the full three days and three nights then more than likely your vision uh Quest won’t come true either a Vision Quest is is is is something that you do to see what what’s going to happen in my life ahead of time you know uh am I going to be an important person or I’m just going to be somebody no nobody nobody or what am I going to do am I going to do things or not and and most of the time uh people who did their Vision quests uh they they did them and when you did your vision quest at that time you had to feel the physical pain and uh the physical pain is from Sun the wind the rain the cold of of the night you have to suffer all of these pains and uh when you did a long time ago uh two the stor that was told me when you did A Vision Quest you was only allowed a small piece of buck skin to set on that was all you were not not not allowed no clothing or anything such as that and uh Vision Quest have changed a little bit uh I think to this very time uh but uh but the crow people still do pray go out to do prayers they they still go out to do Vision quests I just talked to a young man yesterday and he said you know he says we I need to go out and do this just by myself he said so I can sit and learn more about myself what the what what the prayer and The Vision Quest really was a lot of it was about uh was to learn more about yourself to get to know yourself and to really to get to like yourself you know if you don’t like you why should anybody else and that’s that’s the way the old Indian people looked at it I mean is that I have that I have to do things for people uh so that I am liked uh like uh Indian people do a lot of gift giving they give gifts all of the time and uh when I give a gift I mean it’s I never want walk up and say I gave that to you no when I gave you the gift I give everything away for it I don’t have anything in my mind ever that I ever owned that or was ever Min No I gave I gave everything away uh one of the things that happened uh it makes the cro Indian people pluz was one of these people you know Chief plenus who was the last chief of the croan people he wore a headdress went all the way to his heels had lots of eagle feathers on it and uh say I wanted to honor Mr pluz and I had five eagle feathers and I would say well you know I I’ll give these three eagle feathers to Mr pluz and I know why I got each one of my eagle feathers I had to earn my eagle feathers you do not wear an eagle feather unless you earn that eagle feather and uh but anyway if if you want when when you gifted these eagle feathers to Mr pus and I went out and I stole the I said I stole no crow never say they stole a horse we captured a horse we didn’t steal horses we captured horses it was an honorable thing for us to do in our standings was a very honorable capturing horse it’s one of the most honorable things you could do okay but uh when I went out and I captured this horse I touched this Brave and I did something for each one of these feathers when I give the feathers to Mr PLU I give all rights to these feathers and plenty cou can say when I stole this Cheyenne horse when I stole this Sue when I touched this Sue in battle or I I or I fought the arapa hole and I earned this feather them stories are are plenty cruises they totally belong to him they’re totally out of my mind forever I cannot ever say I did this I want if I talk about I’ll say when Mr pyus did this I never claimed it in any in any way and that’s the way gift giving is amongst the cian people when we give a gift it’s it’s isn’t that we we don’t hold no no ties to it at all but uh on the pillar up here uh it’s got some very very interesting sites on it uh uh it’s a virtual history book the pillar is from the Indians uh back to the days of the shield bearing Warrior they’re painted on the on on the pillar up here back to if you if you read Mr Clark’s diary I wrote I I carved my name into the pillar and when I carved my name into the pillar there was two painted Indian paint painted markers right here there are two Shields a red shield and a gold shield and both within two feet of the left hand uh side of his of his uh signature so but the Indian people have been using the pillar like I say F uh 10,000 years we know because of the items that’s been found right here at the very base of the pillar uh in in our own collections at home we got lots of photographs of the of the pillar and things uh there’s some very interesting ones uh according to the Diaries uh but Mr Clark did not allow his men to sign the sign sign the pillar but uh we have a photograph at home and his cross tomahawks like this and uh and this photo was taken back in I’m not sure just how long ago it was published in a book that was published 1951 and uh but anyway it said that the the the men who were with Clark on the Expedition carved the cross tomahawks for Saka Jia now in Crow we say sagawa so every time that you go to a different reservation it’s going to be said to you differently because we don’t talk the same and Zakia when I look at that that that’s kind of a French it’s more of a French word we don’t we don’t have any kind of words like that in our Co tribe so we just say sagawa um in our Crow stories uh there was a young lady that was captured by the crow by the cow Indian people uh she lived with a crow approximately two years and uh when she lived with the cro Indian people she uh you know she was she was she was uh she was treated well uh she but but the thing of it is at that period of time when if you captured a woman then you then most of the time time you would use her take her down and and you would use her her she would be tray goods and there’s very possibility CH chance that Zakia was probably captured by The Crow and then taken down and then traded uh in the stories that I have at home so it’s it’s you know there’s there’s different theories of of of uh how she came about all we know is that it it was sure was lucky for Lis and Clark that she did because they have never made it without her but I I I always have looked up here for that but there’s a rig Rock that’s caved off in the last 50 years or so up here and I suspected that’s probably where that cross tomahawks was at and how old that photograph is we don’t know and I’ve never seen the original photograph only the print that’s in this magazine that was like I say was painted in 1951 but the crow people would come here and do their prayers and stuff they would paint their the shields uh most of the shields that are on this pillar for some reason are are gold and uh I’ve been I’ve been researching uh Shields and stuff up and down the valley paintings carvings in the Rocks we have found over 400 in this Valley here uh and that doesn’t mean it’s a short distance that means from for Sight all the way up the Yellowstone then tributaries but when you studied the paintings you always kind of look to try to figure out what does the painting mean uh when I was a child I first time I came to pomp spell was 1946 came here with my mother reason we came here my we my we was going to we was living at Warden Montana my dad worked up here at the experimental farm for about a year and a half two years and uh but the reason we was over there was uh my mother took me along and because she didn’t want to set up throughout the entire day completely by herself but she came we came early that morning and stayed the entire day and it was to say thank you because she had four sons and three brothers returned from World War II that’s what it was for and uh places like this are still being used like that for the by the Indian people uh no we very much believe in doing pray prayers prayers and uh and and things yet today it’s a and different families have different places that they go we don’t all go the same place but what wherever we do generally go it’s a different type of a place like I say this pillar is the only one in this Valley so so that makes it you know totally different than any place El and when I did my vision quest uh I was taken up there by a clan uncle and an uncle and when I did my vision quest um I was taken up on a a pred eagal point and I was left there for the for the three days and three nights you know it’s it’s it’s in a way it’s it’s a very scary thing to do because you have to be less than 10 you have to be about 10 years old you have to do your first Vision Quest before the time of puberty uh Vision quests are done by both men and women so it’s not something that just one one one of us does uh a lot of times some sometimes people will uh a man and a wife they’ll go out on to to do something and maybe they will be within sight of one another but they’ll saay their time and do their prayer and stuff but they don’t talk to one another they don’t visit I mean they just both sat there and uh like I say the whole thing the whole thing about it is to think about what’s going on in your life what is going on in the life of the crow people what’s going to the in on in the life of your neighbor or maybe you have a young friend that’s not doing very good you sit and you do your prayer for all of them but like I say you have to go from the sunrise to the sunset for it to come true uh when I came used to come up I mean we we walked up an old trail we started up right there in the corner there and actually it goes up underneath the stairway about four different times you cross the original trail that the Indians people been using for thousands of years uh when you go up the the the the stairs but uh one the the croan people we had at one time we know for sure that we there was three bands of the Crow Indian people there was a kick in the belly who were on the Powder River they were on the Plat River across NE Nebraska uh they were all actually on the Plat River and uh according to uh superintendent records from 1850 uh the superintendent records talk about the coow people being almost near the Missouri River down the plat so they was they was very far east at one time uh through the superintendent records which kept track of the tribes in the 18 50s the crow people were near near Minnesota they were near uh Iowa it was in in eastern South Dakota it was in in h in the panhandle of Nebraska Northeastern Colorado and Wyoming so theyve were scattered over a pretty large area uh in the treaty Treaty of uh when they C Indian signed their first treaty was United States government and when they signed that treaty in 1827 or 1826 I’m sorry when they signed the treaty in 1826 the cro Indian people didn’t give nothing to the United States government the United States government asked for nothing it was a treaty of peace between two Nations the United States government recognized the crow the crow as a nation and uh it’s the same as we have treaties with Nations today but uh that was the first treaty we signed and then it was in the 18 1851 we started uh working on the the second treaty well at that time well maybe I be back here a minute Treaty of 18 26 uh when uh everybody was all the treaty was all signed and everything all it came back up they they asked the croan leaders they say well where do you live where did we find you I had no idea as where we were and uh at that time they told them they said the crow set our lodges with four main poles we we are the only tribe that uses four poles rest of the tribes all use three for their main poles yeah we have the bear cougar um The Owl and uh can’t put the other one right off hand but uh we have the four main poles all named and they and we get power from all of from all of these oh the other one’s the bear I see bear okay but anyway when uh we set up our our our four poles we set up our first pole near the mouth of the Yellowstone River across the river we set up our second pole in the gap for the Buffalo come through the gap for the Buffalo come through I’ve researched it for 25 years and I finally had a a person who used to live over there uh she was a work for the National Park Service over there and I was telling her about that one day and she says oh I know where that’s at Buffalo Gap South Dakota it’s on the Southeast corner of the Black Hills that’s where the second pole was set and then the third pole uh was set at uh the gurgling Waters and the gurgling Waters uh is is south of Green River w in near the continental divide the fourth pole was set at the near the Three Forks of the Missouri the headwaters of the Missouri where the Three Rivers come come together that’s where the four po do come from but they sit but you know you remember a lodge is round so the lodge goes out much further than the poles and uh the crows were on the Milk River going up into can Canada it was at the headwaters uh they were way up the Missouri River uh going up to Sun River we have records of them being of the crow living on the Sun River which is now near Blackfoot reservation and uh at that time that they was constantly fighting with the black feet over to keep the Sun River area and then to the Southwest I mean we was they was fighting the the shonne to keep that corner of the of of of of their land so the crow were they were uh they were constantly on a move they never stayed in any place very long because they was always moving here they would go over here and they would move the shonne back go over here move the black beet back come over here move the Cabo back the sue the shyen they was always trying to keep their borders and uh what actually happened is the small poox 1838 uh when the small pox came up on steamship uh it uh what actually happened was uh 10 days out of St Louis the captain noticed that this one guy was kind of ill Captain immediately recognized the man as having small pox when he uh he quarantined this guy put him in a little room stay there there don’t bother nobody don’t touch nothing stay away from everybody but in at that time the the steam ships did not travel at night they always tied up at night so everybody went to bed at night well this guy that had the small poox would get up he would separate his blankets these will be traded to the Sue these will be Cheyenne the shonne will like these all of the different tribes because we all like different colors we like different designs he knew which ones it want he was separating his blankets this is how the small pox got into the blankets by the man getting up at night with the small pox handling the blankets all of his trade goods at that time it’s hard to believe but the Northern Plains Indians were almost 70% destroyed near 70% % over one man having a small pox and trading his Goods uh Billings Montana there’s a place up there that that we call uh where there’s a burial site where where many many of the crow people are buried that had that got the small pox so I I say you know uh Little Things grew into great big things you know it’s hard to believe that uh that one man getting the small having the small pox moving these Goods around he destroyed 70% of of of the of American PLS Indians because we have to remember at that time all of the trade all of the tribes of Indians went to Fort Union to trade and we all knew what time to be there the year when we went to the trade we got along when we got back to our own country then we was back we was into the territorial thing again and uh when we when we got to get being in our territorial things in we was very bit bitter enemies but when we was there we got along we we didn’t camp together but but we tolerated one another uh one of the things that many of the Traders would do up there they would say okay the Sue can come in today and trade tomorrow the black feet can come in and trade the next day the crow can come in and trade or the Asino they would let the tribes come in One Tribe tribe at a time so that they wouldn’t be arguing over the the goods or anything and one was always probably thinking that the other got more for his than the other one so there was a lot of little things like that took place but I’ve uh been doing history near all of my life I’ve actually got papers at home that I started collecting when I was seven eight years old uh from Robbie Robbie yellow tale I have papers from him to me they’re very very valuable Today curlyy Was A Good Friend of Robbie yellow tale when she was young she was his secretary and did all of his typing but uh I don’t how time do am I getting in my time here okay maybe I better stop for some questions then okay well is there any questions that uh anybody like here on this I I always enjoy yes okay there was the kick in the belly the river Crow and the mountain Crow but uh like I say you know they were spread out very very long long distance uh when I uh started studying the paintings that the Indians have painted here I go to one painting that is carbon dated 950 to 1,000 years old it is Crow stories on painting it’s it’s my Crow family our Crow life our our things that we believe in for every day that one painting is 950 to 1,000 years old so the crow have been here for a long time I in my own way of thinking I don’t believe that the mountain Crow ever ever left the mountains I think the river Crow went into Dakotas Minnesota into Canada that was the river Co I believe that the kick in the belly were the ones who made the journeys to the South because we have uh in our Crow stories we have we have stories actually uh where we was probably more than likely in Alabama Louisiana Tex southern Texas uh the according to them stories they they say this they these people left and it took them five generations to return 100 years 100 years yes okay hold on let me come to you so we can all hear you up is the pictograph State Park some wonderful artwork up there could you tell us a little bit about what took place there and who did that artwork what tribes uh okay he’s acting about pictograph state park near billing south Billings great place to go visit uh it’s it’s an easy place to get to pictographs most of the places you you climb over rocks and climb up mountains and side Hills and sand and dirt and whatever to get up to them but that is very very easy to get to since they got good trails and stuff going up to them but no there’s a okay the turtle is on is is is in there the turtle is uh our calendar we it it has you know how many of you how many of you have countered the the blocks on a turtle’s back yeah there’s all in in in in our River Turtles here there’s always 13 okay that’s our calendar in the early uh Indian people when they was using the Buffalo hides to uh make their lodges they use poles uh there’s thir you know we have 13 full moons so I mean 13 is a very very good number for croan people I am not superstitious about 13 or 12 when I got 13 I’m always kind of delighted you have any other questions just uh raise your hand we’ll get a ranger to you with the microphone okay is there any uh animosity between the river Crow and the mountain Crow oh boy well let’s put it this way a mountain CW oh I see them River Crow no we get along but you know there’s tradition there uh 1871 when United States military went down into the lower Yellowstone Country gathered up the river Crow and they brought them back up here the mountain Crow were already at Fort Parker and the crow called Fort Parker where where we lined our our lodges in a in in a straight line and that’s what they called Fort Parker but anyway when they brought the river Crow up there they was just going to let the the river Crow set their lodges up in the in in in a line straight across from them well before the sun set that night they had every man woman and child that could carry a r a rifle in between the river Crow and the mountain Crow because we were going to go to war we were going to fight in 1868 treaty the mountain Crow were given a treaty up here the 1868 treaty that the river Crow signed with the Asino they was given a Tre given a reservation on the mouth of the Yellowstone up The Milk River so the mountain Crow didn’t want to share with the river Crow because they had a reservation already yeah no we and it’s still when when you go down to Council today if you go to the council River Crow and Mountain Crow uh the kick and the belly Clan I I’ll just get into the kick and a belly Clan right now the kick and a belly Clan uh in about 1850 in in the 1850s they had had so much pressure put on them by this Cheyenne coming from the north out of Kansas the Sue who were in in Kansas and eastern Kansas were coming to the north they was put so much uh pressure on the on the Sue or the crow that was on the on the Plat River then that they started moving to the north moved over onto the Powder River then they was finally given so much pressure onto on the Powder River that they moved over the Big Horn mountains into the Big Horn Basin with the mountain Crow and uh what I’ve been told that uh that within the recent years here now that the river Crow I mean the the kick in the belly Clans are completely gone so we don’t no longer have 13 clans because we uh well Crow had a had a clan system okay our clan system was that uh I’m a whistling water so my mother was a whistling water my grandmother was a whistling water my great-grandmother is a whistling water and uh you always get you always become a member of your mother Clan never your father’s Clan you are a whistling water and the child of your father’s Clan whatever your father’s Clan was of the of the of the 13 clans yes play else hold on let me come over here I’m always interested in lame College a wonderful Indian college and uh I just I noticed you were talking a while ago about these tribes coming together uh could you tell us a little bit about how that lame Deer College uh came to be over there in that area and uh is this where the tribes came together that you were just talking about when when the reservation was established okay he wanted to do about how the dull knife College come came about over at Lamer well uh I’m not really for sure I mean they through they start out with federal grants and then uh then we we have to run them off of actually other grant money that people donate to the to the colleges uh almost every reservation has got at least one college uh the Sue have three colleges it’s be and the reason why they have three is because they have one in Southeastern South Dakota they have one in northeastern South Dakota and one up in North Dakota so that they’re and and that’s where they’re they there they the Sue is uh they call themselves bands uh there’s seven bands of Sue and and they’re pretty well scattered but uh no the the crow have have their college Little Big Horn college and it’s basically run on the same situation as the doll knife is uh roseb on on on in in uh roseb and uh in on the Sue reservation they’re all the same I mean uh they are constantly on the search for for dollars to keep their doors open yes anybody else um how did the Indians make their paints how did Indians make their paint okay I’ve really been looking into that and trying to figure it out and my own theory is and uh stories that I have been told by Elders from a long time ago they use the ochers that are in the Sandstone the ochers in the Sandstone are tree roots there’s there’s uh several different we have to remember at one time this this was swamp I mean this there was a lot of you know swampy type vegetation up in this country there’s a lot of water up here and uh this was million years millions of years ago but anyway what uh what ochre is it where I found it is in sand rock and it’s a tree root and it was probably just sand at at the time when a tree grew there 65 million years ago and then when and I’ve I’ve always wondered how they mixed it I was told that they would take their saliva their urine their blood to mix mix it because you know them are the three things that probably stain worse than anything in the world and they get that mixed in with there and I’ll tell you these guys didn’t pack a jug of water along with them they didn’t have a water bottle and uh when they went up there to draw these paintings they used whatever they had and their urine was pretty probably pretty handy but I’ve always said and uh and I would like to see it pro in one of these days but I really feel that there’s a possibility you could take a paint chip off of these thousand to 10,000 year old paintings and get DNA okay anybody else are the little people just on the crow reservation or are they on other reservations too well we kind of her her question was is the crow people on the crow reservation or other reservation yes we’ve inter married into other reservations and really and that’s nothing new uh the Clark Fork River of the on the ystone which is just south of uh of uh Laurel Montana Clark Fork on the river is known as the valley where we all came to dance that mean the Cheyenne came there the Sue came there all of the tribes came in the crow we all got along in there they done Sund dances in that Valley there was also marriages took place between the tribes and so people moved into with with other tribes in the very very early days as they still do today we have time for one more question if there’s one out there otherwise you’re also welcome to ask Mr Bogus any questions you have after the program yes sir uh would you say that after all these hundreds of years there has been a like a formal type of healing between what was done to your people by the white Invaders I mean has any uh ceremony been done that would more or less res resolv I mean is there any hard feelings left even now after 100 of years or has that been pretty well healed up now well I’ll tell you what as I was taught in my life you know you don’t dwell on these things that happened to you a long time ago they happened we today we ain’t got nothing we to say to change it any no we don’t really dwell on it no we do we do have a a little fit once in a while and we think you know we really got cheated out of this and we really got cheated out of that cuz you you take now remember I just how much how many millions of Acres I just described to you as what the original Crow Nation was uh in the trade in the Treaty of 18 1851 we was 39.4 Million acres in the Treaty of 1851 now we are less than 3 million Acres we treated it all of the way to the United States government with a broken promise I’ve Al I I brought my shield bought this with me today this is my little and Clark metal this is the type of a metal was that was taken I’ve always looked at this very very funny and thought about this I have a pipe that’s upside down Indian people when I turned my pipe upside down I dumped out all of the piece there’s no more piece left in that pipe I also have a tomahawk I bash in somebody’s head with Tomahawk I have two military uniforms that always tells me the United States government wanted to break the peace they wanted to fight bring in the military they did and it’s all all of it was on this medal this is a medal that Mr Jefferson sent with ls and Clark so like I say it’s always been a broken promise with the government with with the Indian people but you know we don’t dwell on you know hey we like we like new cars we like to get on the airplane fly to Washington DC you know used to be we went to Washington DC you know I I mean just just a journey back there you know that was was that two- Monon thing for us to go back to Washington DC now we fly in on Monday morning we’re home home on Wednesday night Mr Bogus thank you we all thank Mr Bogus for coming to the tent all right if you all have any further questions for him you’re welcome to address them at any time after the program we have about 10 minutes before we start our next presentation it will be the ethnic diversity of the core by one of our very own Rangers Trent Redfield

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