(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Indians 201: The 1887 Crow Indian uprising [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-10-05 Warfare on the Northern Plains was commonly carried out by small, independent raiding parties rather than by large, organized armies. The motivation for war was personal gain, not tribal patriotism. Through participation in war an individual gained prestige, honor, and even wealth (as counted in horses.) Writing about the Crows, anthropologist Fred Voget, in his book The Shoshoni-Crow Sun Dance, says: “Individuals moved up in society by building reputations based on conventional war honors and the possession and distribution of wealth, largely measured in horses obtained in raids against the enemy.” Among the Crows, whose homelands are in the Yellowstone River area of Montana, to obtain the title of “chief” a person had to perform four deeds: (1) to lead a successful raid (that is, a raid in which none of the Crow warriors were injured), (2) to capture a horse tethered in an enemy camp, (3) to be the first to count coup, and (4) to take a weapon from a live enemy. Among the Indian nations of the Northern Plains, individual success in war was usually credited to the power of personal war medicine. This war medicine might be acquired in a dream or vision in which a spirit would give the young warrior protection from harm. War medicine often involved a war song, face paint, and a sacred object to be worn during raids. War honors were important to an individual’s status within the tribe. In 1887, a young Crow warrior named Wraps Up His Tail participated in a Cheyenne Sun Dance where he received a powerful vision. As a result of this vision, the Cheyenne gave him a ceremonial sword and the new name – Sword Bearer. As a result of his vision Sword Bearer claimed that no harm could come to him because of the sword. When Sword Bearer told some of the other young warriors that he intended to raid against the Blackfoot, several of the young warriors were eager to follow him on the war path. Sword Bearer led the Crow war party against the Blackfoot who had stolen some of their horses The successful party returned with the Crow horses as well as several Blackfoot horses. They returned home in a traditional Crow fashion, but instead of circling the camp, they circled the Indian agent’s house to proudly announce their victory. In 1875, the United States government had consolidated the three Crow tribes on a reservation on Rosebud Creek at Absorokee and in 1883-1884, the Crow Reservation was reduced. The reservation was administered by an Indian agent, a political appointee with no knowledge of Indian people. In 1887, the Indian agent, ignorant of Crow customs and aware that the Crow intensely disliked him, misinterpreted the returning war party’s traditional display of valor. The Indian agent, fearing for his life, ordered a double row of guards around his house. He then ordered that Sword Bearer and his warriors be arrested for horse stealing. In their 1933 book Blankets and Moccasins: Plenty Coups and His People, the Crows, Glendolin Wagner and William Allen write: “The bewildered young leader who had anticipated a warm welcome with feasting and dancing found himself in unaccountable disgrace.” Noting the injustice of the arrest, Wagner and Allen continue: “According to the ethics of warfare they had conducted themselves admirably.” As for the Indian agent, Wagner and Allen write: “He was neither tactful nor kind. Those hot-headed savages had stolen horses and had shot at him. They must be punished.” Some of his non-Indian contemporaries described the agent as a “bully” and a “man without vision.” While the Indian agent was a stockman with the vast acreage of the Crow Reservation at his disposal, he showed no understanding of why the Crows would want to avenge the horse raids against them by other tribes. Within the context of Crow culture, Sword Bearer, by leading a successful raid in which none of his warriors had been injured, had accomplished one of the four deeds required for chiefly status. The Indian agent, however, simply viewed the young warriors as hot-headed savages and horse thieves. In addition, he felt that they had shot at him. The warriors, in his viewpoint, had to be punished. Thus Sword Bearer, instead of finding honor awaiting him, found that he was a wanted criminal. Sword Bearer and his warriors fled to the mountains. Soon the non-Indian Montanans were pleading with the government to send in troops to put down this Indian uprising. In his University of Montana Doctor of Education Dissertation, Language and Culture Mobilization in Public Schools on the Crow Reservation Since the Crow Act of 1920, Ben Irvin reports: “All of this behavior had been generated because a few Crow teenagers teased a bigoted agent.” Using the superior firepower of Hotchkiss machine guns, the army soon persuaded most of the young warriors to surrender. Sword Bearer was then killed by Fire Bear, an Indian police officer, after he had surrendered. Ben Irvin reports: “With a few exceptions, all members of the “uprising” were teenagers. It is interesting that the first and only Crow “uprising” was the last official Indian war in Montana.” More American Indian histories Indians 101: The United States invades Mexico to destroy a Kickapoo village Indians 201: The Kickapoo War against Texas Indians 201: The 1827 Winnebago Uprising Indians 101: The 1856 Battle of Seattle Indians 101: The Tlingit Rebellion of 1802-1806 Indians 201: The Bannock Indian War Indians 201: The Cayuse Indian War Indians 201: The Sheepeater Indian War Note: Indians 201 is an expansion/revision of an earlier essay. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/5/2197102/-Indians-201-The-1887-Crow-Indian-uprising?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=latest_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/