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Crow People Facts & Worksheets

The Crow People, also known as Absaroka or Absarokee, are Siouan-speaking North American Indians.

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Crow, also known as Absaroka or Absarokee, are Siouan-speaking North American Indians formerly associated with the Hidatsa residing in the upper Missouri River. In particular, they lived in the valleys of the Powder, Wind, and Bighorn rivers in what is now Montana, which are tributaries of the Yellowstone River.

See the fact file below for more information on the Crow People, or you can download our 37-page Crow People worksheet pack to utilize within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

NAME

  • Early French interpreters mistranslated the name of the tribe Apsáalooke (or Absaroke) as gens des corbeaux or people of the crow. It meant “people [or children] of the large-beaked bird,” which was described as a fork-tailed bird resembling the blue jay or magpie and is probably now extinct.
  • The Apsáalooke are sometimes referred to as “crow” or “raven” by other tribes. The original meaning of this name has been lost to time, but many Apsáalooké people think it alludes to the legendary Thunderbird.

LANGUAGE

  • Crow is categorized as a Missouri Valley Siouan language spoken predominantly by the Crow Nation in present-day Montana. It shares a close relationship with the Dakota Hidatsa language, the sole other Missouri Valley Siouan family members. Although speakers of different languages cannot understand Crow and Hidatsa, they have many phonetic similarities, cognates, and comparable morphology and syntax. 
  • According to the 1990 US Census, the Crow language has one of the largest populations of American Indian languages, with 4,280 speakers. Because of the extensive use of English on the Reservation and daily interactions with non-American Indians for more than a century, Crow speakers are typically bilingual in English. However, the community’s traditional culture has preserved the language through religious rituals and the established clan system.

HISTORY

  • The Crow Indians were perhaps the second most prevalent tribe at Fort Union in the early years. The south part of the Missouri River was the northernmost point of the Crows’ hunting territory. The Crows lived up the Yellowstone River. Crow groups were frequently spotted at Fort Union waiting in line to exchange their buffalo robes, which were highly sought after by the traders since it was commonly believed that Crow women were the best tanners of premium winter buffalo calf hides. 
  • Although the Crow are also Siouan speakers, their languages cannot be understood by one another. According to popular belief, the Hidatsa, a riverine tribe discussed below, split off to form the Crow. The Crow and the Hidatsa were close allies and shared a similar culture and language.
  • The Crow Hidatsa ancestral tribe formerly resided in Ohio, close to Lake Erie. After being driven from there by more aggressive, well-armed neighbors, they briefly moved to Manitoba, south of Lake Winnipeg. Before the Crow divided from the Hidatsa and migrated west, the people later relocated to North Dakota‘s Devil’s Lake region. 
  • Due to the invasion and migration of the Cheyenne and then the Sioux, sometimes known as the Lakota, the Crow have mostly moved westward. The Crow battled Shoshone bands like the Bikkaashe, or “People of the Grass Lodges,” and drove them west to take control of their new region. The Crow joined forces with regional Kiowa and Plains Apache tribes. The Crow remained the dominant tribe in their established territory through the 18th and 19th centuries, the time of the fur trade, until the Kiowa and Plains Apache tribes eventually moved south.

ENEMIES AND ALLIES

  • The horse, which allowed the Plains tribes to move out onto the Plains and hunt buffalo more successfully starting around 1740, was quickly adopted by them. Their herds remained more diminutive than those of the Plains tribes in the South due to the harsh winters in the North.
  • The Eastern Shoshone, Northern Shoshone, Crow, and Hidatsa soon gained a reputation as horse breeders and dealers and established sizable horse herds. Other eastern and northern tribes were also relocating to the Plains at the time in pursuit of bison, game for the fur trade, and additional horses.
  • The formidable Blackfoot Confederacy, Gros Ventre, Assiniboine, Pawnee, and Utes were among the tribes that frequently raided and stole Crow horses. 
  • Later, they encountered the Lakota and their allies, the Arapaho and Cheyenne, who had also been stealing horses from their rivals. Their biggest adversaries were the Lakota-Cheyenne-Arapaho alliance and the Blackfoot Confederacy, tribes.
  • The Crow had migrated from the Ohio Eastern Woodland region of modern-day Ohio to this area in the 18th century, settling south of Lake Winnipeg under pressure from the Cree and Ojibwe peoples, who had earlier and better access to guns through the fur trade. The Cheyenne then drove them westward from that point.
  • The Lakota, who occupied the region west of the Missouri River and extended through the Black Hills in South Dakota to the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming and Montana, drove the Crow and the Cheyenne farther west. The Lakota finally turned the Cheyenne into allies as they worked to move the European Americans out of the region. The Sioux and Cheyenne continued to hate the Crow fiercely.

HISTORICAL SUBGROUPS

Ashalaho,’Many Lodges,’ today called Mountain Crow

  • The most extraordinary Crow group, the Ashalaho or Mountain Crow, broke off from the Awatixa Hidatsa and was the first to travel west. Due to a vision obtained by their leader, No Intestines, the group spent a long time migrating in search of sacred tobacco before settling in southeast Montana. 
  • They dwelt on the modern Wyoming-Montana boundary in the Big Horn and Absaroka Range (also known as the Absalaga Mountains) along the foothills of the Rocky Mountains and Upper Yellowstone River. The Black Hills made up their territory’s eastern border.

The Binnéessiippeele, also known as River Crow

  • They were once part of the Hidatsa proper but later broke away due to a quarrel over a bison stomach. Their name means “Those Who Live Among the River Banks.” 
  • The Hidatsa, therefore, gave the Crow the name Gixáa-iccá, which means “Those Who Pout Over Tripe.” They resided in the valleys of the Powder, Big Horn, and Wind rivers, as well as through the Musselshell rivers and the Yellowstone. Previously, this region was referred to as the Powder River Country. They occasionally went up to the Milk River in the North.

Ammitaalasshé, known today as the Kicked in the Bellies

  • They claimed the Bighorn Basin region from the Bighorn Mountains to the Absaroka Range in the South and West to the Wind River Range in northern Wyoming. 
  • They occasionally made their homes in the Bridger Mountains, the Owl Creek Mountains, and along the Sweetwater River in the South.

DISPLACEMENT FROM TRIBAL LANDS

  • The Crows were fending off pressure from vastly outnumbered adversaries until European Americans began to arrive in large numbers. 
  • Elders of the tribe interpreted a vision by Plenty Coups. This boy would grow up to become their most excellent chief in the 1850s, indicating that the white population would eventually rule the entire nation and that the Crow would need to maintain good relations with the white people to keep any of their lands.
  • In Montana, immediately to the South and east of Crow land, the Lakota and Cheyenne, who were more numerous, had established themselves by 1851. These rival tribes waged war on the Crow because they sought their hunting grounds. 
  • By force of arms, they conquered the Crow’s eastern hunting grounds, including the Powder and Tongue Rivers valleys, and drove the sparser Crow to the west and northwest upriver on the Yellowstone. 
  • From the Black Hills of South Dakota going to the Big Horn Mountains of Montana, all the former Crow lands were taken by the Lakota Sioux after roughly 1860. They insisted that any American incursion into these territories be handled via them.
  • A sizable region centered on the Big Horn Mountains was recognized as Crow land according to the Fort Laramie Treaty and the United States in 1851. 
  • The part covered the Tongue River basin and the Big Horn Basin to the west, the Musselshell River to the North, and the Powder River to the east.
  • But the Cheyenne and several Lakota Sioux clans had been steadily moving across the plains for two centuries and were still pressing heavily on the Crows. 
  • The Lakota won Red Cloud’s War in their favor. The Lakota were given full authority of the high plains from the Black Hills of the Dakotas westward to the Powder River Basin to the crest of the Big Horn Mountains, according to the Fort Laramie Treaty (1868) with the United States. 
  • After that, bands of Lakota Sioux commanded by Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Gall, and others ravaged and pillaged eastern Montana and northeastern Wyoming, which had once been traditional Crow country. Their Northern Cheyenne allies joined them. 
  • The Great Sioux War (1876–1877) defeated the Lakota Sioux and their Cheyenne allies despite a significant victory over army forces led by Colonel George A. Custer in the Battle of the Little Big Horn on June 25, 1876, in the Crow Indian Reservation.
  • For this conflict, Crow fighters enrolled in the US Army. The Sioux and their allies were driven out of eastern Montana and Wyoming. At the same time, some tribes fled to Canada, and others were forcibly relocated to far-off reservations, primarily in modern-day Montana and Nebraska west of the Missouri River. 
  • The Crow invited people from various tribes to a conference they held in 1918 to showcase their culture. Annually during the third weekend in August, the Crow Fair is now widely observed by neighboring tribes.

CULTURE

Subsistence

  • The American bison, which was chased in a variety of methods, was the primary food source for the Crow. Before the usage of horses, bison were hunted on foot. To kill the creatures with arrows or lances, hunters had to stalk them closely while often disguising themselves in wolf fur.
  • The horse made it easier for the Crow to hunt bison and allowed them to take more animals at once. Riders would cause the herd to panic into a stampede and then shoot the intended prey from a horse while mounting or lancing them through the heart. 
  • The Crow also hunted mountain goats, deer, bighorn sheep, elk, bears, and other animals in addition to bison. Buffalo meat was frequently cooked in a stew with prairie turnips or grilled. The liver, heart, kidneys, liver, rump, and tongue were all delicacy. Pemmican was created by grinding dried bison meat with fat and fruit.
  • The Crow frequently used buffalo jump to hunt bison.
  • Over a century, from 1700 to about 1870, when modern weaponry was introduced, the Crow Indians made “Where Buffaloes have Driven Over Cliffs at Long Ridge” their preferred location for hunting meat. 
  • Every year in the fall, the Crow would congregate here among the several cliffs along a ridge that gradually dipped down to the creek. On the day of the leap, a medicine man would stand on the ledge of the upper cliff while facing up the ridge early in the morning.
  • He would sing his religious songs and invoke the Great Spirit to help the operation succeed while holding a pair of bison hindquarters and pointing the feet along the lines of stones.

Habitation and Transportation

  • The Crow still take great pride in the grandeur and elegance of their tipis, and they should. Due to their closeness to the Bighorn Mountains, where lodge-poles are easily accessible, they have maintained these shelters in higher numbers than most Plains Indians.
  • The enticing prizes offered to tipi owners by the motion picture studios that periodically visit the Reservation in search of Indian subjects for the screen have promoted this habit and this pride.
  • The peyote cult may have also played a role in the tipi’s preservation. In any case, tipis and tipi poles can still be seen near houses where the Indians had resided.
  • Tipis are suitable for nomadic tribes like the Crow, who move rapidly and frequently since they are lightweight, readily raised, and collapsed. 
  • The tipi poles are used to build a travois after they have collapsed. Indians of the plains utilized travois, a framed vehicle driven by a horse, to transport and haul their possessions and young children.
  • The tipi is still a joint possession and mode of transportation for Crow families. The yearly Crow Fair is referred to as the world’s largest assemblage of tipis.
  • The horse was the most common mode of transport among the Crow. Raids and trade with neighboring Plains nations were used to get horses.
  • People from the southern plains, like the Comanche and Kiowa, who initially acquired their horses from the Southwestern Indians and the Spanish, such as the numerous Pueblo people, were the primary source of horses for people from the northern plains, like the Crow.
  • One of the most significant horse herds owned by Plains Indians was that of the Crow; in 1914, they had between thirty and forty thousand horses. The number of mounts had decreased to barely 1,000 by 1921. 
  • The horse, which was essential to the Crow economy and was costly trading goods, was regularly taken from other tribes to increase one’s riches and reputation as a warrior.

Attire

  • Therefore, the Crow were a proud and affluent tribe that loved to hunt and fight and detested sedentary lifestyles. Although native legend, supported by scientific research, suggests that the Crow split from the Hidatsa, an inactive, partially agricultural people living in permanent villages further to the east, the Crow did not become a typical Great Plains buffalo hunting tribe until less than two centuries ago.
  • The Crow, especially the men, were known among the prairie tribes for the beauty of their trappings in previous times when all clothing was made of skins, often elk hide, though buffalo and mountain sheep hides were also used.

Clothes worn by Crow Men

  • The Crow males dressed in fringed buckskin tunics or shirts and leggings in the winter and breechcloths in the summer. To ward off bad weather, people also used warm buffalo robes or cloaks. The Crow tribe wore the whitest, most delicate sun-bleached buffalo-robe garments of all the Native American tribes.

Headdresses worn by Crow men.

  • For certain ceremonies and rites, some men of the Crow tribe, the “Bird People,” would wear a complete bird as part of their headdress. This outfit most likely served as some of the inspiration for Johnny Depp’s use of a bird headpiece as Tonto in the 2013 film “The Lone Ranger.” 
  • The typical headgear used by the Crow was a cap with eagle feathers standing straight up. On exceptional occasions, elaborate war bonnets with feathers dangling to the ground were also worn.

The Long Hair of the Crow men

  • For their entire lives, the men of the Crow tribe grew their hair, which was so long that it wiped the ground behind them. The men of the Crow tribe would grease their hair with bear grease every morning. Chief Longhair had hair that was ten feet, seven inches long. 
  • His lengthy hair would be tied up in a bun for combat and hunting activities. Following tribal tradition, a warrior would trim a few locks of his long hair during a period of grief as a mark of respect for the deceased.
  • This was a significant honor because he had spent most of his life cultivating his hair, considered his most acceptable ornament.

Clothes worn by Crow Women

  • The women made the garments worn by the populace of the Crow tribe. Most clothing was made from soft, tanned deer (buckskin) and buffalo skins. 
  • The decoration of clothing frequently included paint, porcupine quills, or beading. Both male and female crow apparel was embellished with murals and decked jewelry, particularly necklaces and earrings.
  • Women wore shells or elk teeth-decorated gowns made of deer and buffalo leather. In the winter, they wore moccasins and leggings on their legs. Two braids were worn in the hair of Crow women.

GENDER AND KINSHIP SYSTEM

  • Matrilineal society prevailed among the Crow. After marriage, the pair adopted a matrilocal lifestyle, moving in with the wife’s mother. Within the tribe, women played a significant role. Crow kinship is a mechanism for classifying and defining members of families. In the past, male-bodied two-spirits, such as Osh-Tisch, possessed a status known as baté or badé.
  • The Crow system stands out because, in contrast to most other kinship systems, it opts to blur the lines between specific generations. None of their age or generation, the relatives of the subject’s father’s matrilineage are identified exclusively by their sex. On the other hand, generational differences are seen within Ego’s matrilineage.
  • The system is linked to ethnic groups with a long history of matrilineal ancestry. In doing so, the system creates an almost replica of the patrilineal Omaha structure.
  • The Crow used bifurcate merging, which distinguishes between collateral relations of various genders in Ego’s ancestry group, similar to the Iroquois method. 
  • In this scenario, the mother’s brother would be referred to as “uncle” and the father’s sibling as “father’s brother .”Bifurcate merging is only used as a second term in the Iroquois system.

CROW PEOPLE IN 21st CENTURY

Geography

  • The Crow Indian Reservation is the fifth-largest Indian Reservation in the United States, with a total size of about 2,300,000 acres (3,600 sq mi; 9,300 km2). It is located in south-central Montana. 
  • The Reservation is predominantly located in Big Horn and Yellowstone counties, with ceded areas also present in Rosebud, Carbon, and Treasure. 
  • Except for the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation’s border, the 107th meridian line is the eastern boundary of the Crow Indian Reservation.

Government

  • Before the 2001 Constitution, the Crow Tribe of Montana was ruled by its 1948 constitution. The tribe was a general council under the previous constitution (tribal council).
  • All registered adult members of the Crow Tribe, provided that women were 18 years or older and men were 21 years or older, were eligible to participate in the general council, which had the government’s executive, legislative, and judicial functions. 
  • A direct democracy similar to the Haudenosaunee Confederacy existed in the general council.
  • Under its 2001 constitution, the Crow Tribe of Montana created a three-branch government 2001. The general council continues to constitute the tribe’s legislative body, although its authority has been divided among three different bodies. 
  • Although the general council has not met since the 2001 constitution’s inception, in principle, it still serves as the Crow Tribe’s governing body.

Leadership

  • Crow Agency, Montana, serves as both the capital and seat of government for the Crow Indian Reservation. The Crow Tribe had previously chosen a chairperson of the tribal council every two years, but in 2001 the position’s tenure was increased to four years. Frank White Clay is the chairperson at the moment.
  • The Crow Tribal Council’s chairperson acts as the body’s chief executive officer, speaker, and majority leader. The 2001 constitutional amendments established a three-branch system of governance. 
  • The vice-chairperson, secretary, and vice-secretary, along with the tribal offices and departments of the Crow Tribal Administration, make up the executive branch, which the chairperson leads.

Crow People Worksheets

This is a fantastic bundle that includes everything you need to know about Crow People across 37 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use worksheets that are perfect for teaching kids about Crow People, also known as Absaroka or Absarokee, who are Siouan-speaking North American Indians.

Complete List of Included Worksheets

Below is a list of all the worksheets included in this document.

  1. Crow People Facts
  2. The Crow People
  3. Subgroups
  4. Famous Crow People
  5. Our Struggles
  6. Issues
  7. Documentary Analysis
  8. The Crow People
  9. Interpretation
  10. Share Your Thoughts
  11. A Letter

Frequently Asked Questions

What traditions did the Crow tribe have?

The Sun Dance was an important ceremony for the Crow people and other Native American tribes. The Crow tribe also had a ceremony that honored tobacco, as they believed it was their sacred plant. They thought Coyote had created them.

Does the Crow tribe still exist?

The Crow Tribe of Indians has about 11,000 members. About 7,900 of those members live on the Crow Indian Reservation in south-central Montana. The reservation is 2.3 million acres, which is the largest out of seven reservations in Montana state territory.

What did Crow Indians wear?

Crow men and women had different roles in their society. This was shown in the different clothes they wore. Women usually wore animal skin dresses that were decorated with elk teeth and leggings. They would also wear moccasins on their feet. Men, on the other hand, would wear hunting clothes that would protect them from the elements while they were out looking for a game.

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Use With Any Curriculum

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