Crow Tribe of Indians

Indians of Montana > Crow Indians

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Crow

Population
1990 8,491   1980 3,953   1944 abt. 2,500   1923 1,777   1904 1,826   1871 abt. 4,100   1804 abt. 3,500
Regions with significant populations
Ancestral Homelands: Upper plains on or near the Missouri River and its tributaries, especially the Bighorn and Yellowstone Rivers Descendants: Crow Reservation in Bighorn County, Montana.
Status
Federally recognized as Crow Tribe of Montana
Linguistic Group
Siouan
Other Related Ethnic Groups
Mountain Crow, River Crow, Hidatsa Bands and Groups of Crow -- Achepabecha, Ahaharopirnopa, Ahachik, Ashinadea, Ashbochiah, Ashkanena, Booadasha, Ehartsar, Esachkabuk, Esekepkabuk, Hokarutcha, Noota Oosabotsee, Pareescar, Petchaleruhpaka, Shiptetza, and others.

Alternate Names and Spellings: Crow Tribe of Montana, Absaroka, Apsáalooke

Tribal Headquarters

Crow Tribe of Montana
P. O. Box 159
Crow Agency, MT 59022
Phone: 1.406.638.3708
Fax: 1.406.638.7301
Website: www.crowtribe.com

• Tribal Website of the Crow Nation

History

The first recorded contact between the Crows and non-Indians was with the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1806. The tribe was later involved with trading and interacting with mountain men during rendezvous.

In 1825 strong tribal leaders initiated a division of the tribe, and the Mountain Crow and River Crow tribes were formed. This same year some Crow warriors assisted the United States military in fighting other Indian tribes.

A treaty was signed in 1851 at Fort Laramie which included the Crow Tribe, but it was the 1868 Treaty which established a reservation for the Crows in Montana.

During the 1870s and the Indian Wars for the West, the Crow warriors served as scouts fighting against the Sioux and Nez Perce. In the historic Battle of the Little Big Horn, General Custer had Crows serving as scouts.

The 1880 treaty specified that the "Crow Indians shall consent to permit cattle to be driven across their reservation or grazed on the same, the Secretary of the Interior shall fix the amount to be paid by parties desiring to so drive or graze cattle; all moneys arising from this source to be paid to the Indians..."

Even though they had served the U.S. military, the tribe was removed to the Crow Reservation in Big Horn and Yellowstone Counties, Montana.

The Crow Tribe adopted their Constitution and By-Laws in 2001.

Brief Timeline

• 1806: The Lewis and Clark expedition encountered the Tribe
• 1821: The tribe interacted with mountain men during fur-trading rendezvous
• 1825: divide into Mountain Crow and River Crow
• 1825: joined the United States soldiers in fighting other Indian tribes
• 1851: Treaty signed at Fort Laramie, Wyoming (38.5 million acres in Montana)
• 1868: Treaty at Fort Laramie established a reservation in Montana, south to the Yellowstone River
• 1870: During the wars for the West the Crow were allies of the U.S. Army, serving as scouts, and fought against the Sioux and the Nez Perce.
• 1876: Crow warriors acted as scouts for General Custer; Custer defeated at Little Bighorn in July 1876
• 1880: Treaty at Washington D.C.,
• 1887: Crow Indian outbreak led by Deaf Bull near Crow Agency, Montana.
• 1888: ceded most of their land; removed to Crow Reservation in Big Horn and Yellowstone Counties, Montana

Additional References to the History of the Tribe

• Frederick Webb Hodge, in his Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, gave a more complete history of the Crow tribe, with estimations of the population of the tribe at various time periods.
• John Swanton's The Indian Tribes of North America
• David Bushnell's Villages of the Algonquian, Siouan and Caddoan Tribes West of the Mississippi.
• There is also a history of the Crow Tribe on the website for the Little Big Horn College.
• Another history of the Crow Tribe is on their tribal website.
• Robert Harry Lowie. The Crow Indians. NY:Farrar and Rinehart. c1935. Book 970.3 C885q

Agencies

The following agencies of the Bureau of Indian Affairs had jurisdiction over the Crow for the time periods indicated. BIA agencies were responsible to keep such records as census rolls, allotment (land) records, annuity rolls, school records, correspondence, and other records of individual Indians under their jurisdiction. For details, see the page for the respective agency.

The agencies which had jurisdiction over a major portion of the Crow in the United States were:

• Upper Missouri Agency, 1824-1864
• Fort Berthold Agency, 1864-1869
• Crow Agency, 1869-present

Records

Records were maintained by the agencies.

See: Crow Indian Agency Montana, Upper Missouri Agency and Fort Berthold Agency and Crow Agency South Dakota

Census

The Bureau of Indian Affairs compiled annual Indian Census Rolls on many of the reservations from 1885 to 1940. They list the names of individuals, their age, and other details about each person enumerated. For more information about these records, click here.

The following table lists the census rolls for the Crow Indians:

Agency	Location of Original Records	Post- 1885 Census M595 RG 75 -- 692 Rolls Roll Number	FHL Film Number
Crow Agency, 1891-1940	National Archives in Washington D.C.	Rolls 79-86	FHL 575771-575778

Correspondence

There are several sets of correspondence between the supervising offices of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the local offices -- agencies, subagencies, etc. The correspondence is often historical in nature, including reports of the conditions among local groups of Indians, hostilities, plans for building facilities, activities of traders or missionaries, etc. Occasionally, there will be names of individuals but little detail about them. For more information about American Indian correspondence, click here.

The following table lists some correspondence relating to the Crow Indians:

BIA Field Office	Location of Original Records	Pre-1880 Correspondence M234 RG 75 -- 962 Rolls Roll Number	FHL film number
Upper Missouri Agency, 1824-66	Washington D.C.	Rolls 883-886	FHL 1661613-1661616
Fort Berthold Agency, 1867-70	Washington D.C.	Roll 292	FHL 1661022

Treaties

During the latter part of the 18th Century and most of the 19th Century, treaties were negotiated between the federal government and individual Indian tribes. The treaties provide helpful information about the history of the tribe, but usually only include the names of those persons who signed the treaty. For more information about treaties, click here.

Treaties to which the Crow Indians were a part were:

The year link (year of the treaty) will connect to an online copy of the treaty.

• 1825 August 4, at Mandan Village
• 1851 September 17, at Fort Laramie
• 1868 May 7, at Fort Laramie
• 1880 May 14, at Washington - unratified

Tribal Office Records

The Tribal Office is responsible for enrollment records, vital records, tribal police records, tribal court records, employment records and many others. They are an entirely different set of records from those kept by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Most of them remain in the Tribal Office. For details, contact that office at the address for the Tribal Headquarters listed above.

Vital Records

Prior to the Indian Reorganization Act, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, through their agencies, may have recorded some vital events. Some were recorded on health forms, such as the "Sanitary Record of Sick, Injured, Births, Deaths, etc." Others were recorded as supplements to the "Indian Census Rolls." Some were included in the unindexed reports and other correspondence of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Some vital records for the Crow Indians include:

• Crow Agency, M595, births and deaths 1925-1932, FHL 575776 (Supplements to the Indian Census Rolls)

Important Web Sites

• Constitution and By-Laws of the Crow Tribe of Indians
• State Office of Indian Affairs article about the Crow Indians
• Tribal Website of the Crow Nation
• Wikipedia article on the Crow Nation

Bibliography

Crow Tribe

• Carlson, Paul H. The Plains Indians. College Station, Texas: Texas A.M. University Press, c1998. FHL Book 970.1 C197p
• Denig, Edwin Thompson. Five Indian Tribes of the Upper Missouri: Sioux, Arickaras, Assiniboines, Crees, Crows. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, c1981. The Civilization of American Indian Series:059. FHL Book 970.1 D415f
• Hoxie, Frederick E. Parading Through History: The Making of the Crow Nation in America, 1805-1935. New York, New York: Cambridge University Press, c1995. FHL Book 970.3 C885h
• Lowie, Robert H. The Crow Indians. New York, New York: Farrar & Rinehart, c1935. FHL Book 970.3 C885L

General

• Guide to Federal Records in the National Archives; Record Group 75, Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
• Hodge, Frederick Webb. Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1906 Available online.
• Klein, Barry T., ed. Reference Encyclopedia of the American Indian. Nyack, New York: Todd Publications, 2009. 10th ed. WorldCat 317923332; FHL 970.1 R259e; WorldCat 37475188; FHL book 970.1 R259e.
• Malinowski, Sharon and Sheets, Anna, eds. The Gale Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes. Detroit: Gale Publishing, 1998. 4 volumes. Includes: Lists of Federally Recognized Tribes for U.S., Alaska, and Canada – pp. 513-529 Alphabetical Listing of Tribes, with reference to volume and page in this series Map of “Historic Locations of U.S. Native Groups” Map of “Historic Locations of Canadian Native Groups” Map of “Historic Locations of Mexican, Hawaiian and Caribbean Native Groups” Maps of “State and Federally Recognized U.S. Indian Reservations. WorldCat 37475188; FHL book 970.1 G131g.

Vol. 1 -- Northeast, Southeast, Caribbean

Vol. 2 -- Great Basin, Southwest, Middle America

Vol. 3 -- Arctic, Subarctic, Great Plains, Plateau

Vol. 4 -- California, Pacific Northwest, Pacific Islands

• Sturtevant, William C. Handbook of North American Indians. 20 vols., some not yet published. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1978– .
  

Volume 1 -- Not yet published

Volume 2 -- Indians in Contemporary Society (pub. 2008) -- WorldCat 234303751

Volume 3 -- Environment, Origins, and Population (pub. 2006) -- WorldCat 255572371

Volume 4 -- History of Indian-White Relations (pub. 1988) -- WorldCat 19331914; FHL book 970.1 H191h v.4.

Volume 5 -- Arctic (pub. 1984) -- WorldCat 299653808; FHL book 970.1 H191h v.5.

Volume 6 -- Subarctic (pub. 1981) -- WorldCat 247493742; FHL book 970.1 H191h v.6.

Volume 7 -- Northwest Coast (pub. 1990) -- WorldCat 247493311

Volume 8 -- California (pub. 1978) -- WorldCat 13240086; FHL book 970.1 H191h v.8.

Volume 9 -- Southwest (pub. 1979) -- WorldCat 26140053; FHL book 970.1 H191h v.9.

Volume 10 -- Southwest (pub. 1983) -- WorldCat 301504096; FHL book 970.1 H191h v.10.

Volume 11 -- Great Basin (pub. 1986) -- WorldCat 256516416; FHL book 970.1 H191h v.11.

Volume 12 -- Plateau (pub. 1998) -- WorldCat 39401371; FHL book 970.1 H191h v.12.

Volume 13 -- Plains, 2 vols. (pub. 2001) -- WorldCat 48209643

Volume 14 -- Southeast (pub. 2004) -- WorldCat 254277176

Volume 15 -- Northwest (pub. 1978) -- WorldCat 356517503; FHL book 970.1 H191h v.15.

Volume 16 -- Not yet published

Volume 17 -- Languages (pub. 1996) -- WorldCat 43957746

Volume 18 -- Not yet published

Volume 19 -- Not yet published

Volume 20 -- Not yet published

• Swanton John R. The Indian Tribes of North America. Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin #145 Available online.
• Waldman, Carl. Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes. New York, New York: Facts on File, 2006. 3rd ed. WorldCat 14718193; FHL book 970.1 W146e 2006.