Crowe Agency, Real Bird Indian Culture Days

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Saturday, June 28, 2008
Mike and Judy flew in this morning and after a short detour to the hotel, we rode to the Crowe Agency on the Crowe Reservation, about 12 miles west of Hardin.

The Crowe Reservation occupies a large section of Montana south from Hardin to the Wyoming state line. The Crowe Nation gathers annually and hosts other tribes in celebration of Indian culture including an ultimate warrior competition. Women competed on Friday in teams and men competed individually on Saturday morning. Competitors run, swim and ride several horse relays with the best time recognized as the ultimate warrior.

In addition, there is a play; a play which describes, from their own perspective, the Crowe people’s life and culture on the prairies and mountains and their ultimate demise at the hands of the United States government. A Crowe Indian historian researched and assembled a written record of the Crowe people through the 19th century up to and including their confrontations with the American government and the Battle of the Little Big Horn.

The stage for this play is an open field approximately the size of a football field. Old, weather-worn, graying bleachers are arranged along one of the long sides; the Little Big Horn River bounds the opposite side of the field and one end; teepees are arranged along the other end. The record is narrated in the somber, accented voice of an Indian elder. Stage direction is all in Crowe native tongue. The voice, language and, visual imagery conveys the sense of the Crowe people from the happiness they enjoyed roaming the prairies and mountains to the utter despair and humiliation of domination by the American government. The history interweaves the introduction and impact of horses on their way of life and the interplay of the five Indian nations that occupied their world at the turn of the 19th century.

As the narrator reads from the Crowe records, actors take the stage to play out the scene being described. Horses increased the Indians mobility and changed the way they hunted the buffalo. Mounted Indian actors took to the stage recreating their hunting, and later fighting, strategies. The cavalry troop, an ensemble of meticulously accurate, historically costumed actors, took the stage with the Indian actors for a chase and running battle scene that was amazing. The battle then expanded onto the actual battle field and included a river crossing and confrontation that left Custer’s troop decimated. The two hour reenactment was stunning, and moving.

We drove back to Billings to lively conversation about the play. Dinner was quite late Saturday night as we discussed Sunday plans. Our day ended at near midnight and we planned to rise early to explore Cody, Wyoming.

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Photos

Medicine Men
The decision makers

Custer's Contingent
This is an organized troop of reenactors that practice as a unit and wear authentic period uniforms.

Gathering of the five tribes and Cavalry
Sometin before the Wounded Knee massacre and Battle of the Big Horn, the government talked Indians into going onto a reservation.

Donna found a pile of bones
This is as close as she would get to them . . .

Church on the Crowe Reservation
The Crowe are a Christian people and the church is active.

Comments

[j50r]

Great Blog
Al/Donna the trip looks and sounds great. Enjoy!! Thanks for the blog and the photos. Jerry