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| The name of the tribe, Apsáalooke, had been mistranslated by early interpreters as "people of [the] crows." It actually meant "children of the large bird," a name given to them by their neighboring tribe, the Hidatsa. The bird, perhaps now extinct, was defined as a fork-tailed bird resembling the blue jay or magpie. They first encountered Europeans in 1743, two Frenchmen (the La Verendryes brothers from Canada), near the present-day town of Hardin, Montana. These explorers called the Apsáalooke beaux hommes, "handsome men." The Crow termed Europeans as baashchíile, "person with yellow eyes."
Some have placed the early home of the Crow-Hidatsa ancestral tribe as being around the head waters of the Mississippi River in either northern Minnesota or Wisconsin; others place them in Winnipeg area of Manitoba. Later they moved to the Devil's Lake region of North Dakota before the Crow split from the Hidatsa and moved westward. Once established in Montana and Wyoming, the tribe was eventually divided in two divisions, the Mountain Crow and River Crow. Numbering around 4,000, the Crow were a very artistic people who lived along the Yellowsone River. Surrounded by their traditional enemies the Blackfeet, Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Sioux, the Crow became the allies of the white settlers. The Crow language is a member of the Missouri Valley Siouan languages. They split from the Hidatsa tribe in present-day North Dakota either around 1400-1500 CE (according to cultural anthropologists) or 900-1000 CE (according to linguistic anthropologists). The traditional shelters of the Crow are tepees made with buffalo skins and wooden poles. They are known to contruct some of the largest tepees. Inside they have mattresses to sleep on along the borders of their shelters, and a fire place, which the smoke escapes from through a hole in the top of the tepee. Many Crow families still own and use the tepee, especially when traveling. Crow Fair has been described as the largest gathering of tepees in the world. Traditional clothing the Crow wore depended on gender. Women wouldn't dress very fancy because they were mostly around their shelters. They wore dresses made of mountain sheep or deer skins, decorated with elk teeth. They would cover their legs with leggings and their feet with moccasins. Crow women had short hair, unlike the men. The men dressed differently, with a shirt, trimmed leggings with a belt, a robe, and moccasins on their feet. Their hair was actually long, in some cases reaching or even dragging the ground, and sometimes decorated with certain items. The Crow were a matrilineal (decent through the maternal line), matrilocal (husband moves in with wife's family), and matriarchal tribe (females obtaining high status, even chief). Women held a very significant role within the tribe. The Crow Tribe of Native Americans live in the Great Plains area of the United States. The shaman of the tribe was known as an Akbaalia ("healer").The Mannegishi are bald humanoids with large eyes and tiny bodies. They were tricksters and may be similar to fairies. They have supposedly been sighted in Massachusetts and are known there as Dover Demons. Cirape ("younger brother") is a companion of the old coyote trickster spirit. Awakkule is also a trickster spirit, but occasionally helps people instead. Baaxpee is a spiritual power that can cause a person to mature, as well as unusual events or circumstances that force maturation. After transmogrification, the changed are known as Xapaaliia. Andiciopec is a warrior hero who is invincible to bullets. |
| The Crow |
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