Section 18

The second pipe stem (Fig. 46) differs little from the first, save in the fact that it is shorter (being 29 1" long), and lacks the wrapping of pony beads.
There are no pipe bowls in the bundle. The stems were, of course, the sacred heart of these medicine pipe bundles. — JCE]
PIPE-HOLDERS PIPE BUNDLES
Medicine pipes differing in type from the elaborate calumets employed in the Medicine Pipe Ceremony, were carried by the leaders of Crow war parties. These pipe-holders' pipes included both wooden stem and stone bowl. They originated in visions which provided their owners instructions for their construction and their use.
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STANDING bull's MEDICINE PIPE FIGURES 47 AND 48
A medicine pipe bundle obtained from White Bear in 1923, belonged to his grandfather. Standing Bull, a famous chief among the Crows about 50 years earlier, (cat. no. 11/7698).
The stem and bowl are shown together in Fig. 48, and enlarged reproduction of the bowl, alone, in Fig. 47. The stem is a short one, 1 3 J", and is simply an undecorated willow tube f" in its largest diameter. The bowl is a tubular one of red stone 6 J" long and i" in its largest diameter. Seven small cup-like indentations on the bowl represent the dipper. The incised lines near the front of the bowl s5nnbolize the stars in general. An incised zigzag line re- presents lightning.
The pointing of this pipe toward the enemy by the leader of the Crow war party was thought to cause death just as surely as would a stroke of lightning.
PRETTY coyote's MEDICINE PIPE FIGURES 49 AND 50
[On September 25, 1922 William Wildschut forwarded to the museum a medicine pipe obtained from Pretty Coyote which once belonged to an unidentified grandfather, (cat. no. 11/6456).
Stem and bowl are shown together in Fig. 50, while the bowl alone, is portrayed at a larger scale in Fig. 49. The tubular, wooden stem is 35 J" long. The forepart of it is wrapped in rawhide and sinew. Bound to the afterportion are various feathers, and pendant from the center of the stem are a braid of sweetgrass and a battered eagle feather.
The bowl is a smoke-blackened, stone tube 3 J" long and y in greatest diameter. Its only decoration is a wrapping of sinew around the stem end. Originally a small stone plug, fitted into this bowl, served as a crude tobacco filter. However, this plug was not found with the specimen. — JCE]
LOVE MEDICINE BUNDLES
A MEDICINE extensively used among the Crows, yet jealously l\ guarded and hard to obtain, is the love medicine bundle. It is a ^ JLpersonally-owned bundle, generally obtained in a vision under- taken as a result of the grief caused by unrequited love. Both men and women possessed these medicines and with them sought to attract the person of his or her choice, tried to regain the affection of an unfaithful wife or husband, or to revive a lost love.
WEASEL moccasin's LOVE MEDICINE EFFIGIES NOT ILLUSTRATED
Weasel Moccasin, at one time one of the best-known Crow medicine men, is said to have employed a love medicine which contained two buckskin dolls, one male and the other female. Attached to these dolls were a number of small packages which contained various herbs. When the medicine was not in use, Weasel Moccasin kept the dolls wrapped in a rawhide container tied together face to face.
When a woman approached him hoping to gain the love of the man of her choice through the power of his medicine. Weasel Moccasin would unwrap his bundle, perform a certain ritual, face the woman in the direction of the man's tipi, place the male doll at the back of her head, and sing certain medicine songs. If the request for assistance was made by a man the ritual was the same, except that the female doll was placed behind the man's head.
TRAVEL S LOVE MEDICINE ROBE OF ELKSKIN FIGURE 51
An interesting love medicine was obtained from Smells in 1922. Its original owner was Travels, (cat. no. 11/6625).
Travels was already a middle-aged man when he fell in love with a girl several years his junior. However, she refused his
123
124 CROW INDIAN MEDICINE BUNDLES
attentions and told him to leave her alone. Then Travels went to the mountains and fasted. He stayed four days, but received no vision, and returned to camp. He renewed his courting of the girl, but again met with failure. So he again went to the mountains to fast, choosing a high peak in the Crazy Mountains north of present Livingston, Montana. There he stayed for five days. And this time he received a vision.
In his vision Travels saw an elk standing in a river. Presently it walked up to him and changed into a human being. This elk- person wore an elk skin robe and carried a bone whistle. He stop- ped within a few feet of Travels and told him to watch his actions. First he turned toward the north and blew his whistle. As he did this, lightning seemed to dart from his mouth. Then he sang: 'T am looking. I am the medicine man of the wilderness."
As he sang female animals of all species appeared from the direction in which he gazed and they walked toward him. Again he whistled, this time facing south, and sang a second song: *T am Famous Elk. I am Hving in the clouds." Again Travels saw females of all species coming toward the elk-man from the direction he faced. Famous Elk then turned to Travels and said to him, "When you go home make a robe like that which I am wearing now. Paint it as this one is painted. Put it on and walk in front of the girl you love. Sing my songs and whistle. She will not refuse you again."
Then the elk-person sang one more song: "When I talk it rains." Immediately a thunderstorm approached, lightning and rain came. Then he told Travels that he also would have the power to make rain whenever he wished to do so.
The vision then disappeared. Travels awoke and returned to camp. He killed a large bull elk and made the robe just as he had seen it in his vision. Soon after he finished the robe he used it to charm the girl he loved. The next day this girl came to his tipi and became his wife. Travels died about the year 1900, aged nearly 100 years.
This elkskin medicine robe (Fig. 51) is 92" wide across the center. On the skin are painted a bull elk following a female one. Both animals are rendered in blue outlines filled with yellow and some red extending from the male's mouth down the front of its body. The red represents lightning, symbolized again by the two large red spots over the animals. The upper part of the robe is painted a solid yellow with a narrow red line border. This re-
LOVE MEDICINE BUNDLES 125
presents clouds. Elk tracks, painted blue, extend below the figures from the right side of the robe to its center.*'
fog's love medicine robe of elkskin See figures 52 and 53
Another love medicine robe was obtained from Bear Below in the year 1924. This medicine originated in the vision of a Crow Indian named Fog. (cat. no. 12/7781).
When he was about 20 to 22 years of age Fog went to the mountains to fast. On the morning of the fifth day he saw a vision. A bull elk appeared to him coming through a river. It walked to the edge of the timber, halted in front of Fog, and changed into a human being, and spoke: "I am the medicine elk. Whenever I want a woman I can make the one I love best come to me."
As he spoke the elk-person paraded in front of Fog, turning his body to left and right. He was wearing a painted elk robe, and sang: "I am Medicine Elk. I am sta5dng in the mountains." As he sang a female otter emerged from its hole near the river, and, coming closer, changed into a woman and stood beside the elk.
"When you want the woman you love to come to you," said the elk-man to Fog, "do as I have done. Make a robe of elkskin, paint it like the one I am wearing, and parade in front of the woman you want. Sing the song I have just given you, and she wiU come to you. Before wearing the robe, however, smudge it, as well as yourself, with the smoke of mountain holly."
On returning to camp. Fog made the robe and painted it in accordance with the instructions received in his vision. He is said to have used this robe successfully, and also to have lent it on many occasions to other Indians for similar purposes and with equal success. After his death this robe was inherited by an elder brother of Bear Below, and Bear Below inherited it upon his brother's death.
This elkskin robe (Fig. 52) is 66" wide across the center. A narrow yellow stripe borders the entire robe. A yellow spot in the
*' Lowie apparently saw and briefly described this robe: "At Pryor I saw a robe of elk hide on which was depicted a female elk in front of a male. This blanket, I was told, had been dreamt by a man eager to possess a woman who had spurned him. After going to the mountains and praying, he saw the robe in a vision and subsequently captivated the girl with it." (Lowie, 1922. p. 425).
126 CROW INDIAN MEDICINE BUNDLES
center of the robe symbolize's the female otter's home. Above it are painted the female otter in solid blue and bull elk in blue outUne and blue and yellow filler colors. The jagged blue line between the mouth of the otter and the elk represents the path taken by the otter toward the elk.
The rendering of this elk (Fig. 53) differs from that one painted on Travel's robe. Only two legs are indicated and the proportions of the neck and body are less realistic. Nevertheless, the predo- minant use of blue and yellow colors in the painting of the elk figure is similar to the painting on Travels' robe.
Fastened to the robe above the elk figure is the ear of an elk with a single eagle feather pendant from it at the end of a long, yellow-painted, braided buckskin cord. This represents the body of the elk who gave Fog his medicine. The fanning of the feather by the wind (when the robe is worn) symbolizes the turning and parading of the male in front of the female.*^
STANDING elk's LOVE MEDICINE FLUTE NOT ILLUSTRATED
The Trail gave an interesting account of Standing Elk's reputed experiences with a love medicine flute which was believed to have elk power:
"Standing Elk, a young Crow, was in love with a girl of his tribe. He had asked her repeatedly to marry him, but always in vain. One day he met her on the bank of a river and asked her again to marry him. She still refused, teUing him that she wanted to have nothing more to do with him and desired him to stop annoying her.
"After the girl left the river bank. Standing Elk sat down and cried, burying his face in his hands. Presently he heard the sound of wading in the river, and looking up, he saw an elk coming toward him. Standing Elk watched the animal and saw it raise its front hoof, point it in the direction of the camp, and sing a song. Then the elk whistled toward the four world quarters with a wooden flute which it carried in its mouth. Each time the elk whistled in any direction a nice-looking young girl appeared. Finally the elk said to Standing Elk, 'Do as I have shown you and the girl will come to you.'
*8 This love medicine was first described in Indian Notes. (Wildschut, 1925b. pp. 211-214).
LOVE MEDICINE BUNDLES I27
"After Standing Elk saw this vision he returned to his tipi. He made no medicine and did not try to charm the girl he loved. Yet through the power of the elk she came to his tipi and asked him to marry her. Instead, Standing Elk took her by the arm and put her out of his tipi.
"The elk medicine given to Standing Elk comprised both the top tassels of a certain grass and a flute. After refusing the girl Standing Elk cut a branch of a pine tree and made a flute from it. He painted it all over with yellow paint and traced the design of an elk upon it. Around the mouthpiece he wrapped a strip of yellow-painted otter skin. He tied a little twig on it the same length as the flute, and an eagle plume to represent the tassel of grass. After the flute was finished, he made a smudge of yellow moss, held the flute over it, and also smudged himself.
"Standing Elk then went through the camp at night blowing his flute in all directions and pretty young women came to him. Soon everyone knew that Standing Elk, the rejected suitor, had become a great charmer of women.
"One day some Gros Ventres visited the Crows, and among them was a woman named Mink Woman. She was very ugly, had only one eye, and carried an infant with her. Her presence was considered very strange to the Crows. They asked her why she had come to visit them. She repUed that she had come to marry Standing Elk and that he would be her slave. The people laughed at her, knowing that Standing Elk could always attract the pret- tiest girls in the tribe, while she was one-eyed and ugly.
"One evening while the Gros Ventres were still among the Crows, Standing Elk made medicine with his flute. To his surprise no girls came to him. Meanwhile the Gros Ventre woman, whose medicine was a stuffed mink, made a smudge and incensed herself and her medicine. Then she fixed her bed, and pointing the mink in the direction of Standing Elk's tipi, she gradually moved it toward her until it was beside her on the bed.
"Standing Elk again tried to make medicine, but without success. He wrapped up his medicine flute and tied it to the rear pole of his tipi. Then he went outside and gradually wandered in the direction of the Gros Ventre woman's lodge, entered it, and married her.
"When the Gros Ventres returned to their own country Stand- ing Elk went with them, leaving his medicine flute behind. Visiting Crows later brought back word that he was still married to Mink
128 CROW INDIAN MEDICINE BUNDLES
Woman and that they had seen him nursing her baby. He ap- peared to have completely forgotten his own tribe. But Standing Elk had among the Crows a very close friend for whom he had made a copy of his own medicine flute. This man announced that he was going to visit the Gros Ventres and try to induce his friend to return to the Crows. Soon thereafter he joined a party of Crows who were going to the Gros Ventres. He took with him his own elk medicine as well as that of Standing Elk. As soon as the Crows arrived at the Gros Ventre camp this friend inquired where Standing Elk was living. He visited Standing Elk and told him how he was neglecting himself and his appearance, sa3dng that it looked very bad for so handsome a man to be married to an ugly woman. Yet no amount of talk seemed to make any impression on Standing Elk.
"His friend then returned to his tipi, boiled some water and put into it the willow branch which was tied to Standing Elk's flute. Then the Crows went together to Standing Elk's tipi. As they came in sight of his lodge they sang four songs. After the fourth song they entered the tipi. Mink Woman was there. She offered to cook her husband's friends a meal, but they declined, saying that they had just finished eating and had come only to visit their friend.
"Unseen by Mink Woman, Standing Elk was then made to drink some of the willow water prepared by his friend. As he drank the Crows began to sing, and while singing Standing Elk's friend stood up, unwrapped his flute and suddenly pushed it down Standing Elk's throat. This action made Standing Elk violently ill. He vomited. Then he stood up, stretched himself and declared that he felt better. He asked his friends to sing for him again, saying that he seemed to have entirely forgotten his tribe lately. The Crows sang a second song, after which Standing Elk said, 'Let us leave here.'
"Mink Woman, who had become very restless, then tried to use witchcraft. But the Crows ran away taking Standing Elk with them. That Mink Woman made some medicine by which she hoped to prevent Standing Elk from leaving her seemed to be proven by the fact that, as the Crows ran. Standing Elk seemed suddenly to wade in sticky mud, even though the ground was dry and solid. However, he managed to reach the river's edge and as soon as his feet touched the water he was transformed into an elk.
"Standing Elk faced upstream and then downstream. He
LOVE MEDICINE BUNDLES 129
washed his body thoroughly, returned to shore, and resumed the shape of a human being. Standing Elk now had acquired the power to counteract Mink Woman's medicine and influence. He returned to the Crows with his friends."*^
FLAT LIP S LOVE MEDICINE FLUTE FIGURE 54
[On December 31, 1923, WiUiam Wildschut forwarded to the museum a love medicine flute which he had obtained from a Crow Indian named Flat Lip. His correspondence of that date states that Flat Lip formerly owned a painted robe similar to cat. no. Ti/6625 (Fig. 51), which went with this flute. However, he had disposed of the robe years earHer.