Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Crow Indians, Lewis and Clark, and the Battle of Little Bighorn, Montana

The Crow Indians met William Clark’s party exploring the Yellowstone River in the summer of 1806 near Billings, Montana, but the expedition never saw them--they just had all of their horses stolen in two nighttime raids. Clark’s party of 12 were bringing back a large group of horses to use for trade at the Mandan Villages in North Dakota. 24 horses were stolen while they were building dugout canoes near Park City. The remaining 17 were stolen from Nathaniel Pryor and his party while he was proceeding overland near Hardin, Montana. Today, the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Refuge is located along the BigHorn River near Lovell, Wyoming along the Montana border.

Two hundred years later the Parade of the Crow People was one of the highlights of the 13th National Lewis and Clark Signature Event held at Pompey’s Pillar National Monument in July, 2006.  This parade is also performed  at the great Crow Fair held annually on the 3rd weekend in August at the Crow Agency near the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument.  The Crow Fair is one of the largest pow wows in the country. More than 45,000 spectators attend.  The Crow tribal college offers  van tours of the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument through Apsaalooke Tours, in partnership with the National Park Service. The battlefield was the site of "Custer’s Last Stand," the 1876 defeat of Lt. Colonel George Custer and his men by Sioux and Cheyenne warriors. An Indian Memorial was finally installed at the Battlefield in 2003.

Crow veterans who served in United States Armed Forces were the color guard at opening ceremonies at Pompey’s Pillar. Seven Montana Indian tribes participated in the National Signature Event. The seven tribes--Assiniboine, Gros Ventre, Blackfeet, Crow, Northern Cheyenne, Sioux, Chippewa-Cree, Salish, Kootenai and Pend O’reille--are members of the Montana Tribal Tourism Alliance.

Posted by Kira Gale on 11/01/2006 at 09:11 PM

Montana • Native American • Travel • (1) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink • Digg It • Add to del.icio.us