The Crow of the West

Tribe: The Crow, who call themselves the "Apsaalooke" and, alternately, the "Absaroka."

Meaning of Name:  The name "Apsaalooke" means "Children of the Large-Beaked Bird" in the language of the Hidatsa, a neighboring Sioux tribe. The French translators translated "Apsaalooke" as "Gens du Corbeaux," or "People of the Crows." When French was translated into English, the "Crows" remained.

Location: At one time, the Crow were semi-nomadic hunters and farmers who lived near Lake Erie in the Ohio Valley.  Then they were pushed north by the more aggressive Ojibwe and Cree to Lake Winnipeg in Canada.  After that, they were pushed west by the Cheyenne, and then both the Crow and the Cree were pushed further west by the Lakota Sioux to parts of North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming. Once they got to Yellowstone Valley, they got tired of being pushed around, so they  scooted over the Shoshone who lived in Yellowstone, acquired horses from the Comanche who had gotten them from the Spanish, took up semi-permanent residence and started hunting buffalo. The Crow currently live in Montana.

Original Language: Siouan.

Tribal Affiliations: Hidatsa, Shoshone, Salish, Koontenai, Nez Perce, Kutenai, Kiowa, Mandans, and Americans, whom they saw would eventually come to dominate their land. They also traded with the Comanche for horses.

Traditional Enemies: Ojibwe, Cree, Cheyenne, Lakota, Blackfoot, Gros Ventre, Nakota, Pawnee, Ute, and Arapaho.

Traditional Style of Housing: The Crow erected some of the tallest and largest teepees on the Plains, some as wide as about 20'-25' across, perhaps to allow the horses to come in or to draw attention to themselves. These teepees had four poles each and were often painted, with an opening in the top for the smoke to get out, and sometimes, whole extended families lived therein. Because they were so large, they were probably erected with the help of some of the men of the tribe.

Traditional Attire: While the Crow women wore their hair short and were usually attired in long plain deerskin dresses, leggings and moccasins, the Crow men were the peacocks of the Yellowstone River Valley. They wore woolen leggings imported from Europe, individualistic and colorfully-beaded and fringed breech-cloths, colorfully-beaded and fringed shirts, colorfully-beaded vests and moccasins that went up to their shins, and fancy robes. The men also wore long eagle-feather headdresses, ornate porky roaches, necklaces, beaded headbands, face-paint and tattoos. The most notable thing about the Crow men was their shiny bear-greased hair, which they grew very long and wore in braids decorated with strips of beaver or otter fur, pipes and feathers. They were known particularly for their upswept bangs that were painted in white, and possibly other colors. Think Elvis Presley's, James Dean's or Robert Pattinson's hair in the "Twilight" movies. Their beadwork was especially colorful, and each color represented something found in nature. Pink meant "sunrise," red meant "sunset," yellow meant "sun," blue meant "sky," white meant "clouds," "rain" or "sleet" and black meant "the death of an enemy." Sometimes they would outline the color in white beads just to accentuate them.

Traditional Foods:  The Crow men hunted buffalo, bighorn sheep, mountain goats, deer, elk, and bear.  The Crow women made pemmican and gathered elderberries, service berries (aka "choke cherries," and "juneberries,") Buffalo berries, crabapples, cranberries, raspberries, rhubarb, wild plums, corn, beaver, rabbit, moose, wild turnips, and Saskatoon berries, which are sweet and nutty berries that are now promoted as "Superfruits."

Position of Women: Even though they became a hunting-and-gathering tribe, they had originally been agrarian, and as such, the Crow were a matrilineal society. Women owned their own teepees, inherited land and goods, and were just as likely to be the healers, the chiefs and the lawmakers as the men. Some were even warriors. Crow men, when they married, went to live in the teepees of their wives and their mothers-in-law, and descent was reckoned through the female line. The Crow were very welcoming toward Two-Spirits, whom they called "bate," pronounced "ba-tay."

Crow Courtship:  Not much was found about Crow courtship patterns except that they used horses to "purchase" a bride. However, if the potential bride didn't want to marry the young man in question, she didn't have to, and the horses were probably discretely returned to him. My guess is also that since the women owned their own teepees, prospective or existing grooms were strongly advised to kill enough bison to give skins to their fiancées, wives or mothers so that they could make their enormous teepees, or they would be living with her mother for the rest of their lives. And divorces were easy to obtain.

Interesting Tidbits: The Crow had very large packs of dogs for pulling travois, as early warning systems, as small game-hunting companions and as pets. Then, once the Crow started using horses as pack animals, the dogs were still used for early warning systems, as hunting companions and as pets.... In 1914, the Crow had 40,000 horses, the largest herd on the Plains, and at least 600 dogs.

Traditional Religions: the Crow Way, the Tobacco Society and Christianity.

The Crow and Slavery: Like most of the People of the Plains, they probably took slaves during raids and used them for doing menial labor or for trade.

Current Population: There are more than 12,000 registered Crow.

Current Sources of Tribal Revenue: Land is leased to gas, oil and coal companies, as well as to ranchers for their herds of cattle, and the Crow do have casinos. Nonetheless, they still have a high unemployment and poverty rate.

Famous Crow: None that I have heard of.