CLASSIFICATION OF CROW MEDICINE BUNDLES
It is not possible to classify the great variety of Crow Indian sacred bundles on the sole basis of
either (i), similarity of contents, or (2), similarity of functions. Many bundles which served the
same general functions differ markedly in their content. Other bundles containing sacred objects
of similar appearance served a variety of uses. Nevertheless, it is possible to divide Crow medicine
bundles into a limited number of meaningful categories which can be briefly characterized as follows:
1. Sun Dance Bundles. These were the only individually owned bundles employed in a ceremony
in which the entire tribe participated. The Crow sun dance was never given as a tribal act of
adoration of the sun. It was essentially a ceremony in which the participants hoped to receive
visions which would enable them to gain revenge upon their enemies. The sun dance bundle,
therefore, may be considered the principal war medicine bundle of the Crows. However, unlike
other war medicine bundles, it was seldom if ever taken on war expeditions.
2. War Medicine Bundles. These sacred bundles were employed to bring success in warfare
and in horse stealing. They contain the material representations of the original makers' visions
and are, therefore, of many varieties. Of these, the hoop medicines and arrow medicines
might be considered subclasses.
3. Shields. Painted and decorated shields, formerly numerous among the Crows, were important
war medicines.
4. Skull Medicine Bundles. The principal article in each of these bundles is a human skull. These
bundles approximated the sun dance bundles in sacredness, but they were used for many purposes.
At one time they were numerous, but they are now (1927) very scarce because they have usually
been buried with their last owners. The younger generation is afraid to handle them or to keep them
in their tents or cabins.
5. Rock Medicine Bundles. These bundles each contain as their most vital object some kind of sacred rock.
They served many different purposes. Some of them were used as war medicines.
6. Medicine Pipe Bundles. The principal articles in these
17 bundles are pipe stems or stems and bowls. Some of these bundles were employed in the
Medicine Pipe Ceremony which was of foreign origin. Others were carried by leaders of war expeditions.
7. Love Medicine Bundles. These bundles contain sacred objects which were credited with the power
to attract such members of the opposite sex as their owners desired.
8. Witchcraft Bundles. These bundles were used to gain revenge upon or to do harm to personal enemies
of their owners. Great secrecy surrounded their use.
9. Healing Medicine Bundles. These bundles contain various articles used in doctoring the sick or healing
the wounded.
[10. Hunting Medicine Bundles. These bundles contain sacred objects used to bring success in hunting buffalo
or other wild game
.(source:Lowie (1922. pp. 354-359) described Crow medicines used for charming buffalo and deer.)
From the owners of the bundles Lowie collected, as well as from other Indians who possessed knowledge
of them, Wildschut obtained information about the origin, history and uses of these sacred objects. Among
his informants he numbered two of the most highly respected Crow chiefs, Plenty Coups and Two Leggings.
Jasper Long of St. Xavier, on the Crow Reservation, served as Wildschut's interpreter during the nine years
he spent in field research.
Wildschut was very patient in his work with the older Indians. His correspondence with the late George G. Heye,
during the period of his Crow fieldwork, repeatedly mentioned his satisfaction at being able to purchase a
particular bundle for a museum's collection after two or even three years of negotiation with its Indian owner.
Even so, there were Indians who were unwilling to part with their sacred bundles for the reason that they were still
very important to them in their religious life.
By 1927 William Wildschut had collected more than 260 Crow Indian medicine bundles. This is by far the largest
and most representative series of such bundles preserved in any depository. It probably is the largest single collection
of medicine bundles from any Plains Indian tribe.
Over the years Wildschut learned of and collected examples of types of medicine bundles which were not reported
in Lowie's writings on the Crow Indians. Among them were the dramatic skull bundles which were not mentioned
in the writings of any other student of Crow Indian culture. He also collected from Indian informants, not alone a large
body of information regarding medicine bundles in general, but, more importantly, data on the origin, history and uses of
particular bundles. A small portion of this information appeared in six short, illustrated articles written by Wildschut
and published in this series during the years 1925 and 1926. In 1927 William Wildschut wrote for this museum a lengthy
manuscript on the Crow Indians the greater part of which dealt with the subject of medicine bundles.
William Wildschut passed away in 1955. (Edited by John C. Ewers, 1960)
WEBMASTER NOTE:
It is well known that bundles composed of sacred objects, believed to have possessed magical powers,
were in use among the many tribes in the western Great Plains. Not only did the Crow Indian own
a great many of these bundles, but it would seem that their bundles were more varied and served a
greater variety of purposes than those of any neighboring group.
These medicine bundles were such an integral part of Crow Indian religious life that it would be impossible
to discuss them without first considering the basic concepts of tradition Crow Indian religion.
Check back for the following. If you would like a notice when this is updated,
send me your e-mail address. Jo Ann’s e-mail.
1.Concepts of the Diety and of Supernatural Powers
2.Supernatural world called “Without Fires.”
3.Earth clan
4.Other side camp...roamed the earth as ghosts.
5.Old Man Coyotes and the wind are the commanders of sickness..
A BRIEF REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF
BIG HORN COUNTY,
THE CROW RESERVATION AND
THE CROWS
1884-1973
By Robert Yellowtail, Sr
.
This is a review of Crow Tribal History since 1884 when I was born into the Crow Tribe and I have
lived my entire life under 16 different American Presidents beginning with President Grover Cleveland
to President Nixon. This long period of eighty-four (84) years, watching the administrations of government
under the various Presidents of both political parties, has given me the rare privilege and understanding
of the workings of American politics and the administration of Indian Affairs by either Party as they win
the elections.Today as I look back over the years, I think of the people—both Indian and white—
that I was born into and amongst, I have a mixed feeling of joy and sadness as I remember them and see
them in my mind's eye, and wish that they were still alive to see the great and unbelieveable changes
that have taken place since their death.
To those of the present generation, you can only guess at the kind of life your fathers and mothers
lived, and the joys and hardships that they endured in the rugged frontier life that they lived without
any of the modern conveniences that you enjoy today.
Let me set forth some of the modern conveniences that you enjoy today, which your forebears lived
without and knew nothing about. They are:
1. There were no trains in this country until 1892 when the Burlington and N. P. were granted rights
-of-way to build their tracks for trains to begin hauling freight and people across country.
2. All freight was hauled by ox-teams and passengers by stage coaches pulled by four-horse teams
from Wyoming to Custer Junction on the Yellowstone River, thence to destinations at Ft. Benton on
the Missouri River—the terminus of steam boats from St. Louis and thence to destinations at Ft. MacLeod
in Alberta, Canada.
3. All passengers and mail were carried as stated by four-horse stage coaches from, Wyoming to
Ft. Custer on the Yellowstone River, thence to destinations all over Montana and Canada by similar
conveyances.
4. All travel in those days was by horseback. Buggies were just beginning to make their appearance.
Wagons were too slow and cumbersome until 1892 when the trains began taking over the duty of
hauling freight and people, and the ox-teams and horse-drawn passenger state coaches relinquished
that duty.
5. There were no telegraph wires nor telephones I which, while in operation in the East, had not
I penetrated this country yet. All urgent messages were |by couriers on horseback of the Paul Revere
kind. 16. There were no wire fences between Sheridan, I Wyoming and Billings, Montana as all of this
area was | Crow Indian Reservation and no white settlements I were allowed by law.
7. There were no schools between Sheridan, Wyoming and Billings as there were no settlers and the
only schools in this area were at Crow Agency where the Government, under the Crow Treaty of 1868
provided a boarding school for the half-hearted attempts to educate Crow Indian children, of which
I was one. The white employees of Crow Agency, to solve their problems employed a teacher and were
permitted to use a vacant room adjoining the laundry where their children were taught. These were the
conditions that prevailed in the McKinley Administration. Kenneth Lewis of Hardin is the only one still
alive of the employees' children and can attest to the conditions of the early 90's herein referred to.
8. There were no hospitals for the sick—Indian or white—between Sheridan, Wyoming and Billings,
Montana and, thus, it was a case of the survival of the fittest. The Crows had their Indian Medicine Doctors
to whom they went for Medical treatment but the white people had to get to Billings as best they could.
Today, as a matter of comparison, we have at Crow Agency, a modern Public Health Hospital equipped
with every modern hospital equipment known to the AMA, which the early Indians knew nothing about.
When I reflect back to the olden times, which many love to call "the good old days" I cannot help but think
that they do not know what they are talking about. Every condition of life in those old days, including the
food and living facilities they had were primitive compared to those we enjoy today in great comfort.
The so called "good old days" just never existed; and it is a wonder that we, who lived then, are alive
and survived the ordeal.
9. This country was still wild in those days. The buffalo herds had just been killed off and the elk and
deer of the lower areas had been driven into the Big Horn areas and living by the chase for the Crows
had vanished.
The tilling of the soil was the new method of securing a livelihood for the Crows, which they did not take
kindly to until they had work horses big enough to pull plows and other farm implements for the new life
forced upon them. It was amusing and fun to watch the old buffalo hunters hitching their saddle ponies
to plows, and trying to plow up the prairie sod for crops with government employees called "Boss Farmers
" supervising the effort, with an Indian trying to lead each pony and another Indian using a whip to urge
the ponies to pull the plows and still another hanging on to the plows trying to plow a straight furrow and
thus, the show continuing all day to the merriment of all concerned. This was the beginning of farming by
the Crow Indians in the early 90's. A complete reversal of securing their living from the chase of wild game,
which had just been killed off by the white man who had invaded his country and destroyed his mode of
living, way of life, his native culture and left him to survive as best he could under the new white man's
way of living. It was a case of plowing the earth for food or starve in economic want and misery.
That is the condition which faces the Indians today, and the necessity for them to forthwith engage
in the education and intellectual
the tribal elders and the annual Crow Tribal Fair was Pie result—see Mrs. E. A. Richardson's vivid
account if one of these tribal celebrations. Shortly thereafter, Washington BIA Office urged eleven
other tribes to :ve similar shows and, as a result, there are such LOWS all over the Indian country now.
At one of these Crow Fairs—1906 I think—Coach Pop Warner of Carlisle was present looking for
football in track material. When the 100 yard dash was called, : of the seven districts of the reservation
sent forth runners. This race was to determine who was the test sprinter among the Crows. All runners
were ipped down to their breech clouts, bare-footed, as punning spikes were unknown in those days.
The runners standing on the starting line to start with the pring of a pistol; Pop Warner holding a stop
watch to what time the runners would score. The gun popped the runners all dashing off and Coach Warner
standing on the finishing line with Mr. Reynolds to record the winner's time. He did,and when the race was
run Mr. Warner turned to Mr. Reynolds and said, Mr. Reynolds, the world record is broken.Were this a regular
and official race, a new record would be broken." The Black Lodge District was the proud possesser
of the Reservation title. Thus, sports and all ponds of athletic contests have been a main feature of
Crow Fairs.
Now as for the social life activities of the white em-ployees of the Government and their families at
Crow (Agency and in the seven districts.
| At Crow Agency, the white employees were a happy bunch. There were a large group of them here
during Mr. Reynold's administration and among them
It was much musical talent. For instance, Mr. Elmer Dove was a fine musician who organized a fine
brass band among the Crows and jj white employees, which compared with any band in the State
of Montana at that time, as it was sprinkled with ex-Carlisle band players who were highly trained in
Carlisle's Band of National repute, also, among the white employees and others were many fine singers
and pianists and other instrumentalists such as Mrs. Jack JCornwall, who was a professional harpist
and also a professional pianist, as was Mrs. Henry Ketosh and with the vocalist singers, there was
organized a mixed |choir which sang at the Church services of the Reverend James H. Burgess,
who was a Congregationalist Missionary to the Crows. His Sunday evening services were
as outstanding as any in this area between Sheridan, Wyoming and Billings, Montana. His sermons
were very high class and were comparable to any of the modern preachers that I have had the privilege
to hear any where in the United States. Thus, from the religious angle, there was nothing lagging at
Crow Agency. He baptised a great many of the Crow Indians, including myself, and when he died
he left a big void in the lives of the many Indians and whites that he ministered to. He lies buried by
his church at Crow Agency, a shrine to all of the old Crows and whites who, also, have passed on.
Thus, the social life of all whites who lived at Crow Agency at that time was greatly allayed, calmed
and mitigated by the religious and social influences herein portrayed. I still remember those good old
days with much reverence and satisfaction as the best period of my life as they helped me to view
life in its true perspective. They were the molding years of my life, and have kept me in an understanding mood.
Law and order on the Crow Reservation
As previously stated, there were five substations, agencies and districts on the Crow Reservation.
They were as follows:
1. Pryor, on the extreme west end of the Crow Reservation, 87 miles from Crow Agency, under the
charge of a boss farmer, and a sizable number of Crows who lived there with chief Plenty Coups.
2. The Black Lodge District, immediately north of Crow Agency and extending to the mouth of the
Big Horn River, thence up the Yellowstone River to Billings.
3. The Reno District, immediately south of Crow Agency, and extending halfway to Lodge Grass
on Sand Creek, with its headquarters at Garryowen.
4. Lodge Grass District from Sand Creek to the Montana-Wyoming boundary lines, with its
headquarters at what is now Lodge Grass town.
5. The Big Horn District on the Big Horn River valley to its confluence with the Little Horn River.
These were the sub-divisions of the Crow Reservation with their district headquarters under a
boss farmer in charge, reporting to the Agent in charge at Crow Agency by a policeman courier
who carried his messages by the police on horseback. This was the administrative, law and order
system of the Crow Reservation since 1884 when the two previous Crow Agencies at Livingston
and Absarokee, near Columbus, were disbanded and removed to Crow Agency number three.
The government of the Crows in those days was lodged in one person, the U. S. Indian Agent,
called "Major" so and so. He was the supreme commander of the Crow Indian Reservation,
being Judge, Prosecutor and Jury all at the same time, with no appeals from his decisions
which were based on whim, with none of the constitutional guarantees of "The equal protection
of Law" no "Due Process" allowed him by the "One Man Rule Agent". This was "Autocratic" and
"Absolutism" forcibly injected in the rule of a conquered people, approaching the "Spanish Inquisition"
—the most brutal of human treatment in the history of the world—which was the basis of the complaints
of the thirteen Colonies lodged against King George, recited in their "Bill of Particulars" in their
"Declaration of Independence", which brought on eight long years for the political freedom which
we, in the United States today, enjoy.
This constitutionally guaranteed basic human right was continuously denied the Crow Indians
ever since they were reservated on their Reservation here until the closing days of the Reynolds'
Administration, due to charges of mal-administration by a woman, Helen Pierce Gray, of the Omaha Bee,
which stirred up such a controversy that forced Congressional and Interior Department investigation that completely
over-turned Indian Department rule of the Indian Tribes to what we see now.
Conclusion:
One of the highlights of autocratic rule on the Crow Reservation was: If any Crow wanted
to visit friends or relatives in any other district on the Reservation, he had to go through the
Boss Farmer in charge and secure a written permit; if his request was granted, setting forth
the number of days granted and the reasons for his visit, and deliver it to the Boss Farmer
in charge of the District he was visiting so that he could be watched and checked upon by the Boss
Farmer and his police to see that the time granted was not violated. This autocratic rule over the
Crow Indians also, made the Constitutional guarantee of "Human Freedom" the Equal Protection
of Law, on Indian Reservations a false deception, and, thus, the Constitution, a dead letter on
every Reservation in the land. This assertion of Government might and power reverted back to
the days of the ''Spanish Inquisition" and the exercise of autocratic power to the nth degree,
and how the Indian Bureau got away with it under all of the Presidents of this country has been
a mystery to me. Let some officer of the Government try to enforce such arbitrary rule today and
see how quickly he is hailed into court to answer charges of felonious conduct and sentenced to
pay by imprisonment. Today, the Indians like any other citizen, under the Civil Rights Act and the
Constitution, can go to the Courts to compel the guarantee of the civil rights the same as any other
person in this country. What a change under respect I existing law and its enforcement!
A new day has dawned for the American Indians and it is up to them to organize and become potent!
politically so that their civil and constitutional rights-will always be respected. They must remember
that things and questions of policy and administration aM decided politically at Washington and
at the State! Capitol, and this means that the Indians must organizes and become politically
potent if they ever expect to 5 have their civil rights respected by the administration in power at Washington.
Respectfully submitted to all Indians and their friends, Robert Yellowtail, a Crow Indian
of Montana Editor's Note: Robert Yellowtail was the first Indian to be superintendent of
any reservation in the United! States. In 1933 he was appointed Superintendent of the
Crow Reservation and served in that capacity until 1945. In 1917, when a very
young man he was chosen by the Crow Chiefs to answer Senator T. J. Walsh who wished to open the
reservation to non-Indian ownership. He made an eloquent plea and the reservation
was saved for the Crows. Later he ran for Congress and also for the
Senate but lost both elections by 1}200 votes. General Eisenhower offered
him the post of Commissioner of Indian Affairs but he declined. Yellowtail dam is
named for him, despite his opposition to its construction.
(source, Lookin Back, out of print.)
Robert Yellowtail—first Indian Superintendent of the Crow Reservation
-
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
July 2005-Jan.1 2008 28,057 hits
Counter now from Jan.1, 08
WELCOME TO CROW RESERVATION.COM
BIG HORN COUNTY, MONTANA
My name is Jo Ann Boyd Scott, your host for this web site. This is a special county in the great State of Montana. Queries are answered, in the summer I can look up obits I grew up in this county and have many reference
books. E-mail me.
Be sure to go to the Crow Fair,Questions? e-mail Albert Gros-Ventre (see picture below). Black Whistle web site
.
I welcome additions or help transcribing data. This site will be linked to a new web site, Miss Indian America.com, (not online yet) I will be working on the site this summer. If you have pictures or information you would like to share, please send it via e-mail. Remember Lucy Yellow Mule and her historic time as Sheridan Rodeo Queen. Thanks to Neck Yoke Jones at the Sheridan Press we witnessed the start of the Miss Indian America contests each year. Check around in your files and send whatever you can find. Credit will be given to any submissions.
