Greatest Crow Warrior?

[dT]

I know this type of question always stirs up controversy ...
but who was the greatest warrior of the Crows?

is there any agreement that one particular warrior was exceptional, and
this person could be remembered as being very impressive?

thanks,
Pete (dT)

[tipifan]

Why should that be of any importance?? The Crow had many great people ... women and men. So why single out individual people and belittle others with similar if not same achievements? Stealing horses, snatching a gun, touching an enemy (can't recall the fourth one) ... deeds that probably have little meaning in today's kind of warfare.

[dT]

It is of importance to the Crow nation. :-)

My point is that great warriors from other tribes are often spoken about, and there are quite a few books mentioning names. For example, for the Lakota warriors there are a lot of books written that have done a pretty good job of documenting some of the famous warriors and their exploits. But for the Crows - I have not seen that information readily available.

The coverage is not balanced in the books ... that's what I'm saying.

dT

[cinemo]

Hi dT,

you're right , compared to Lakota , we have only few references to Crow braves.

In the link, below, you can see few short biographies of Crow braves ( especially Hunts-The-Enemy and Shot-In-The-Hand ) There were many other Crow braves.

www.angelfire.com/mt/manycoups/MedicineCrow.html

The mid-1600s to the late 1800s was an era of warriors and war chiefs. A warrior’s greatest honor, and thus his greatest aspiration, was to become a war chief. But this was no easy task. To become a war chief a Crow warrior had to complete four different war deeds. One, be the first warrior to touch an enemy during a battle ( counting coup ) . Two, take away an enemy’s weapon. The third war deed was particularly tricky — steal an enemy’s horse ( picketed in front of an enemy lodge ) . The fourth war deed was to lead a successful war party. These were the Crows' four war deeds.

cinemo

[dT]

Cinemo ... it is my hope that I might visit the Crow people soon ... in person.
Therefore, I am thinking about their lives in more detail.

There are many accounts of famous warriors for the Lakotas ... and these chiefs and warriors were great fighters. Crazy Horse, Red Cloud, American Horse, Stinking Bear - very serious warriors. All of the Lakotas were constantly fighting the Crows and the Arikara (Pawnee). So it seems to me that the Crows must also have had great warriors ... or else their tribe would have been completely destroyed. That didnt happen - so they must have been able to hold their ground against the Lakotas. I am sure they had good years and bad years, but the Crows did survive the era from the 1600's to the end of the 1800's ... so they must have also won many battles. Quite honestly, for the Crows to have resisted the constant attacks from the Lakotas is no small feat ... it was a great accomplishment for them to survive this fighting :-)

I will check the names that you have mentioned!!!

dT

[carlo]

dT, here are a few more to check out:

Hunts To Die, Red Bear, Spotted Buffalo, Two Leggings, Bellrock, Big Shoulders aka Big Shoulder Blade (Plenty Coups' closest comrade in arms), Plenty Coups himself of course, Pretty Eagle

Carlo

[hconroy]

The Crow war chief Long Horse was revered by his Crow compatriots. He was killed in a battle with the Sioux in 1875 near Fort Maginnis while recovering stolen livestock for the Army.
hconroy

[carlo]

Please note that Plenty Coups was mistaken when he mentioned to biographer Frank Linderman that Long Horse was killed near Fort Maginnis. This post wasn't established until 1880!

Long Horse was killed by Lakota horse raiders in 1875, on July 25 to be exact, but this happened near Camp Lewis, present-day Lewistown, Montana.

[hconroy]

Thanks for the clarification. It possibly could have been some kind of temporary encampment of the army that Plenty Coups spoke of.

[hconroy]

The Crow Woman Chief,(Beckwourth's Pine Leaf?) was apparently unique among the plains tribes. According to Denig she was captured from the Gros-Ventre as a girl and raised by the Crows. She evidently became a warrior of great prowess, greatly respected by the Crows and their enemies.

[dT]

Carlo and Hconroy - thank you for much for the contributions on this topic.
Although much has been written about the famous Lakota warriors, there seems to be less material about the Crows. I am not sure why this is. Maybe because they didn't resist the onslaught of the white civilization, their role has been downplayed. Or maybe it's just because the Crows are a very humble and honest people. But I have to guess that their great warriors were very good fighters. My guess is that they used the mountains more as part of their fighting tactics (to their advantage). Because the Lakotas were such accomplished horsemen. But this is complete speculation, and it could be wrong.

One thing is for sure - the Crows have a very fascinating tribal history. Their migration path was "way out there" :-)

dT

[hconroy]

The Crow Indians, Laroque's Horse Indians (1806), were considered by early white observers as being perhaps the finest horsemen of the plains tribes, compared only to the Comanches by contemporary accounts. A description of them entering the treaty grounds at Horse Creek in 1851 is posted on page 6 of Crow Leaders and Bands of 1858 under this heading. Though they were a relatively small tribe (est. 420 lodges in 1854) they protected their homeland for many years against invading tribes.
Their fighting prowess was well recognized. Some notable accounts of success in battle are:
The battle near present-day Lovell, Wyoming in 1844 after Big Shadow's sun dance, recorded by Edward S. Curtis's" History of the American Indian---Volume 4"
The Spirit Warrior battle near present-day Pryor, Montana in 1863, which is also well documented.
The battle in the summer on 1874 near present-day Worden, Mt. which is described in Tom Laforge's "White Crow Indian" by Marquis.
It should also be noted that a charge by some 120 Crows and 80 Shoshones, although outnumbered by the Sioux and Cheyennes, saved Crook's line from being overrun in the Battle of the Rosebud.
That they allied themselves with the white man to preserve their lands perhaps makes them less likely to have had single individuals singled out by the whites, but history has plenty of names of Crow warriors who fought with tremendous honor, skill and valor.

[dT]

hconroy - thank you. I didn't know that about the Crow horsemen - it is good to know.
I also didn't understand the significance of the Crows at the Rosebud.

You are right - the Crows probably saved Crook. The Rosebud battle really shook him up.
Was that a good thing or a bad thing - that Crook was saved?
Ask the White Mountain Apaches ... their answer might be quite interesting.
Hahahahahahaha!!

dT

[hconroy]

dt,
As a sidenote, Tom Laforge was a compatriot of my gg grandfather, Samuel Shively. Samuel was ambushed and murdered on July 10, 1875 near present-day Columbus, MT., by the Sioux. This incident and the battle which resulted in Long Horse's death were hundreds of miles west of the hunting grounds signed for in the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty.

[dT]

Hconroy ... Mr. Shively was killed in late 1875. Is there any chance that he was actually killed by Crazy Horse and the followers of Crazy Horse? It doesn't seem impossible. Crazy Horse fought at the Bighorn in 1876. Prior to that he was covering a lot of ground, riding many miles.

You never know. But it is interesting to wonder about these things.

dT