Joseph Medicine Crow, respected elder of the Crow tribe, draws on more than sixty years of story collecting to offer readers this extraordinary look at American Indian culture from the Indian point of view. In his early boyhood, Joe Medicine Crow had the good fortune to have known many pre-reservation Crows. His grandfathers, Medicine Crow and Yellowtail, both leaders of the Crow tribe, were ceremonial traditionalists who often invited their fellow men to sweat baths, at which times many stories were told. Young Joseph would sit quietly and listen. He was further exposed to the stories of the Indian wars while growing up in the same home with White-Man Runs Him, one of Custer's six Crow scouts. Thus was born a passion for recording stories and collecting data on Crow culture - a collection that stretches from the buffalo-hunting days of men born before the Civil War up to the present day. Few Native Americans alive today can provide such a compelling and authentic window into a way of life that ended more than a century ago. As the first Crow Indian to graduate from college and earn a master's degree, Joe Medicine Crow combines oral tradition and the written record to compile a history of the Northern Plains tribes that is unique in the American Indian community.

Includes index.

Foreword / Herman J. Viola -- The Crow Country -- The Crow Indians. Early History. Recent History. Relations with the United States. Patterns of Absarokee Culture. Social Organization. Military Organization. Religious Organization. Economic Organization. Language. Physical Appearance. Manner of Dress. Camp Activities -- Recreation, Sports, and Socials. Population Trends. Some Important Events in the History of the Crow Tribe -- The Crow Migration Story -- Esak Ebandia -- Bachay Balat-Chia -- Sits in the Middle of the Land -- Medicine Crow. A Note on Medicine Crow Genealogy -- Medicine Rock Chief -- Intertribal Warfare in the Wolf Mountains. The Hill Where a Gros Ventre War Party Was Annihilated (Massacre Hill). Four Crow War Parties Move Into the Wolf Mountains. The Battle of Pryor Creek. A Crow and Gros Ventre Battle. The Crow Concept of Vision Quest. Piles of Stone -- Crow Indian Buffalo Jumps. Historical References. Conclusions -- About Crow Indian Horses. What Has Happened to the Crow Indian Horses? -- From M.M. to M.D. -- The Crow Fair -- Crow Indian Humor. The Day Big Sheep Got the Best of Bill Lynde, a Shrewd Horse Trader. The Educated Young Indian and His Uneducated Old Grandfather. The Indian Cowboy. The Indian Cowboy's Brain. The Drinking Man's Four Wishes.