Section 21

STOMACH KNEADERS FIGURE 66
An interesting implement employed by the Crows to relieve indigestion and gas is the stomach kneader. It is invariably used by the Indian to treat himself. It is in frequent use today (1927). It is not considered a medicine object. Nevertheless, since Crow stomach kneaders have not been illustrated in other publications, it may not be out of place to show their appearance here.
[Fig. 66 shows two of these wooden implements. The larger of the two (cat. NO. 15/4721) is 17" long. Its greatest width is 3 3/8" and thickness i|". The smaller stomach kneader (cat. no.
HEALING MEDICINE BUNDLES I45
15/2399) is 13" long, 2" in greatest width, and i" in thickness. — JCEJ57
^' A Crow myth tells of a woman who was given the power to "tell those who had a stomach ache to knead their stomachs." (Lowie, 1918, p. 126). It was the wide part of the stomach kneader that was pushed against the stomach and upward. The Crows were "careful not to press hard on the navel." (Lowie, 1922, p. 374).
The common digging stick also played a role in Crow Indian medical practices. More than a century ago E. T. Denig wrote: "Abortions are pro- duced by administering blows on the abdomen or by pressing upon it with a stick, leaning their whole weight thereon and swinging to and fro. The foetus is thus ejected at different periods of its growth, varying from 3 to 7 months. As they are not aware of the danger attending the practice many women die in attempting it. It has been computed by those well acquainted with this tribe that threefourths of all women who die are lost in this man- ner." Usually the husband consents to it, or at least does not punish his wife for so doing, but of late years the voices of all or most of the men are against the crime and it is becoming more rare. The act now reflects disgrace on both the father and the mother of the child, and, if not done so frequent- ly, it is at least concealed from the public." (Denig, 1953. PP- 57~58)-
BUFFALO HUNTING MEDICINES
WILLIAM Wildschut's description of Crow rock medicines tells of their use as hunting medicines. His description of Long's buffalo medicine bundle clearly indicates that one of the buffalo horns in that bundle was employed to obtain super- natural aid in hunting buffalo, while other horns in the bundle were used in curing rituals.
On October 21, 1922, Wildschut forwarded to the museum another Crow medicine bundle which was merely described in his correspondence as a "buffalo hunting medicine from Cold Wind." (cat. no. 11/4872). As shown in Figure 67, this medicine consists simply of a buffalo horn 6 J" long with a little skin packet of herb medicine tied to it through a hole drilled in the base of the horn. There is also a braided hair cord, probably used to suspend this medicine around the neck of the hunter. The surface of this buffalo horn is rubbed with sacred red paint. — JCE]^^
58 Lowie was told of a number of Crow Indians who were credited by their fellows with the power to call buffalo or deer. Their services were of greatest value when game was scarce and the people were hungry. Lowie did not illustrate any of these game "charming" medicines. (Lowie, 1922, PP- 354-359).
146
HISTORICAL AND COMPARATIVE SURVEY
BY JOHN C. EWERS THE PREHISTORIC CROW INDIANS
A CCORDING to the traditions of both the Crow and Hidatsa I\ Indians these two tribes were once one people. The date J \ of their separation has been variously estimated at from about "five hundred years ago" (Lowie, 1956, p. 4) to about the year 1776. (Denig, 1953, p. 19). Lowie based his estimate primarily upon the degree of linguistic difference between Crow and Hidatsa that existed in the early years of the present century. However, earlier writers were more inclined to minimize these linguistic differences. Francois Larocque readily recognized the close affinity between Crow and Hidatsa in 1805, and presented a brief comparative vocabulary to prove it. (Larocque, 1910, pp. 68-69). Edwin T. Denig, writing a half century later, claimed that the two tribes "have little or no difficulty in conversing with each other." (Denig, 1953, p. 20). Washington Matthews, an early authority on the Hidatsa, suggested that even in the early period, when these tribes lived in close proximity to each other they may have spoken slightly different dialects. (Matthews, 1877, p. 39). Had the Crow and Hidatsa then occupied separate villages, as did the Mandan in later years, this might have been the case. If so, the linguistic deviation might have begun before the wide geographi- cal separation between these tribes, and a much more recent date for this separation than the one proposed by Lowie might be acceptable.
I am inclined to believe that although Denig's date of 1776 for the separation of these tribes is too recent, the westward movement of the Crows, and, certainly, their cultural trans- formation from a horticultural to a nomadic tribe, was a pheno- menon of the i8th century; and that their complete orientation to a nomadic life based upon a buffalo hunting economy probably did not antedate their acquisition of horses. The fur trader, Robert Meldrum, who knew the Crows better than any other white man in the second quarter of the nineteenth century, told Lewis Henry
147
150 CROW INDIAN MEDICINE BUNDLES
are most common, and (as we shall see) neither of these were peculiar to the Crow Indians in historic times. Furthermore, the traditional Crow custom of burying the dead above ground in trees or on scaffolds resulted in the remains becoming quickly scattered and rendered impossible the finding of significant grave goods in association with burials.
The remains of stone resting places made by vision questers on high, isolated points in the Crow country have not received the detailed study by archeologists that these once-common structures deserve. Archeologists have been all too prone to lump all stone monuments under the common classification of "cere- monial" remains. Yet even if careful studies of these little sites were made, it might be impossible to determine whether they were made by historic or prehistoric Indians.
The Hagen Site, on the lower Yellowstone, about 5 miles southeast of Glendive, has yielded pottery of the Mandan-Hidatsa tradition, bison scapula digging tools (which were used by the nomadic Crows of the historic period for cultivating small plots of tobacco as well as by the Hidatsa in caring for their food crops) , and the remains of a single earth lodge. William Mulloy, under whose direction this site was excavated, considered the site to have been occupied by people of the Mandan-Hidatsa cultural tradition, possibly the Crow Indians, in the late Prehistoric Period. However, this site yielded no artifacts that might be interpreted as articles which formed parts of the contents of medicine bundles. (Mulloy, 1942).
At Pictograph Cave south of Billings, in the vaUey of Bitter Creek, some seven miles from its junction with the Yellowstone, Mulloy excavated an important stratified site. The artifacts un- earthed at this site give no hint of the religious life of the Indians who made them. However, the crude paintings upon the upper portions of the cave walls (from which the site derives its name) contain suggestions of the religious concepts of the primitive artists who created them. Several of these paintings depict men carrying shields considerably larger in proportion to the height of the men who bear them than were the shields used by the Crows and their neighbors in the historic period. These shields are crudely painted with geometric designs, zoomorphic figures, and one definitely anthropomorphic painting. (Mulloy, 1958, pp. 118- 125, Figs. 42-44).
Mulloy has assigned these shield-bearing figures to the Late
HISTORICAL AND COMPARATIVE SURVEY 151
Prehistoric Period (Pictograph Cave III). They bear marked stylistic resemblances to certain shield-bearing figures appearing in pictographs associated with the Fremont Culture in Utah. (Wormington, 1955, Figs. 62-65). These paintings may have been the work of the immediate precursors of the Crow Indians in the middle Yellowstone Valley, the Shoshoneans. It is improbable that they were executed by Crows. Nevertheless, they suggest that the custom of painting shields with symbolic designs, some of which may be intended to represent supernatural helpers of the shield owners, was an old one in this region.
The historic Crow occupants must have been familiar with these cave paintings. Even though the Crow style of shield painting was somewhat more sophisticated than that evidenced by these cave murals, it is possible that they may have had some influence upon the religious art of the Crows.
The Evidence of Mythology : Several years ago Clara Ehrlich carefully analyzed some 8g different Crow tales that had been published to determine how the tribal culture was reflected in the mythology of these Indians. She was impressed by the recurring theme of the vision quest in which a supernatural animal or mythical character appeared to a lone Indian who had fasted, suffered, and invoked the aid of the spirits, and rewarded the petitioner by taking pity upon him and bestowing its power upon him. Ehrlich concluded: "The vision and the resultant medicine power of human beings are the vital springs of their literature, as they are also of their actual living." (Ehrlich, 1937, p. 396).
Crow oral literature was found to be especially rich in stories of the bestowal of supernatural power upon humans to insure their success in war (counting of coups, capture of enemy horses, leadership of war parties) . However, the other uses of these powers described in the tales also included doctoring the sick or wounded, luring game when the camp was starving, and winning the affection of a member of the opposite sex. (Ehrlich, 1937, pp. 328, 378, 381-382).
The many stories of the vision origin of specific medicine bundles told to WiUiam Wildschut by elderly Crow Indians (and published in this monograph) follow the dominant literary pattern Ehrlich noted in her survey of previously published Crow tales. The great majority of the stories told to Wildschut referred to the reputed vision experiences of known and named Indians who lived in the 19th century. This was also true of a number of the tales
154 CROW INDIAN MEDICINE BUNDLES
The following summer Prince Maximilian met some Crows briefly near Fort Clark on the Missouri. His journal contains no observations on Crow medicine bundles. However, Carl Bodmer, the talented young artist who accompanied Maximilian, executed a drawing of a Crow shield decorated with two paintings of birds, a whole weasel skin, and eagle feather pendants. (Maximilian, 1843, p. 175. Plate XLViii).
During the fall and winter of 1834-1835, Zenas Leonard, an American trapper and trader in the employ of Captain Bonneville, lived and hunted with the Crows. He wrote of Crow Indian personal medicines as "talismans":
"... but no nation, I believe, are so devoutly attached to their talismans as the Crow Nation. — it is their life — their very ex- istence. Almost every individual of the Crow Tribe has something of the kind, and which consists of a seed, a stone, a piece of wood, a bear or eagle's claw, or anjrthing which their fancy may lead them to believe has a successful virtue, and which has been purchased of some noted warrior who has been successful in his undertakings whilst in the possession of such an article. This magical thing, whatever it may be, is carefully enveloped in a piece of skin, and then tied round the neck or body. If an old experienced warrior gives one or two young men an article of this kind on going to war, and they happen to be successful in taking scalps or stealing horses, the whole affair is attributed to the virtue of his talisman, and he can then sell it for almost any price he demands, and if it is a precious stone, or seed, or piece of wood, all similar articles are immediately enhanced in value, and the greater the price they pay for such an article, the greater service it will be to them in the hour of need. Some of them will even give four or five good horses for the most trifling and simple article of this kind." (Leonard, 1959, pp. 140-141).
To Leonard, as to Larocque before him, Crow medicine bundles meant war medicine bundles. Not only were they common and their function readily recognized by the traders, but many of them must have been so simple as to pique the traders' curiosity as to the unusually high value placed upon them by these Indians. Leonard's statement above stresses the transfer of successful war medicines, and infers the copying of the most celebrated ones, aspects of Crow use of war medicines which Larocque did not mention.
Very little additional information on Crow medicine bundles
HISTORICAL AND COMPARATIVE SURVEY 155
appeared in print from the time of Zenas Leonard until the period of systematic study of Crow rehgion by Lowie and Wildschut in the twentieth century. Even then this proved a difficult subject upon which to obtain complete information. Witness the fact that Lowie studied the religion of the Crow Indians for a decade, but he made no mention in his writings of their skull medicine bundles.
MEDICINE BUNDLES AMONG OTHER UPPER MISSOURI TRIBES
When Clark Wissler wrote his excellent monograph, Cere- monial Bundles of the Blackfoot Indians more than 48 years ago, very little was known about Crow medicine bundles. He barely mentioned Crow bundles in his brief comparative section in that paper. (Wissler, 1912, pp. 279-282). Today the situation is chang- ed. Thanks to the field researches of Lowie and Wildschut we know virtually as much about Crow medicine bundles as we do about those of the Blackfoot tribes, and more than we do about the medicine bundles of any other tribe of the Upper Missouri region. Yet widely scattered through the literature are references to the use of medicine bundles by the other Upper Missouri tribes. With the known types of Crow medicine bundles in mind let us make such comparisons with those of the other tribes of this region as available data will permit in an effort to determine Crow relationships to other tribes in this important aspect of religious life, and to find out to what extent Crow medicine bundles may be unique.
Sun dance Bundles: The heart of the Crow sun dance bundle is the effigy or doll which stands as a s3mibol of the enemy against whom revenge is sought by the giver of the ceremony. However, in the sun dance of the Crow Indians' near kinsmen, the Hidatsa, the giver carried the dried scalp of an enemy from his right wrist and the dried hand of an enemy from his left one, and he gazed not at a doll but at a buffalo head in the crotch of the centre pole of the medicine lodge. (Curtis, Vol. IV., 1909, pp. 152-155). Among the Siouan tribes of the region the closest analogy to the Crow sun dance doll appears to be the cut rawhide figure of a man, symbolizing the enemy, which is tied to the center pole in the Oglala sun dance. After the pole is erected, warriors carrying guns enter the lodge and shoot repeatedly at this rawhide image of the enemy. (Deloria, 1929, pp. 391, 398-99). One of these flat,
158 CROW INDIAN MEDICINE BUNDLES
But they did possess other war medicines, which originated in their owner's dreams, which were equally distinctive, such as the medicine lance and the otter headdress.
Arrow Medicine Bundles: Probably the most renowned tribal war medicine of any Plains Indian tribe was the sacred medicine arrows of the Cheyennes. Four in number, these arrows closely resembled stone-tipped hunting and war arrows. Two of them had red stone points, red-painted shafts and feathers of the gray eagle. The other two arrows were composed of black points, black-daubed shafts and war eagle feathering. (Grinnell, 1910, p. 542). Grinnell has described the use of these most sacred tribal medicines in his classic The Fighting Cheyennes (pp. 25, 45, 62, 7off., 80, 83, 92, 114, 307).
Undoubtedly this Cheyenne tribal war medicine was well known to their long-time enemies the Crow Indians. It seems most probable, as Lowie has suggested, that the arrow medicine bundle, employed as a personal war medicine by the Crows, was an adaptation of a Cheyenne tribal war medicine. (Lowie, 1922,
P- 391)-
Shields: Shields bearing painted designs which originated in their owners' dreams or visions were found among all of the Upper Missouri tribes. However, adequate comparative data are available only for the Teton Dakota and the Blackfoot tribes. Wissler described and figured the designs painted on the covers of 11 Teton Dakota shields. The occurrence on several of these shield paintings of supernatural birds and conventionalized represen- tations of thunder, hail and lightning closely resemble Crow shield symbolism. I.e. the power bestowed upon the shield-owner in his dream was intended to enable him to fly safely through the rain, hail and lightning of enemy fire. (Wissler, 1907, pp. 23-31. Figs. 1-9. Plates V, VII).
The Blackfoot tribes not only made their own shields and painted them with representations of "the buffalo, the sun, the moon, or stars", but they had a very high regard for the shields they captured from their Crow enemies. (Wissler, 1912, p. 117). As early as 1833, Maximilian described a Blackfoot war party he saw riding to battle. Some of the warriors carried beautifuUy ornamented shields which they had "obtained from the Crows." (Maximilian, 1843, p. 257). Wissler noted that one shield, which the Blackfoot obtained from the Crows, bore paintings of a hawk and conventionalized clouds and lightning symbols, "strongly
HISTORICAL AND COMPARATIVE SURVEY I59
suggesting motives seen on Dakota shields." (Wissler, 191 2, pp. 117-118. Fig. I3,d).