Crows

(Ethnol.) A tribe of Indians of the Dakota stock, living in Montana; -- also called Upsarokas.

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The Crow Indians of Montana call themselves Apsáalooke, or "Children of the Large-Beaked Bird." This term was erroneously translated as "Crow" by early European traders and has since been their English name. The ancestors of the Crows were affiliated with the Hidatsa of the upper Missouri River. In the late 1400s they migrated westward, coming to control southeastern Montana and northeastern Wyoming. Historically, the Crows were nomadic hunters and warriors who lived in tipis, traveled in search of game, primarily buffalo, and fought intertribal battles over honors and horses.

The Crows were divided into three political bands: the Mountain Crows, who lived along the Yellowstone River; the River Crows, who occupied the territory north of the Yellowstone River; and the Kicked in the Bellies, who moved about the Bighorn Basin of Wyoming.

By the 1700s the Crows were important middlemen in an intertribal trade network. To the east they traded horses and products of the hunt with the Hidatsa and Mandan for agricultural goods and European trade items, especially the gun. To the west they traded with the Shoshones and Nez Perce for horses, decorative shells, and edible roots.

In the mid-1800s, other native groups, especially the Lakotas and their allies, had moved into Crow territory. In response, the Crows often assisted the U.S. military against a common enemy and to maintain control of their land. With the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, the Crows gradually came under the control of the federal government.

Their present reservation is a mere 2.2 million acres, compared to the 38 million acres they once controlled. In 2000 their population was slightly more then 10,000 individuals, with most living on or near the reservation. Contemporary Crow people have accepted some Euro-American practices and beliefs, but they continue to utilize their native language and culture.

Bibliography

Frey, Rodney. The World of the Crow Indians: As Driftwood Lodges. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1987.

Hoxie, Frederick E. Parading Through History: The Making of the Crow Nation in America, 1805–1935. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995.

Lowie, Robert Harry. The Crow Indians. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1983.

McCleary, Timothy P. The Stars We Know: Crow Indian Astronomy and Lifeways. Prospect Heights, Ill.: Waveland Press, 1997.

Medicine Crow, Joseph. From the Heart of the Crow Country: The Crow Indians' Own Stories. New York: Orion Books, 1992.

—Timothy P. McCleary