All about the ancient tribes
The Crows were primarily hunting people. Crow men hunted deer, elk, and especially buffalo. Some Crow bands raised corn in their village gardens, but others grew only tobacco there. Sometimes Crow Indians traded for corn from more agricultural tribes such as the Mandans.
Name. The name of the tribe, Absaroka (pronounced ab-SOR-ka), which translates as “children of the large-beaked bird”, was given to them by the Hidatsa, a neighboring Siouan-speaking tribe. French interpreters translated the name as gens du corbeau (“people of [the] crow “), and they became known in English as the Crow.
The Crow, also called the Absaroka, Apsalooke, Apsaroke or Absarokee, who historically lived in the Yellowstone river valley, now live on a reservation south of Billings, Montana at Crow Agency, Montana.
Crow Indian Language (Apsaaloke, Apsaroke, Absarokee) Crow is a Siouan language of the Great Plains, spoken today by more than 4000 people in Montana. In their own language, the people call themselves Apsaaloke or Absaroke.
Crow or Crowe is not very rare English language name of English (dark hair), and Irish origin (MacEnchroe) or Manx (McCrawe). Or a translation of any of various Irish Gaelic names derived from fiach ‘raven’, ‘ crow ‘. It is not a very common Native American name.
In the 1860s and ’70s, the United States Army was engaged in war with the Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes. The Pawnee tribe had fought these other tribes for years, and so the Army turned to the Pawnee for help against a common foe. The Lakota (Sioux ) had much more trouble with early emigrants than other tribes.
The Mohawk, and the Attacapa, Tonkawa, and other Texas tribes were known to their neighbours as ‘man-eaters.'” The forms of cannibalism described included both resorting to human flesh during famines and ritual cannibalism, the latter usually consisting of eating a small portion of an enemy warrior.
The Crow Indian Reservation, headquartered in Crow Agency, is the largest reservation in Montana encompassing approximately 2.2 million acres. The Crow Tribe has a membership of 11,000, of whom 7,900 reside on the Crow Indian Reservation.
To help finance the launching of the Crow currency, the tribe commissioned 1,000 one-ounce silver medallions commemorating the Battle of the Little Bighorn. They are not currency and are being sold for $50 each, mainly to coin collectors.
Visitors are welcome at powwows, but flash photography is not allowed during contests, and you should always ask dancers for permission before taking their photographs. For more information, contact the Tribal Headquarters, P.O. Box 159, Crow Agency, MT 59022 (tel. 406/638-3700), or visit www. crow -fair.com.
Crow is a Siouan language spoken in southern Montana in the USA, particularly on the Crow Indian Reseration. Crow is closely related to Hidatsa, a Siouan language spoken in North and South Dakota. The two languages belong to the Missouri Valley branch of Siouan languages, however they are not mutually intelligible.
By 1740 the Crow had emerged as middlemen engaged in the trading of horses, bows, shirts, and featherwork to the Plains Village tribes for guns and metal goods; these they traded in turn to the Shoshone in Idaho.