Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-08-27
TO tribe of American In
VI dams is more surrounded

the CHOW tOllc 1lNOI AZ Wlioe'
is today Montana southwark to
the North Platte river. A CEN
fury ago the Crows were noted
for their handsome women and
fine horses, and for the fact
that some members of the tribe
had blue or gray eyes and
brown hair. 1t was this that
caused much speculation con-
corning their origin, for no
other prairie tribe Of American
Indians possessed this peculiar
ity.
All manner of theories were
put forth concerning the early
history of the tribe. Many peo-
pie firmly believed that the
Crows were the descendants of
a band of Welshmen, who left
their native country in ITO
under the leadership of Madoe,
a Prince of Wales, and sailed
across the Atlantic to the
mouth of the Mississippi river
and was supposed to have as
cended that stream to the up
per Missouri regions. There, in
the course of centuries accord
ing to these antiquarians, the
Welshmen intermarried with
Indisn tribes and finally took
on all the appearance and char
acteristics of the red men of
the plains, excepting for the
presence in the tribe of occas-
ional individuals with light
eyes and hair. Several per-
sons who claimed to have visit
ed a white tribe of Indians"
on the upper Missouri wrote
learned volumes supporting
this theory. but investigation
proved in each case that the al
legged travellers and discoveries
had never visited that region.
No known facts support the
legend that grew up around
this vague tale.
1t is not certain when the Grows
were first visited by white men, but
the earliest authenticated report of a
white man going among them was the
-. IoLn IsA1%a. in 1SnR Hn had
been a member of Lewis and Clark's
party. but having become enamoured
of the wild life of the west, he pro-
cured his discharge from the explora-
ton expedition on its return from the
Pacific coast and remained on the
upper Missouri for some time as a
hunter and trapper. Captain Clark
passed through their country in 1906,
but encountered no members of the
tribe, although it is probable that they
saw him, as his horses were stolen.
and the thieves were undoubtedly
Crows.
Came From Southeast
The traditions of the tribe make 1t
probable that they emigrated from the
southeast. and there is good reason
for believing that they once dwelt be-
side the waters of the Gulf of Mexico
vi dloDS III ildhLt' NOoSS ~
or South Carolina. There is no doubt
that. at some early period of their
history. they received a considerable
admixture of white blood. A hundred
years ago the Cherokee Indians Of
Georgia had a tradition of having In
former times expelled a tribe of
white Indians from that country.
The tale handed down was to the
effect that these lightskinned people
fled to the Mississippi and then up the
Missouri. where they yet dwelt. Among
the other evidences of their south
eastern origin are the traditions that
they once dwelt in a land of perpetual
summer where they grew corn and
their oldest men and women had a
dim knowledge of the alligator, con-
corning which they had heard their
grandfathers talk. The story has been
handed down among them that they
once dwelt upon a great water so broad
that they did not know it's extent, and
that it was out of this water that the
white men first came, as well as the
first horses they ever saw. Many stu
dents of the Crow tribal history be-
.lieve that they thus dimly preserved
I; the remembrance of some one of the
Spanish expeditions to the southeast
ern American coast in the sixteenth
century.
3 Migrated IFS Years Ago
1t is considered certain, however,
that the last migration of the tribe was
from what they termed the Flint
river in Kansas. This. it is believed.
lis the Kansas river. Almost all their
Evolutionary history is embraced in
the years after that migration, which
stook place about 1850, all that of
y~earlier date being caught only in
transient CLEANS. 1t is known that. in
the year 1924, there resided upon the
headwaters of the Kansas river a
powerful band of Indians known to the
French as the Paducas, who dwelt in
Several villages and could take into
the field about 1000 warriors. From
that region they suddenly disappeared,
and history contains no trace of their
movements thereafter. Captain Lewis.
writing in 1905. says they appeared to
have removed to the upper Platte and
there to have dispersed into various
bands that took different names. The
north fork of the Platte was once
called Paducas fork, probably after
5that tribe. The best informed histor-
Sans express the conviction that the
Cost Paducas are to be found in the
Fpresent tribe of Crows.
e The Crows were continually at war