The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1902-09-16
CROWS NEAT COMPLIMENT TO
DISTINGUISHED CITIZEN.
DECKED IN GORGEOUS STYLE
Danced and cavorted for Edifcation
Of Honor Guest and Other
Delighted Ones.
From Fridays Daily Gazette.

rTOm fTlOay Dally GaZeCLe
The Indian dance given last night in
honor Of State Senator Hoffman Of
Gallatin county was an overwhelming
success and If vanity has any place
in the mental makeup OF the distin-
guished visitor he is to be pardoned
II he felt a little more than ordinarily
proud Of the compliment which the
exhibition was intended to convey.
A huge pile of wood stacked tepee-
fashion at the corner of Montana ave
nue. and T~wenty-eighth street was
lighted and shortly after 8 o'clock
hundreds Of Indians, men and women,
came marching from the camp the
Crows have maintained in the eastern
part Of the city since the fair began.
The braves were decorated in all the
savage finery imaginable and present
ed a really striking II not exactly
beautiful picture. Many wore only
generous coats of paints and their
"gee strings" while others had on in
addition war bonnets and strings Of
sleigh bells. All carried sticks orna-
mented with eagle feathers and bits
Of fur, in imitation CT the coup sticks
that were carried by them in the
times when coups or scalps were not
SO much Of a rarity rs at present and 1t
was a poor warrior who did not have
at least a few of these trophies of his
valor and success in Wal. Chief
Plenty Coos, respondent in a pair Of
buckskin trousers, a calico shirt and
a war bonnet that trailed at his heels,
vas the leader. He was armed with
a Winchester rife as the distinguish
ing mark of his rank and seemed
proud Of the attention he and his peo-
pie received.
Next to him in Importance were
Chiefs Ten Eycke, Mccormick, Barr
and Wilkinson, who occupied posi-
lions in the center Of the ring form
ed by the Indians. They acted as mas
tiers of ceremonies and orators, as
they announced to the pale faces the
different dances as given out to the
dancers by a loud voiced and very
fat brave, who seemed to be floor
manager, if the Indians have such a
functionary in their terpsichorean en-
tertainments.
There were dances of every des-
cription. War dances, scalp dances,
medicine dances, grass dances and a
warrior dance. The latter was par
ticipated in by only a small number,
as the Crews have been at peace so
long with both whites and Indians
that only the old men of the tribe
can lay claim to the distinction of
ever having been in battle. That
the participants were the real
thing" was plainly noticeable. Every
n was an old man, some of them, in
fact, SC old as to be able to do no
more than merely way their bodies.
One of them was badly crippled, but
as the dance went On and he became
animated by the old spirit he execut-
ed some astonishing capers and show
ed that he was still anything but a
dead one. Plenty Coos led this dance.
Another dance that pleased the i'm
mense crowd which had gathered was
one in which the men and ONE
Toned a huge circle and with arms
about one another's back executed a
slow and solemn tread to the time
of the tom toms and big bass drum
that the musicians" played with
m~uscularity and vim.
Several thousand persons witness
ed the exhibition and Chief McCor-
mick declared that in all his exper-
fence with similar functions it was
the best he had ever witnessed, a
declaration in which the other pale
faced chiefs conceded most heartily.