Crow Nation History Timeline

Hostility between the Crow and Lakota was reasserted at the beginning of the 19th century as Lakota expansion increasingly challenged Crow territory.

According to two Lakota winter counts, the Crow killed at least thirty Lakota during 1800–1801.

In the summer of 1805, a Crow camp traded at Hidatsa villages on the Knife River in present-day North Dakota.

The first trading post in Crow country was constructed in 1807. It was known as Fort Raymond and Fort Lisa and stood near the confluence of the Yellowstone and Bighorn rivers.

In 1813, a force of Blood warriors set out to raid the Crow in the Bighorn area.

A Crow camp neutralized thirty Cheyenne who were attempting to capture horses in 1819.

In 1825, the Crows placed 300 tipis near a Mandan village on the Missouri River.

In 1829, seven Crow warriors were killed or otherwise neutralized by Blood Blackfoot Indians led by Spotted Bear west of Chinook, Montana.

Fort Cass operated near the confluence of the Yellowstone and Bighorn rivers from 1832 to 1838 as part of the trading network connected to Crow country.

In the summer of 1834, the Crow, possibly led by chief Arapooish, attempted to shut down Fort McKenzie in Blackfeet country on the Missouri River.

The death of Crow chief Arapooish was recorded on September 17, 1834. The Fort McKenzie episode was later described as the worst armed conflict between the Crow and whites until the Sword Bearer uprising of 1887.

A smallpox epidemic spread along the Missouri in 1837. One source reported that it had little impact on the Crow.

Fort Van Buren was a short-lived trading post that operated from 1839 to 1842.

In the summer of 1840, a Crow camp in the Bighorn Valley received the Jesuit missionary Pierre-Jean De Smet.

Image source: Pierre-Jean De Smet

From 1842 to about 1852, the Crow traded at Fort Alexander, located opposite the mouth of the Rosebud River.

The River Crows charged a moving Blackfeet camp near Judith Gap in 1845.

In 1851, the Crow leader Woman Chief and River Crow chief Twines His Tail, also known as Rotten Tail, visited the fort.

From 1857 to 1860, many Crow traded surplus robes and skins at Fort Sarpy II near the mouth of the Bighorn River.

Image source: Peter A. Sarpy

On December 21, 1866, Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho forces defeated Captain William J. Fetterman and his men from Fort Phil Kearny.

Image source: Fetterman Fight

In the summer of 1870, Sioux warriors attacked a Crow reservation camp in the Bighorn and Little Bighorn area.

In April 1870, Sioux forces overpowered a barricaded Crow war group of thirty people in the Big Dry area.

The Crow reported Sioux Indians in the Bighorn and Little Bighorn area again in 1871.

In August 1873, visiting Nez Perce and a Crow reservation camp at Pryor Creek faced a Sioux force in a prolonged confrontation.

In early July 1875, Crow chief Long Horse was killed in a suicidal attack on Sioux warriors who had previously killed three soldiers from Camp Lewis on the upper Judith River.

By 1851, the more numerous Lakota and Cheyenne were established south and east of Crow territory in Montana, increasing pressure on Crow lands.

The Crow, Sioux, and six other nations signed the Fort Laramie treaty with the United States. It recognized a large Crow area centered on the Bighorn Mountains, extending from the Bighorn Basin to the Musselshell River and east to the Powder River.

Image source: Treaty of Fort Laramie (1851)

Around 1860, the Crow lost control of the western Powder River area as neighboring Lakota expansion continued.

Red Cloud's War challenged the United States military presence on the Bozeman Trail along the eastern edge of the Bighorn Mountains. The conflict reflected Lakota resistance to U.S. expansion through contested Crow country.

Image source: Red Cloud's War

The 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie between the Sioux and the United States turned the Crow Powder River area recognized in 1851 into unceded Indian territory of the Sioux.

Image source: Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868)

On April 10, 1876, twenty-three Crow enlisted as Army scouts, siding with the United States during the Great Sioux War.

On June 25, 1876, Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne forces defeated troops under Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, fought within the Crow reservation. The Great Sioux War ended with the defeat of the Sioux and their Cheyenne allies.

Image source: Battle of the Little Bighorn

On January 8, 1877, three Crow participated in the last battle of the Great Sioux War at the Wolf Mountains.

During the cattle boom, the United States government responded to ranchers' demand for land and pressured the Crow to cede the western part of their reservation.

Despite territorial losses, the Crow retained a reservation of more than 9,300 square kilometers, partly because of their cooperation with the federal government against traditional Sioux and Blackfoot enemies.

Image source: Crow Indian Reservation

The Sword Bearer uprising of 1887 became the most serious armed conflict between the Crow and whites after the 1834 confrontation at Fort McKenzie.

Before the constitutional changes of 2001, the Crow Tribe of Montana was governed by its 1948 constitution.

The 2000 census reported a total population of 6,894 on Crow reservation lands.

The Crow Tribe established a three-branch government through actions taken at a 2001 council meeting and adopted a new constitution. The changes extended the chairperson's term from two years to four.

Although the general council theoretically remained the Crow Tribe's governing body, it had not convened since the establishment of the 2001 constitution. The executive branch officials also served as officials within the general council.

The quarterly council meeting on July 15, 2001, passed resolutions by voice vote, including repeal of the existing constitution and approval of a new one. Critics noted that the 1948 constitution and Resolution 63-01 required secret-ballot or referendum approval and a specially called election.

On May 19, 2008, Hartford and Mary Black Eagle of the Crow Tribe adopted U.S. Senator and later President Barack Obama into the tribe during his first visit as a U.S. presidential candidate to the Crow Nation.

Image source: Barack Obama

During the 2013 United States federal government shutdown, the Crow Tribe furloughed 316 employees and suspended health care, bus services, and irrigation-improvement programs.

Image source: 2013 United States federal government shutdown

In 2020, Tribal Chairman AJ Not Afraid Jr. endorsed President Donald Trump's reelection and supported Republican candidates Steve Daines, Greg Gianforte, and Matt Rosendale.