Crow Indian Reservation

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Crow Indian Reservation
Indian reservation
Crow Reservation, Montana.jpg
Welcome sign
Flag of the Crow Nation.svg
Flag
0845R Crow Reservation Locator Map.svg
Location in Montana
Tribe Crow (Apsáalooke)
Country United States
State Montana
Counties Big Horn
Treasure
Yellowstone
EstablishedMay 7, 1868
Headquarters Crow Agency
Government
[1]
 • BodyCrow Tribe Executive Branch
 • Chairman Frank White Clay
 • Vice-ChairmanLawrence Decrane
 • SecretaryLevi Black Eagle
 • Vice-SecretaryChannis D. Whiteman
Area
 • Total3,606.54 sq mi (9,340.9 km2)
 • Land3,593.56 sq mi (9,307.3 km2)
Population
 (2017) [2]
 • Total7,096
 • Density2.0/sq mi (0.76/km2)
GDP$1.9 Billion (2018)
Website crow-nsn.gov
Crow Tribe landforms near Lodge Grass, Montana. Crow Reservation 14.jpg
Crow Tribe landforms near Lodge Grass, Montana.
Ranch lands and prairie near Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, part of the Crow Indian Reservation, 1973 RANCH LANDS AND PRAIRIE NEAR CUSTER BATTLEFIELD, PART OF THE CROW INDIAN RESERVATION - NARA - 549157.jpg
Ranch lands and prairie near Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, part of the Crow Indian Reservation, 1973

The Crow Indian Reservation is the homeland of the Crow Tribe. Established 1868, [3] [4] the reservation is located in parts of Big Horn, Yellowstone, and Treasure counties in southern Montana in the United States. The Crow Tribe has an enrolled membership of approximately 11,000, of whom 7,900 reside in the reservation. 20% speak Crow as their first language. [5]

Contents

The reservation, the largest of the seven Indian reservations in Montana, is located in south-central Montana, bordered by Wyoming to the south and the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation to the east. The reservation includes the northern end of the Bighorn Mountains, Wolf Mountains, and Pryor Mountains. The Bighorn River flows north from the Montana-Wyoming state line, joining the Little Bighorn just east of Hardin. Part of the reservation boundary runs along the ridgeline separating Pryor Creek and the Yellowstone River. The city of Billings is approximately 10 miles (16 km) northwest of the reservation boundary.

It has a land area of 3,593.56 square miles (9,307.3 km2) and a total area of 3,606.54 square miles (9,340.9 km2), [6] making it either the fifth or sixth-largest reservation in the country (alternating with the Standing Rock Reservation depending on whether water areas are counted). Reservation headquarters are in Crow Agency, Montana.

History

The reservation is located in old Crow country. In August 1805, fur trader Francois-Antoine Larocque camped at the Little Bighorn River and traveled through the area with a Crow group. [7]

The contemporary reservation lies at the center of the Crow Indian territory described in the 1851 Fort Laramie treaty. [8]

Pressure from Europeans north of Yellowstone River and a Lakota (Sioux) invasion into Crow treaty guaranteed land from the east (the lead-up to Red Cloud's War) [9] made the 1860s a trying time for the Crow. "Oglalas under Crazy Horse and Red Cloud and Hunkpapas and Minneconjous under Sitting Bull continued to follow the dwindling buffalo herds west from the Powder River, while gold seekers travelled north into the [Crow] region along the Bozeman [Trail]."[ citation needed ] Steamboats on the Missouri River brought additional prospectors into the Yellowstone area. [10] The situation called for a new Crow treaty.

On May 7, 1868, the Crow sold around 30 million acres of their 1851 territory and agreed to live in a reservation. [11] The border to the south was the 45th degree of north latitude, while the 107th degree of longitude west was the eastern border. Both borderlines met the Yellowstone at a point. The connection of these two points followed the course of the river and made up the last border of the 1868 reservation. [12] It comprised about eight million acres. [11]

Major F. D. Pease was the first civil agent at the Crow reservation, from 1870 to 1874. [13]

Land cessions to the United States approved in 1882, 1892 and 1906 cut the western and northernmost part of the 1868 reservation. [14]

Crow chief Plenty Coups, Robert Yellowtail and others stopped efforts to open the reservation in 1917. In a hotel room in Washington, D.C., they opened a bundle over the incense of buffalo chips from animals in the National Zoo and prayed for help. "The next day the attempted appropriation of their land was soundly defeated." [15]

Yellowtail made headlines when he became superintendent of his own tribe's reservation in 1934, the first Indian to do so. [16]

The reservation got its present shape after moderate land cuts in 1937 and in connection with the construction of the Bighorn Canyon Dam in the 1960s. [17]

During the 1960s, Pauline Small became the first woman Crow reservation tribal official. [18]

The value of the enormous amount of coal under the surface in the old tribal territory became clear to the reservation Crows after the Arab Oil Embargo in the 1970s. [19] The Crow Tribe owns 1.4 billion tons of coal, enough to supply the United States for a year. [20] The reservation's Absaloka coal mine provides half of the tribe's nonfederal budget. [21] The single-pit mine opened in 1974 and employs 170 people. [21] The decline of coal mining in the United States has forced the tribe to lay off 1,000 of its 1,300 employees. [21] Every tribal citizen receives a $225 coal payment every four months. [21] Half of the reservation's adult population is unemployed. [20]

In 2013, the tribe and Cloud Peak Energy agreed to open the Big Metal mine, which would have brought the company $10 million in revenue over the first five years. [21] President Barack Obama blocked the mine and then imposed a moratorium on any new coal leasing on public lands. [21] In March 2017, the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation sued Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to stop his attempt to lift the moratorium. [21]

Communities

Historic places and attractions

Chief Plenty Coups (Alek-Chea-Ahoosh) State Park and Home museum Plenty coups state park museum201008.JPG
Chief Plenty Coups (Alek-Chea-Ahoosh) State Park and Home museum

The biggest attraction in the reservation is the Little Bighorn National Monument. On June 25, 1876, combined forces from the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes defeated the Seventh Cavalry Regiment commanded by George Armstrong Custer. Local Crow scouts defending their reservation guided Custer. [22]

Chief Plenty Coups (Alek-Chea-Ahoosh) State Park and Home is located near the town of Pryor. It has a small museum dedicated to Chief Plenty Coups and the Crow Tribe. The chief's two-floor lodge house and grocery store is preserved. [23]

Notable events

Since 1904, the Crow have organized the big Crow Fair, forming the "Teepee Capital of the World". By tradition, it is held the third week in August. [24]

The PBS TV series Reading Rainbow partially filmed its tenth episode, "The Gift of the Sacred Dog", on the reservation on June 17, 1983. The title was based on a book by Paul Goble and was narrated by actor Michael Ansara.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crow people</span> Indigenous ethnic group in North America

The Crow, whose autonym is Apsáalooke, also spelled Absaroka, are Native Americans living primarily in southern Montana. Today, the Crow people have a federally recognized tribe, the Crow Tribe of Montana, with an Indian reservation, the Crow Indian Reservation, located in the south-central part of the state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crow Agency, Montana</span> Census designated place in Montana, United States

Crow Agency is a census-designated place (CDP) in Big Horn County, Montana, United States and is near the actual location for the Little Bighorn National Monument and re-enactment produced by the Real Bird family known as Battle of the Little Bighorn Reenactment. The population was 1,616 at the 2010 census. It is the governmental headquarters of the Crow Nation Native Americans. It is also the location of the "agency offices" where the federal Superintendent of the Crow Indian Reservation and his staff interacts with the Crow Tribe, pursuant to federal treaties and statutes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tongue River (Montana)</span> River in Wyoming and Montana, United States

The Tongue River is a tributary of the Yellowstone River, approximately 265 mi (426 km) long, in the U.S. states of Wyoming and Montana. The Tongue rises in Wyoming in the Big Horn Mountains, flows generally northeast through northern Wyoming and southeastern Montana, and empties into the Yellowstone River at Miles City, Montana. Most of the course of the river is through the beautiful and varied landscapes of eastern Montana, including the Tongue River Canyon, the Tongue River breaks, the pine hills of southern Montana, and the buttes and grasslands that were formerly the home of vast migratory herds of American bison.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Red Cloud's War</span> Part of the Sioux Wars

Red Cloud's War was an armed conflict between an alliance of the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Northern Arapaho peoples against the United States and the Crow Nation that took place in the Wyoming and Montana territories from 1866 to 1868. The war was fought over control of the western Powder River Country in present day north-central Wyoming.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868)</span> US-Sioux treaty ending Red Clouds War

The Treaty of Fort Laramie is an agreement between the United States and the Oglala, Miniconjou, and Brulé bands of Lakota people, Yanktonai Dakota, and Arapaho Nation, following the failure of the first Fort Laramie treaty, signed in 1851.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sioux Wars</span> Conflicts between the United States and indigenous Sioux tribes from 1854 to 1891

The Sioux Wars were a series of conflicts between the United States and various subgroups of the Sioux people which occurred in the later half of the 19th century. The earliest conflict came in 1854 when a fight broke out at Fort Laramie in Wyoming, when Sioux warriors killed 31 American soldiers in the Grattan Massacre, and the final came in 1890 during the Ghost Dance War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bozeman Trail</span> Protected area

The Bozeman Trail was an overland route in the Western United States, connecting the gold rush territory of southern Montana to the Oregon Trail in eastern Wyoming. Its important period was from 1863 to 1868. While the major part of the route used by Bozeman Trail travelers in 1864 was pioneered by Allen Hurlbut, it was named after John Bozeman. Many miles of the Bozeman Trail in present Montana followed the tracks of Bridger Trail, opened by Jim Bridger in 1864.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Treaty of Fort Laramie (1851)</span> Treaty on territorial claims of Native Americans

The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851 was signed on September 17, 1851 between United States treaty commissioners and representatives of the Cheyenne, Sioux, Arapaho, Crow, Assiniboine, Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nations. Also known as Horse Creek Treaty, the treaty set forth traditional territorial claims of the tribes.

This is a broad outline of the history of Montana in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hunkpapa</span> Traditional tribal grouping within the Lakota people

The Hunkpapa are a Native American group, one of the seven council fires of the Lakota tribe. The name Húŋkpapȟa is a Lakota word, meaning "Head of the Circle". By tradition, the Húŋkpapȟa set up their lodges at the entryway to the circle of the Great Council when the Sioux met in convocation. They speak Lakȟóta, one of the three dialects of the Sioux language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Yellowtail</span> Leader of the Crow Nation

Robert Summers Yellowtail was a leader of the Crow Tribe. Described as a "20th-century warrior", Yellowtail was the first Native American to hold the post of Agency Superintendent at a reservation.

The Huntley Project is an irrigation project in southern Montana that was established by the United States Bureau of Reclamation in 1907. The district includes the towns of Huntley, Worden, Ballantine, and Pompeys Pillar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yellowtail Dam</span> Dam in Big Horn County, Montana

Yellowtail Dam is a dam across the Bighorn River in south central Montana in the United States. The mid-1960s era concrete arch dam serves to regulate the flow of the Bighorn for irrigation purposes and to generate hydroelectric power. The dam and its reservoir, Bighorn Lake, are owned by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fort Parker</span> The first Crow Indian Agency

The Fort Laramie Indian Treaty of 1868, which closed travel on the Bozeman Trail and the Yellowstone Valley, stipulated that the re-defined Crow Reserve would have a new "centerpoint" or agency for the Crow. The first Crow Agency, which was supposed to be built where Big Timber is today, was eventually located about eight miles east of present-day Livingston in the year 1869.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great Sioux War of 1876</span> Battles and negotiations between the US and the Lakota Sioux and Northern Cheyenne

The Great Sioux War of 1876, also known as the Black Hills War, was a series of battles and negotiations that occurred in 1876 and 1877 in an alliance of Lakota Sioux and Northern Cheyenne against the United States. The cause of the war was the desire of the US government to obtain ownership of the Black Hills. Gold had been discovered in the Black Hills, settlers began to encroach onto Native American lands, and the Sioux and the Cheyenne refused to cede ownership. Traditionally, American military and historians place the Lakota at the center of the story, especially because of their numbers, but some Native Americans believe the Cheyenne were the primary target of the American campaign.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pryor Mountains</span> Mountain range in the U.S. states of Wyoming and Montana

The Pryor Mountains are a mountain range in Carbon and Big Horn counties of Montana, and Big Horn County, Wyoming. They are located on the Crow Indian Reservation and the Custer National Forest, and portions of them are on private land. They lie south of Billings, Montana, and north of Lovell, Wyoming.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crow scouts</span> Military unit

Crow Scouts worked with the United States Army in several conflicts, the first in 1876 during the Great Sioux War. Because the Crow Nation was at that time at peace with the United States, the army was able to enlist Crow warriors to help them in their encroachment against the Native Americans with whom they were at war. In 1873, the Crow called for U.S. military actions against the Lakota people they reported were trespassing into the newly designated Crow reservation territories.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White Swan</span> Native American who served in the U.S. Army

White Swan (c.1850—1904), or Mee-nah-tsee-us in the Crow language, was one of six Crow Scouts for George Armstrong Custer's 7th Cavalry Regiment during the 1876 campaign against the Sioux and Northern Cheyenne. At the Battle of the Little Bighorn in the Crow Indian Reservation, White Swan went with Major Reno's detachment, and fought alongside the soldiers at the south end of the village. Of the six Crow scouts at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, White Swan stands out because he aggressively sought combat with multiple Sioux and Cheyenne warriors, and he was the only Crow Scout to be wounded in action, suffering severe wounds to his hand/wrist and leg/foot. After being disabled by his wounds, he was taken to Reno's hill entrenchments by Half Yellow Face, the pipe-bearer (leader) of the Crow scouts, which no doubt saved his life.

The Battle of Pease Bottom, also called the Battle of the Bighorn River was a conflict between the United States Army and the Sioux on August 11, 1873, along the Yellowstone River opposite the mouth of the Bighorn River near present-day Custer, Montana. The main combatants were units of the 7th U.S. Cavalry under Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer, and Native Americans from the village of the Hunkpapa medicine man, Sitting Bull, many of whom would clash with Custer again approximately three years later at the Battle of the Little Big Horn in the Crow Indian Reservation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Early Indian treaty territories in Montana</span>

A number of different Native Americans living in present-day Montana entered into treaties with the United States during the 19th Century. Most of the treaties included an article that established the territory of the tribe entering into it. More and more of this Indian land turned into public or U.S. territory with the signing of new treaties..

References

  1. ↑ "Crow Tribe of Indians" . Retrieved 2019-07-24.
  2. ↑ 2013-2017 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates. "My Tribal Area". United States Census Bureau.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  3. ↑ Charles J. Kappler, ed. (1904), "Montana: Crow Reserve", Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties, Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, archived from the original on 2013-05-20, retrieved 2013-04-03
  4. ↑ David J. Wishart, ed. (2004). "Native Americans: Crows". Encyclopedia of the Great Plains. University of Nebraska Press. ISBN   0-8032-4787-7.
  5. ↑ Aadland, Chris. "Bringing a language back to life". KTVQ. Scripps Media. Retrieved 30 September 2021.
  6. ↑ Lopard, James J., Margery Hunter Brown and Richmond L. Clow: Tribal Government Today. Politics on Montana Indian Reservations. Boulder, San Francisco, & London, 1990, acres p. 57.
  7. ↑ Wood, Raymond W., and Thomas D. Thiessen: Early Fur Trade on the Northern Plains. Canadian Traders Among the Mandan and Hidatsa Indians, 1738-1818. Norman and London, 1987, p. 184.
  8. ↑ Kappler, Charles J.: Indian Affairs. Laws and Treaties. Washington, 1904. Vol. 2, p. 594.
  9. ↑ Hoxie, Frederick E.: Parading Through History. The making of the Crow Nation in America, 1805-1935. Cambridge, 1995, p. 89. See also Rzeczkowski, Frank: The Crow Indians and the Bozeman Trail. Montana, The Magazine of Western History, Vol. 49, No. 4 (1999), pp. 30-47. Utley, Robert M.: The Bozeman Trail before John Bozeman: A busy Land.Montana, The Magazine of Western History, Vol. 53, No. 2 (2003), pp. 20-31.
  10. ↑ Hoxie, Frederick E.: Parading Through History. The making of the Crow Nation in America, 1805-1935. Cambridge, 1995, p. 97.
  11. 1 2 Hoxie, Frederick E.: Parading Through History. The making of the Crow Nation in America, 1805-1935. Cambridge, 1995, p. 92.
  12. ↑ Kappler, Charles J.: Indian Affairs. Laws and Treaties. Washington, 1904. Vol. 2, p. 1008.
  13. ↑ Pease, Eloise Whitebear (Ed.): Absaraka. Crow Tribal Treaty Centennial Issue. Billings, 1968, p. 17.
  14. ↑ Kappler, Charles J.: Indian Affairs. Laws and Treaties. Washington, 1904. Vol. 1, pp. 195-197 (1882); Vol. 1, pp. 958-967 (1892) and Vol. 3, pp. 614-618 (1906).
  15. ↑ Viola, Herman J.: Diplomats in Buckskins. A History of Indian Delegations in Washington City. Washington, D.C., 1981, p. 147.
  16. ↑ Poten, Constance J.: Robert Yellowtail, the New Warrior. Montana, The Magazine of the West, Vol. 39 (Summer 1989), pp. 36–41, p. 38.
  17. ↑ Pease, Eloise Whitebear (Ed.): Absaraka. Crow Tribal Treaty Centennial Issue. Billings, 1968, p. 56.
  18. ↑ Pease, Eloise Whitebear (Ed.): Absaraka. Crow Tribal Treaty Centennial Issue. Billings, 1968, p. 21.
  19. ↑ Poten, Constance J.: Robert Yellowtail, the New Warrior. Montana, The Magazine of the West, Vol. 39 (Summer 1989), pp. 36–41, p. 40–41.
  20. 1 2 Krauss, Clifford (15 June 2013). "Coal Industry Pins Hopes on Exports as U.S. Market Shrinks". The New York Times . p. A1. Retrieved 4 April 2017.
  21. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Turkewitz, Julie (2 April 2017). "Tribes That Live Off Coal Hold Tight to Trump's Promises". The New York Times . p. A1. Retrieved 4 April 2017.
  22. ↑ Dunlay, Thomas W.: Wolves for the Blue soldiers. Indian Scouts and Auxiliaries with the United States Army, 1860-1890. Lincoln and London, 1982, pp. 113-114.
  23. ↑ Linderman, Frank B.: Plenty Coups. Chief of the Crows. Lincoln/London, 1962, pp. 239-240, (for other editions of the book, find pages in Index about "Mount Vernon".). McRae, W. C. and Judy Jewell: Montana Handbook. Hong Kong, 1992, p. 80.
  24. ↑ Medicine Crow, Joseph: From the Heart of the Crow Country. The Crow Indians' own Stories. New York, 1992, pp. 119-123.

45°23′08″N107°44′48″W / 45.38556°N 107.74667°W / 45.38556; -107.74667

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