Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1868-06-26
Decay of the Crow Tribe of Indians
Their Strange Customs and Mode OF

The Crows are poor, possessing but few
ponies, and the few they have are poor in
quality, and rapidly decreasing in numbers.
Other Indians are constantly stealing from
them. and they can neither buy nor steal
enough to make up for their losses An
Ab-sa-reo-ka chief who possesses a dozen
ponies is called in his tribe wealthy. The
men are ignorant and slothful, andlook upon
labor as degrading and only fit for women.
Riding their ponies after buffaloes and steal
ing horses from neighboring tribes is the ex-
tent of their labors, and in such exercises
they find great pleasure. They compel
their women to do all the labor, and often
reward the overworked creatures with neg
lect and cruelty. The squaws are some
times sold to the whites, and pretty one
may be got for pony. One of the chiefs
offered me his daughter in exchange for my
horse. She is young and pretty, and L
thought her cheap at the price, but for
reasons known to discreet husbands, de-
clined his generous offer Almost all of
the women are filthy, degraded and OBJ
scenely vulgar. 1t would be difficult to
find dozen virtuous women in the whole
tribe. They barter their persons In the
same way, unconscious of wrong, as they
sell buffalo robe, and think few cups of
sugar pays them well for either one or the
other They rarely reach the age of fifteen
years before taking husbands, and some
marry as early as thirteen years.
"They consider no part of an animal too
filthy for them to eat. When buffalo Is
killed, the entrails are torn out and thrown
ON the ground near the carcass, and the
feast is prepared. The pappooses thrust
their faces into the heart and liver and
eat with the vim of hungry wolves. The
squaws wipe the paunch over the grass and
tear it into strips foot long and two inches
wide-these strips are tied into punches of
knots and swallowed without much chew
ing ceremony. The large bones are brok-
en-, and the marrow, dug out with the
finger, goes down with the paunch.
Cartilage, almost as hard as bone, is chop
ped little with knife, and in large
chunks passes away. The muscle is cut
into large strips; one end of a strip is put
into the mouth and drawn in with the
tongue, and, snake-like, it slips down into
the great vat. The animal is eaten I'M
cooked. And in their haste they some
times eat the flesh while it is yet quivering
with life A dozen Indians can finish a
buffalo at one sitting. On Tongue river l
saw little squaw put herself outside of at
least fifteen pounds of buffalo, which per-
Torrance made wonderful change in her
personal appearance.
Stealing with them is an accomplish
ment and not virtue. Nothing within
their reach is safe. Not long since one of
the gentle maidens walked into my tent,
smoothed her hair with my tooth brush and
quenched her thirst with the water in my
washbowL On taking her departure she
very skilfully relieved me of a number of
articles of no value to herself,
but very useful to myself, among them my
soap.
The Crows possess thousands of dogs,
but, unlike other tribes, they do not eat
them. They hold them in superstitious
reverence, call them 'fgood medicine, and
love them almost as much as they do their
children.
They are a cross between the wolf and
dog, and are of all sizes and colors. They
never follow the men, but remain con-
stantly with the women. 1t is an everyday
sight to see an old squaw with twenty or
thirty dogs following at her heels. Not
long since / rode out to one of their vii
lagos which they had pitched near Fort c.
f. Smith. AS / approached the tepees,
hundreds of these savage dogs rushed
towards me, swapping and bowling like
angry devils, and kept up their internal
music until went away. The squaws were
drying wild plums and cherries on the
ground among dry buffalo chips. The pap
posses were perfectly naked, and danced
around me crying ''sugar, sugar" I had
no sugar to give them, but flung at them
handfuls of dried apples.