Location:The Crow Reservation is located
in southcentral Montana, on the western border of the Northern Cheyenne
Indian Reservation. Approximately 75% of the Apsaalooke population
live on the reservation.Language: The Crow call themselves
Apsaalooke (ep-sah-lo-kay]), which means "Children of the Large-Beaked Bird." The bird
they refer to is most likely a raven. Apsaalooke is a Siouan language of
the Amerind family. About 85% of Apsaalooke
still speak their native language as their mother tongue. They also have
their own writing system (ammaalaatuua).Religion: Some Apsaalooke people practice
their traditional religion, others practice Christianity,
or the peyote religion of the Native American Church. Some practice
their respective religion exclusively, others are active in all three.
Traditional Apsaalooke religious practices include the sweat lodge,
vision quest, and the Sun Dance. They believe in a power that transcends
the ordinary (Baaxpee) that comes from The One Who Has Made
Everything (Akbaatatdia). Healers who possess medicine receive
power from Akbaatatdia mediated through spirits known as Iilapxe (His Father). The Iilapxe are usually in the form
of an animal, an inanimate object, or "Little People" (dwarf-like
beings that inhabit mountainous areas). The Apsaalooke
believe that
all beings are emanations from The One Who Has Made Everything.Kinship: Matrilineal clans are
the hub of Apsaalooke social life. One's clan can always be depended
one to fulfill one's social and material needs. Though some Apsaalooke
have completely abandoned their traditions with conversion to
Christianity, one tradition all Apsaalooke still hold dear is the
practice of honoring clan aunts and uncles (Aassahke). All the men and
women of one's clan are considered an aunt or uncle. Men and women honor
their clan aunts and uncles by showing them respect and deference,
showering them with gifts on special occasions, and feasting them. In
turn, the aunts and uncles praise their clan children's good deeds
publicly and offer their prayers, protection, and guidance.Subsistence: The Apsaalooke
maintain a buffalo herd of 300 on the reservation and do a little
farming and ranching. Unemployment is high on the reservation and most
of the available jobs are with the BIA or at the Little Bighorn Casino.
Some Apsaalooke find jobs with the mining industry, which is exploiting
the vast coal deposits that lie under the eastern portion of the
reservation.History: The Apsaalooke and the Hidatsa are both descended from a tribe that lived in the "Land of the Lakes": the Winnepeg country of southeastern
Manitoba. By the mid-16th century this ancestral tribe had begun to move
West. When they reached the Missouri River they met the Mandan people
and became semisedentary horticulturalists. According to Apsaalooke oral history, two leaders, Red Scout and
No Vitals, each received a dream. In Red Scout's dream he was given a
kernel of corn and told to plant it for his people. No Vitals was given
a pod of tobacco seeds and told to migrate West to plant them. He was
told that when the seeds flourished, his people would flourish. Several generations later, No Vitals' people
migrated to the northern plains of Wyoming and Montana and fulfilled his vision
by planting the sacred tobacco seeds. The people founded the Sacred
Tobacco Society and the Apsaalooke nation was born. The Tobacco Society
ritually plants and harvests the sacred tobacco plant that was given by Akbaatatdia as a symbol of regeneration and prosperity. According
to prophecy when the sacred tobacco stops growing, the Apsaalooke people
will cease to exist.
Though this page has been carefully researched, the author does not
claim expertise on the Apsaalooke.
Please send questions, comments, and corrections to emuseum@mnsu.edu and include the web address of this page.
If you are Apsaalooke, your feedback is much appreciated.
The Official Site of the Crow Tribe: http://www.crowtribe.com/index.htm
References:
Frey, Rodney
1987 The World of the Crow Indians: As Driftwood Lodges. Norman
and London: University of Oklahoma Press.
Montana Official
State Travel Information Site
Indian Nations of Montana: Crow. Electronic document: http://indiannations.visitmt.com/crow.shtm, accessed August 23, 2008.
Snell, Alma
Hogan
2000 Grandmother's Grandchild: My Crow Indian Life. Becky Matthew, ed.
Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
The Official
Site of the Crow Tribe, Apsaalooke Nation.
2008 About the Apsaalooke. Electronic document: http://www.crowtribe.com/about.htm, accessed August 23, 2008.
The Peoples of
the World Foundation
2004 The Crow. Electronic document: http://www.peoplesoftheworld.org/text?people=Crow, accessed August 23, 2008.
Written By:
Melissa Lorentz, 2008
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