Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1936-02-29

Nv GLENDOLEN DAMON WAGNER
A HUNDRED years ago the Crow
4 Indians were known as ene AD-
sarokeess q branch o. tne groS
Veufres tribe, and were supposed 20
have come from the Dakota plains.
Al this time they were recognized
as The arfstOctrats Of the red -skhnneo
race, OF splendid physique, strong
and vigorous, they were fine, proud,
free race. cit is said by our fathers
Chief Pretty Eagle relates IN ~BAan-
kets and M0ccasins," that Tor many
En0ws the Absarokees, known TO the
msIefaoes AS the Crows have pos
sessed all this valley extending from
khe Big Horn mountains and the
Pryors down to the Acheta Casha
Asha, which the white man calls the
Yellowstone river"
The Crows we're a fearless, uncon-
querable people, proud Of their health,
strength and their wealth: vast buf-
falo-freckled plains and many horses,
which no raiding tribe had succeeded
in taking from them. And they teit q
naive pride in the luxur1ance OF their
hair. IL is said that 100 years ago, az
the time OF the tribes pinnacle OF
physical vigor. their thick, looSened
braids hung almost to the ground: No
other tribe boosted such thick, long
hraids as theirs. Out of this race OF
sta1wart men 100 super men were Sc
Iected who excelled all others IN
strength and courage. These selected
men served the tribe much as the
ROYAL Guards of England serve HIS
Majesty They were the West Point Of
ficers Of the Crows, a military reserve
whose duty it was to guard the lodges
OF the tribe and act quickly in an emer-
gency. For their camp they selected
q point on the high butte overlooking
the present site of Billings and all the
valley of the Yellowstone, a promin-
ence come to be known later as Sac
rifice Cliff" On this strategic point
from whence they could detect any
encroachment of raiding enemy and
send swift riders down to warn their
people or signal with fire-and- blanket
signals, the warriors lived many years,
alert, strong, happy.
Then very suddenly 1t was noted tnat
one of their band went weak like a
suuaw. When he walked his strong
limbs gave away under him. And over
his face and body we're queer, red
hIotcheS as though he had painted Tor
q war dance. His skin was hot to the
touch. Quickly the well ones built a
sweat lodge and placed him within the
hot, steam filled tepee and then, when
his body was wet with perspiratton,
EWEV DllllkEQ LAlAA AAAhO hAAC Ivy WeAelA1
OF the Echeta Casha, but to no avail.
Neither were the chants Of the medi-
cine men of any avail. Presently the
sick one died and his body, surrounded
bY all the possessions he might desire
70 take with him on his journey across
the Slippery Log, was bound by raw
hide thongs to a pine tree, fringing the
butte. Then, with terrible rapldlty as
days passed, the odd, red marks APP
peared on the face of another war
rior, and another, and strong bodies
vent weak and burned and we're racked
with pain. And each was carried into
the sweat lodge and plunged into the
waters of the Echeta Casha, and then
was borne, shivering, burning, onto his
bed of buffalo robes in his tepee, where
he sought aid of his strong medicine,
while medicine men beat tom toms and
danced and filled the air with their
chants But day after day the Great
Spirit called to first one Of His weak
ened children and then another to
cross over into the Happy Hunting
ground, and day after day the strong
ones, cold fear at their hearts, carried
the bodies, so oddly marked with red
blotches, down to the pine grove and
bound them to branches.
Many years later while DR.. w. A.
Allen, now of Billings, was scouting
With his party along the Yellowstone
river, mapping cut a trail for mail
stage route, they CHANGED to make
camp on the north bank Of the river
near the spot where the town Of Coul-
son later sprang up. And looking across
the valley and up onto the high butte
doc" Bill Allen saw many bright
hned streamers waving from pine
branches in the breeze. His curiosity
aroused he rode over the plains and
ND the cliff In the book, Blankets
and Moccasins" we are told:
HE peered up into the branches TO
shrink back from the sight confronting
him. For each tree there were one or
two skeletons, seeming to grin with
ghoulish mirth as they dipped and
swayed and ratified their bones. Bright
blankets had apparently been used as
Shrouds, and these blankets. rotted and
torn to shreds by time and weather.
floated like gay banners through the
air. The bodies, Allen perceived. had
been bound with rawhide thongs but
the thongs, too, were beginning to rot,
releasing a bleached skeleton so that
It dangled from the branches as though
it were dancing to the tune Of the
wind"
But when the Grow warriors, fright
ened and awed, first bound the bodies