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81-578: Little Bighorn may refer to: Little Bighorn River , (previously called Little Big Horn River ) a tributary of the Bighorn River in Wyoming and Montana Battle of the Little Bighorn , took place near the river in 1876 Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument , preserves the site of the 1876 battle Little Big Horn College , two-year tribal college of

162-452: A 2012 YouTube interview that this name was used by the Crows for the river system because in the river bottoms in the upper reaches of the Little Bighorn and its major tributaries, there was abundant grass that would gather heavy dew in the morning which, in turn, would wet moccasins and leggings of Indian people, and the bellies and legs of horses, and cause them to look greasy. On the mainstream,

243-698: A Crow camp in the Bighorn valley greeted the Jesuit missionary Pierre-Jean De Smet. From 1842 to around 1852, the Crow traded in Fort Alexander opposite the mouth of the Rosebud. The River Crows charged a moving Blackfeet camp near Judith Gap in 1845. Father Pierre-Jean De Smet mourned the destructive attack on the "petite Robe" band. The Blackfeet chief Small Robe had been mortally wounded and many killed. De Smet worked out

324-519: A Lakota camp destroyed a whole Crow camp at Tongue River the following year. This was likely the most severe attack on a Crow camp in historic time. The Crows put up 300 tipis near a Mandan village on the Missouri in 1825. The representatives of the US government waited for them. Mountain Crow chief Long Hair (Red Plume at Forehead) and fifteen other Crows signed the first treaty of friendship and trade between

405-608: A gold mining town, in the late 1800s. The trail is now primarily used by cattle ranchers, marathon runners, and fishermen. After flowing out of Wyoming and into Montana at the mouth of Little Bighorn Canyon, the entire remaining course of the Little Bighorn River and all its tributaries are within the boundaries of the Crow Indian Reservation , and access to the river is subject to the unique and confusing mixture of Montana state and Crow tribal law. Fishing within

486-468: A group of whites with horses on the Yellowstone River. By stealth, they captured the mounts before morning. The Lewis and Clark Expedition did not see the Crow. The first trading post in Crow country was constructed in 1807, known as both Fort Raymond and Fort Lisa (1807–ca. 1813). Like the succeeding forts, Fort Benton (ca. 1821–1824) and Fort Cass (1832–1838), it was built near the confluence of

567-734: A long confrontation. Crow chief Blackfoot objected to this incursion and called for resolute U.S. military actions against the Indian trespassers. Due to Sioux attacks on both civilians and soldiers north of the Yellowstone in newly established U.S. territory ( Battle of Pease Bottom , Battle of Honsinger Bluff ), the Commissioner of Indian Affairs advocated the use of troops to force the Sioux back to South Dakota in his 1873 report. Nothing happened. Two years later, in early July 1875, Crow chief Long Horse

648-421: A massive earth slide that blocked the canyon thousands of years ago, after which the river cut down through the slide leaving huge boulders along the river banks. At two miles above the parking area, the river enters a granite-sided box canyon that extends for about a mile, where the river washes from one sheer wall to the other and is impassible to wading anglers except during times of very low water. In this area,

729-468: A new Fort Laramie treaty between the Sioux and the U.S. turned 1851 Crow Powder River area into "unceded Indian territory" of the Sioux. "The Government had in effect betrayed the Crows…". On 7 May, the same year, the Crow ceded vast ranges to the US due to pressure from white settlements north of Upper Yellowstone River and loss of eastern territories to the Sioux. They accepted a smaller reservation south of

810-462: A pipe-hatchet during the fight just west of Chinook, Montana . In the summer of 1834, the Crow (maybe led by chief Arapooish) tried to shut down Fort McKenzie at the Missouri in Blackfeet country. The apparent motive was to stop the trading post's sale to their Indian enemies. Although later described as a month long siege of the fort, it lasted only two days. The opponents exchanged a few shots and

891-524: A site for a single earth lodge on the lower Yellowstone River. Most families lived in tipis or other perishable kinds of homes at the new place. These Indians had left the Hidatsa villages and adjacent cornfields for good, but they had yet to become "real" buffalo hunting Crow following the herds on the open plains. Archaeologists know this "proto-Crow" site in present Montana as the Hagen site. Some time before 1765,

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972-412: A very rough road goes upstream. All along this road, and all along the stream in this stretch, the land is privately owned and a sign at the entrance to the canyon provides notice of this fact. Wyoming stream access laws are not liberal and trespass laws are strictly construed. In this two mile stretch all riparian access requires trespass across private lands. After two miles of road travel upstream,

1053-659: Is approximately 3.6 miles (5.8 km) south of Crow Agency, on the eastern side of the river and is now the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument . In 1859, William F. Raynolds led a government expedition up the Big Horn River to the mouth of Big Horn Canyon, and then southeast along the base of the Big Horn mountains. En route to the Big Horn Canyon, and about 40 miles (64 km) down

1134-464: Is impassible in the winter after snow accumulates and after the two stream fords, fed by springs, partially freeze over. When not closed by winter weather, this road still requires vehicles with high clearance, preferably with 4X4 gearing. In Wyoming, and particularly in the Little Bighorn Canyon, all the land adjacent to the road and the stream is private, and a sign noting this is posted at

1215-688: The Bighorn Mountains (Iisiaxpúatachee Isawaxaawúua), Pryor Mountains (Baahpuuo Isawaxaawúua), Wolf Mountains (Cheetiish, or "Wolf Teeth Mountains") and Absaroka Range (also called Absalaga Mountains). Once established in the Valley of the Yellowstone River and its tributaries on the Northern Plains in Montana and Wyoming , the Crow divided into four groups: the Mountain Crow, River Crow, Kicked in

1296-589: The Bighorn Mountains , under Duncum Mountain and Burnt Mountain. The main stream flows through a deep canyon until it issues onto the plains , just at the Montana-Wyoming border. In Little Bighorn Canyon in Wyoming, the Little Bighorn receives other mountain streams as tributaries including the Dry Fork (which despite its name maintains a permanent, year-round significant flow of water into the Little Bighorn), and

1377-608: The Bighorn Mountains . At Lodge Grass the Little Bighorn receives the waters of two tributaries, the largest being Lodge Grass Creek which flows west out of its own canyon system in the Bighorn Mountains, and Owl Creek flowing east and north from the Wolf Mountains. A few miles before reaching Crow Agency, the Little Horn receives the flow of Reno Creek from the Wolf Mountains to the east. The famous Little Bighorn battle site

1458-668: The Little Big Horn College . The autonym of the tribe, Apsáalooké or Absaroka, means "children of the large-beaked bird" and was given to them by the Hidatsa , a neighboring and related Siouan-speaking tribe. French interpreters translated the name as gens du corbeau ("people of the crow"), and they became known in English as the Crow. Other tribes also refer to the Apsáalooke as "crow" or "raven" in their own languages. The identity of

1539-896: The Missouri River , then southeast to the confluence of the Yellowstone and Powder rivers (Bilap Chashee, or "Powder River" or "Ash River"), south along the South Fork of the Powder River, confined in the SE by the Rattlesnake Mountains and westwards in the SW by the Wind River Range . Their tribal area included the river valleys of the Judith River (Buluhpa'ashe, or "Plum River"), Powder River, Tongue River , Big Horn River and Wind River as well as

1620-803: The fur trade , the Crow had migrated to this area from the Ohio Eastern Woodland area of present-day Ohio, settling south of Lake Winnipeg . From there, they were pushed to the west by the Cheyenne. Both the Crow and the Cheyenne were pushed farther west by the Lakota, who took over the territory west of the Missouri River, reaching past the Black Hills of South Dakota to the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming and Montana. The Cheyenne eventually became allies of

1701-515: The 1850s, a vision by Plenty Coups , then a boy, but who later became their greatest chief, was interpreted by tribal elders as meaning that the whites would become dominant over the entire country, and that the Crow, if they were to retain any of their land, would need to remain on good terms with the whites. By 1851, the more numerous Lakota and Cheyenne were established just to the south and east of Crow territory in Montana. These enemy tribes coveted

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1782-926: The Americans deal with them regarding any intrusion into these areas. The Treaty of Fort Laramie of 1851 with the United States confirmed as Crow lands a large area centered on the Big Horn Mountains: the area ran from the Big Horn Basin on the west, to the Musselshell River on the north, and east to the Powder River ; it included the Tongue River basin . But for two centuries the Cheyenne and many bands of Lakota Sioux had been steadily migrating westward across

1863-594: The Bellies, and Beaver Dries its Fur. Formerly semi-nomad hunters and farmers in the northeastern woodland, they adapted to the nomadic lifestyle of the Plains Indians as hunters and gatherers, and hunted bison . Before 1700, they were using dog travois for carrying goods. From about 1730, the Plains tribes rapidly adopted the horse, which allowed them to move out on to the Plains and hunt buffalo more effectively. However,

1944-597: The Big Horn Mountains in the fur trapping era continued the usage of the English translation of the Indian names, and the names for both rivers have come down through history. Captain Raynolds had Jim Bridger as a guide and interpreter, so the information about the source of the name was confirmed by Raynolds from Indian sources through Bridger. According to the USGS, the Little Bighorn River has three other official variants of

2025-567: The Big Horn River from the canyon, he camped just below the mouth of the Little Bighorn on September 6, 1859. He noted in his journal for that day that the Indian name of the Big Horn river, into which the Little Bighorn empties, is Ets-pot-agie , or Mountain Sheep River, and this generates the name of the Little Big Horn, Ets-pot-agie-cate , or Little Mountain Sheep river. The trappers who came to

2106-584: The Bighorn River is within the boundaries of the Crow Reservation. In the seminal case of Montana v. United States , 450 U.S. 544 (1981), the court exempted the Big Horn River from their ruling, holding that the bed of the Bighorn River was not included within the grant of tribal lands to the Crow Tribe in their prior treaties, and thus upon the admission of Montana to the Union the bed of the Big Horn River (and thus

2187-523: The Crow Nation in Crow Agency, Montana Little Big Horn (film) , a 1951 Western movie starring Lloyd Bridges Little Big Horn (album) , a 1963 jazz album by Nat Adderley Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Little Bighorn . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to

2268-502: The Crow camp, reclining on his bed covered with robes, his face handsomely painted". Crow woman Pretty Shield remembered the sadness in camp. "We fasted, nearly starved in our sorrow for the loss of Long-Horse." Exposed to Sioux attacks, the Crows sided with the U.S. during the Great Sioux War in 1876–1877. On 10 April 1876, 23 Crow enlisted as Army scouts . They enlisted against a traditional Indian enemy, "... who were now in

2349-524: The Crow held a Sun Dance, attended by a poor Arapaho. A Crow with power gave him a medicine doll, and he quickly earned status and owned horses as no one else. During the next Sun Dance, some Crow stole back the figure to keep it in the tribe. Eventually the Arapaho made a duplicate. Later in life, he married a Kiowa woman and brought the doll with him. The Kiowas use it during the Sun Dance and recognize it as one of

2430-497: The Crow lived in the Yellowstone River valley, which extends from present-day Wyoming , through Montana and into North Dakota , where it joins the Missouri River . Since the 19th century, Crow people have been concentrated on their reservation established south of Billings, Montana . Today, they also live in several major, mainly western, cities. Tribal headquarters are located at Crow Agency, Montana . The tribe operates

2511-401: The Crow remained dominant in their established area through the 18th and 19th centuries, the era of the fur trade . Their historical territory stretched from what is now Yellowstone National Park and the headwaters of the Yellowstone River (E-chee-dick-karsh-ah-shay in Crow, translating to "Elk River") to the west, north to the Musselshell River , then northeast to the Yellowstone's mouth at

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2592-643: The Crow split from the Hidatsa and moved westward. The Crow were largely pushed westward due to intrusion and influx of the Cheyenne and subsequently the Sioux , also known as the Lakota. To acquire control of their new territory, the Crow warred against Shoshone bands, such as the Bikkaashe, or "People of the Grass Lodges", and drove them westward. The Crow allied with local Kiowa and Plains Apache bands. The Kiowa and Plains Apache bands later migrated southward, and

2673-511: The Crow word for "lodge" is Ah-shay. The Lakota Sioux, who began to contest control of this area with the Crow in the 1840s to 1860s as the Sioux pushed westward, continued to call the river the "Greasy Grass". Native Americans called the river the Greasy Grass before the Battle of the Little Big Horn in 1876, and Lakota people still commonly refer to the Battle of the Little Bighorn as the Battle of

2754-513: The Crows and the United States on 4 August. With the signing of the document, the Crows also recognized the supremacy of the United States, if they actually understood the word. River Crow chief Arapooish had left the treaty area in disgust. By help of the thunderbird he had to send a farewell shower down on the whites and the Mountain Crows. In 1829, seven Crow warriors were neutralized by Blood Blackfoot Indians led by Spotted Bear, who captured

2835-600: The Greasy Grass. In historical references in Misplaced Pages articles, the Battle of the Little Bighorn is also referred to as the Battle of the Greasy Grass, as it is in the discussions of the battle by the History Channel. The alternative name used in the 1800s by the Sioux, Cheyenne, and Crow of "Greasy Grass" for the "Little Bighorn" is reflected in current-day nomenclature at the Little Bighorn battlefield. A prominent ridge on

2916-615: The Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne achieved a major victory over army forces under Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer at the Battle of the Little Big Horn in the Crow Indian Reservation , but the Great Sioux War (1876–1877) ended in the defeat of the Sioux and their Cheyenne allies. Crow warriors enlisted with the U.S. Army for this war. The Sioux and allies were forced from eastern Montana and Wyoming: some bands fled to Canada, while others suffered forced removal to distant reservations, primarily in present-day Montana and Nebraska west of

2997-490: The Lakota, as they sought to expel European Americans from the area. The Crow remained bitter enemies of both the Sioux and Cheyenne. They managed to retain a large reservation of more than 9300 km despite territorial losses, due in part to their cooperation with the federal government against their traditional enemies, the Sioux and Blackfoot. Many other tribes were forced onto much smaller reservations far from their traditional lands. The Crow were generally friendly with

3078-530: The Little Bighorn Battlefield that overlooks the eastern banks of the Little Bighorn River has retained the name of Greasy Grass Ridge and is the site of critical events of the battle. In Lakota , the Little Bighorn River is called Pȟežísla Wakpá . Upstream from the point where the Little Bighorn issues from the Little Horn Canyon, the stream flow is in Wyoming. For the first two miles

3159-552: The Little Bighorn canyon is notorious for rattlesnakes. Herpetologists from the Bighorn National Forest state that the east facing canyons of the Bighorns have rattlesnakes because they also support a habitat for small mammals, like a mouse and chipmunk population, which are the prey of rattlesnakes. With the restoration of the black bear population in the Bighorn Mountains, there has been a resurgence of black bear living along

3240-474: The Missouri River. In 1918, the Crow organized a gathering to display their culture, and they invited members of other tribes. The Crow Fair is now celebrated yearly on the third weekend of August, with wide participation from other tribes. A group of Crow went west after leaving the Hidatsa villages of earth lodges in the Knife River and Heart River area (present North Dakota) around 1675–1700. They selected

3321-403: The Missouri and "had little impact" on the tribe according to one source. The River Crows grew in number, when a group of Hidatsas joined them permanently to escape the scourge sweeping through the Hidatsa villages. Fort Van Buren was a short-lived trading post in existence from 1839 to 1842. It was built on the bank of the Yellowstone near the mouth of Tongue River. In the summer of 1840,

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3402-565: The Sioux overpowered a barricaded war group of 30 Crow in the Big Dry area. The Crow were killed to either last or last but one man. Later, mourning Crow with "their hair cut off, their fingers and faces cut" brought the dead bodies back to camp. The drawing from the Sioux winter count of Lone Dog shows the Crow in the circle (the breastwork), while the Sioux close in on them. The many lines indicates flying bullets. The Sioux lost 14 warriors. Sioux chief Sitting Bull took part in this battle. In

3483-566: The Tribe or held by the United States in trust for the Tribe. On tribal lands, the Crow Tribal Code (2005) addresses fishing by non-members in Title 12. Non-members may fish on Tribal lands but only while possessing a Tribal Recreation License, with appropriate permit to fish. and only with an enrolled Crow Tribal member in attendance, who is trained and properly licensed as a fishing guide. While

3564-452: The U.S. could not enforce respect for the treaty borders agreed upon 15 years before. The River Crow north of the Yellowstone developed a friendship with their former Gros Ventre enemies in the 1860s. A joint large-scale attack on a large Blackfoot camp at the Cypress Hills in 1866 resulted in a chaotic withdrawal of the Gros Ventres and Crow. The Blackfoot pursued the warriors for hours and killed allegedly more than 300. In 1868,

3645-402: The West Fork of the Little Bighorn. After issuing from its canyon at the Montana - Wyoming line the Little Bighorn flows northward across the Crow Indian Reservation . The river flows past the towns of Wyola , Lodge Grass and Crow Agency , and joins the Bighorn River near the town of Hardin . At Wyola, Montana , the Little Bighorn receives the flow of Pass Creek flowing north from

3726-429: The Yellowstone and the Bighorn. The Blood Blackfoot Bad Head's winter count tells about the early and persistent hostility between the Crow and the Blackfoot. In 1813, a force of Blood warriors set off for a raid on the Crow in the Bighorn area. Next year, Crows near Little Bighorn River killed Blackfoot Top Knot. A Crow camp neutralized thirty Cheyenne bent on capturing horses in 1819. The Cheyenne and warriors from

3807-416: The Yellowstone. The Sioux and their Indian allies, now formally at peace with the U.S., focused on intertribal wars at once. Raids against the Crows were "frequent, both by the Northern Cheyennes and by the Arapahos, as well as the Sioux, and by parties made up from all three tribes". Crow chief Plenty Coups recalled, "The three worst enemies our people had were combined against us …". In April 1870,

3888-438: The bird this name was meant to refer to originally is lost to time, but many Apsáalooké people believe it references the mythical Thunderbird . The early home of the Crow Hidatsa ancestral tribe was near Lake Erie in what is now Ohio. Driven from there by better armed, aggressive neighbors, they briefly settled south of Lake Winnipeg in Manitoba . Later the people moved to the Devil's Lake region of North Dakota before

3969-401: The boundaries of the Crow Indian Reservation is governed by the U.S. Supreme Court case of Montana v. United States , 450 U.S. 544 (1981). The case addressed the Crow Nation's ability to regulate hunting and fishing on the reservation by tribal members and by non tribal members, and the case held that the Crow Tribe may prohibit or regulate hunting or fishing by non-members on land belonging to

4050-402: The canyon to the south finally reaching primitive roads above Dry Fork that go on to the Burgess Ranger Station on US Highway 14 on top of the Bighorn Mountains. From the start of the Forest Service lands, all along the northwest side of the river there is trail access for about 14 miles (23 km) up to the source of the stream and on to the divide on top the Bighorn Mountains. In Wyoming, at

4131-492: The case of Montana v. United States also holds that the Tribe may not prohibit non-Indians from hunting and fishing on lands not owned by the tribe or held in trust for the tribe, such parcels of "fee lands" are usually not extensive and are scattered randomly among the parcels of Tribal lands, and there is no indication on the ground to indicate to the non-member fisher person when they are on fee land, where they would be trespassing, and when they are on Tribal lands in breach of

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4212-424: The early 19th century, the Apsáalooke fell into three independent groupings, who came together only for common defense: Apsaalooke oral history describes a fourth group, the Bilapiluutche ("Beaver Dries its Fur"), who may have merged with the Kiowa in the second half of the 17th century. When European Americans arrived in numbers, the Crows were resisting pressure from enemies who greatly outnumbered them. In

4293-399: The end of the two mile stretch of road from the mouth of the canyon Bighorn National Forest Service lands extend up to and over the top of the Bighorn Mountains. In the Little Bighorn watershed there are cougars, black bears, deer, elk, wild turkeys and other birds and small mammals, all of which are common to the Bighorn Mountains. An occasional moose has been sighted. The floor and sides of

4374-423: The entrance to the canyon. At the furthest point of the road, two miles upstream from the canyon mouth, at the US Forest Service boundary, there is a parking area maintained by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department but signage prohibits overnight camping. Upstream, above this point the Forest Service lands a trail that crosses the river on a footbridge to the southeast side and then leaves the river and climbs up out of

4455-460: The fort in 1851. In 1851, the Crow, the Sioux, and six other Indian nations signed the Fort Laramie treaty along with the U.S. It should ensure peace forever between all nine partakers. Further, the treaty described the different tribal territories. The U.S. was allowed to construct roads and forts. A weak point in the treaty was the absence of rules to uphold the tribal borders. The Crow and various bands of Sioux attacked each other again from

4536-441: The high plains from the Black Hills of the Dakotas westward across the Powder River Basin to the crest of the Big Horn Mountains. Thereafter bands of Lakota Sioux led by Sitting Bull , Crazy Horse , Gall , and others, along with their Northern Cheyenne allies, hunted and raided throughout the length and breadth of eastern Montana and northeastern Wyoming , which had been for a time ancestral Crow territory. On 25 June 1876,

4617-436: The hunting lands of the Crow and warred against them. By right of conquest , they took over the eastern hunting lands of the Crow, including the Powder and Tongue River valleys, and pushed the less numerous Crow to the west and northwest upriver on the Yellowstone . After about 1860, the Lakota Sioux claimed all the former Crow lands from the Black Hills of South Dakota to the Big Horn Mountains of Montana. They demanded that

4698-402: The intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Little_Bighorn&oldid=541158170 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Little Bighorn River The Little Bighorn rises in northern Wyoming , deep in

4779-478: The land the fisher person is standing on, has caused fishing websites to conclude: "However, the Little Bighorn runs entirely within the boundaries of the Crow Reservation and access to it is next to nil." The prospective fisherman should not be misled by the fact that the blue ribbon trout fishery on the Big Horn River, below the Yellowtail Dam, is fished by non-Indians (provided the non-member complies with Montana fishing regulations and laws), though this stretch of

4860-441: The law. The Crow Tribal Court has exclusive jurisdiction over non-Indians who commit violations on Tribal land. If a non-member is found in violation of any part of the Tribal Code, they are subject to fines (Crow Tribal Code 2005, Section 12-11-109), forfeiture of fishing gear, and payment of court costs This confusing and chaotic situation, in which enforcement of fishing restrictions and access to streams depends on who owns

4941-498: The men in the fort fired a cannon, but no real harm came to anyone. The Crows left four days before the arrival of a Blackfeet band. The episode seems to be the worst armed conflict between the Crows and a group of whites until the Sword Bearer uprising in 1887. The death of chief Arapooish was recorded on 17 September 1834. The news reached Fort Clark at the Mandan village Mitutanka. Manager F.A. Chardon wrote he "was Killed by Black feet". The smallpox epidemic of 1837 spread along

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5022-424: The mid-1850s. Soon, the Sioux took no notice of the 1851 borders and expanded into Crow territory west of the Powder. The Crows engaged in "… large-scale battles with invading Sioux …" near present-day Wyola, Montana . Around 1860, the western Powder area was lost. From 1857 to 1860, many Crow traded their surplus robes and skin at Fort Sarpy (II) near the mouth of the Bighorn River. During

5103-409: The mid-1860s, the Sioux resented the emigrant route Bozeman Trail through the Powder River bison habitat, although it mainly "crossed land guaranteed to the Crows". When the Army built forts to protect the trail, the Crow cooperated with the garrisons. On 21 December 1866, the Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho defeated Captain William J. Fetterman and his men from Fort Phil Kearny . Evidently,

5184-426: The most powerful tribal medicines. They still credit the Crow tribe for the origin of their sacred Tai-may figure. The enmity between the Crow and the Lakota was reassured right from the start of the 19th century. The Crow killed a minimum of thirty Lakota in 1800–1801 according to two Lakota winter counts . The next year, the Lakota and their Cheyenne allies killed all the men in a Crow camp with thirty tipis. In

5265-400: The name Greasy Grass slowly gave way to the alternative name Little Bighorn. For one major tributary of the Little Bighorn, the (presently named) Lodge Grass Creek retained the name "Greasy Grass Creek", but as Joe Medicine Crow explained in the 2012 video, this name morphed from "Greasy Grass" to "Lodge Grass" due to the error of an interpreter since the Crow word for "greasy" is Tah-shay, and

5346-459: The name, including Little Horn River, Custer River and Great Horn River. Local people who live in the valley and along the tributaries commonly use the shortened version—Little Horn—instead of the more cumbersome name, Little Bighorn. A historical variant name for the Little Bighorn is the Greasy Grass. From the 1500s to the 1800s, the indigenous Crow people knew the river as the Greasy Grass. Crow tribal historian Joe Medicine Crow explained in

5427-436: The northern Plains tribes of the Flathead (although sometimes they had conflicts); Nez Perce , Kutenai , Shoshone, Kiowa , and Plains Apache . The powerful Iron Confederacy (Nehiyaw-Pwat), an alliance of northern plains Indian nations based around the fur trade, developed as enemies of the Crow. It was named after the dominating Plains Cree and Assiniboine peoples, and later included the Stoney , Saulteaux, and Métis . By

5508-488: The number of women and children taken captive to 160. By and by and with a fur trader as an intermediary, the Crows agreed to let 50 women return to their tribe. Fort Sarpy (I) near Rosebud River carried out trade with the Crow after the closing of Fort Alexander. River Crow went some times to the bigger Fort Union at the confluence of the Yellowstone and the Missouri. Both the "famous Absaroka amazon " Woman Chief and River Crow chief Twines His Tail (Rotten Tail) visited

5589-419: The plains, and were still pressing hard on the Crows. Red Cloud's War (1866–1868) was a challenge by the Lakota Sioux to the United States military presence on the Bozeman Trail , a route along the eastern edge of the Big Horn Mountains to the Montana gold fields. Red Cloud's War ended with victory for the Lakota. The Treaty of Fort Laramie of 1868 with the United States confirmed the Lakota control over all

5670-453: The point at which the river flows out of the canyon (at about the Wyoming-Montana state line) the road continues upstream in the canyon for only about 2 miles (3.2 km). There are two (and sometimes three) unbridged stream fords. This portion of the road is unmaintained and is a two track road with tight turns. It is primitive, rough, ungraded, and littered with partially buried boulders. When it rains large puddles accumulate in low spots. It

5751-463: The powerful Blackfoot , Gros Ventre , Assiniboine , Pawnee , and Ute . Later they had to face the Lakota and their allies, the Arapaho and Cheyenne , who also stole horses from their enemies. Their greatest enemies became the tribes of the Blackfoot Confederacy and the Lakota-Cheyenne-Arapaho alliance. In the 18th century, pressured by the Saulteaux and Cree peoples (the Iron Confederacy ), who had earlier and better access to guns through

5832-527: The right to fish on the Big Horn River) passed from federal ownership to the state of Montana. In Montana, from the mouth of the river at Hardin upstream to about 8 miles (13 km) above Wyola, there is paved and gravel road access to the Little Bighorn Valley, and upstream from this point to the mouth of the Little Bighorn canyon there is a gravel road maintained by Bighorn County. However, from

5913-590: The road reaches the Bighorn National Forest Service boundary where a parking area is maintained by the Wyoming Fish and Game Department, but signage prohibits overnight camping. Upstream above this point fishing is permitted on the National Forest, but the first river mile of this stretch of fishing is unusually difficult and rugged because the stream bed is littered with very large boulders due to

5994-453: The road. (location 45°34'04.8"N 107°27'11.2"W) Crow people The Crow , whose autonym is Apsáalooke ( [ə̀ˈpsáːɾòːɡè] ), also spelled Absaroka , are Native Americans living primarily in southern Montana. Today, the Crow people have a federally recognized tribe , the Crow Tribe of Montana , with an Indian reservation , the Crow Indian Reservation , located in

6075-572: The severe winters in the North kept their herds smaller than those of Plains tribes in the South. The Crow, Hidatsa, Eastern Shoshone , and Northern Shoshone soon became noted as horse breeders and dealers and developed relatively large horse herds. At the time, other eastern and northern tribes were also moving on to the Plains, in search of game for the fur trade, bison, and more horses. The Crow were subject to raids and horse thefts by horse-poor tribes, including

6156-590: The south-central part of the state. Crow Indians are a Plains tribe , who speak the Crow language , part of the Missouri River Valley branch of Siouan languages . Of the 14,000 enrolled tribal members, an estimated 3,000 spoke the Crow language in 2007. During the expansion into the West, the Crow people were allied with the United States against its neighbors and rivals, the Sioux and Cheyenne . In historical times,

6237-460: The stream as it flows out into Montana, extending down the Little Bighorn Valley in Montana. Ranchers between the mouth of the canyon (at about the Wyoming Montana line) down to Wyola often report black bear groups living in the timber along the river, and travelers on the Montana portion of the Little Horn road will occasionally site bear out in the pastures along the river, and occasionally along

6318-443: The summer of 1805, a Crow camp traded at the Hidatsa villages on Knife River in present North Dakota. Chiefs Red Calf and Spotted Crow allowed the fur trader Francois-Antoine Larocque to join it on its way across the plains to the Yellowstone area. He traveled with it to a point west of the place where Billings, Montana , is today. The camp crossed Little Missouri River and Bighorn River on the way. The next year, some Crow discovered

6399-475: The summer of 1870, some Sioux attacked a Crow reservation camp in the Bighorn/Little Bighorn area. The Crows reported Sioux Indians in the same area again in 1871. During the next years, this eastern part of the Crow reservation was taken over by the Sioux in search of buffalo. In August 1873, visiting Nez Percé and a Crow reservation camp at Pryor Creek further west faced a force of Sioux warriors in

6480-554: The trail leaves the river and climbs around this gorge. The very rough road ends and the trail up the Little Horn Canyon begins a few hundred yards after the parking area. One fork of the trail crosses the river and becomes the Dry Fork Trail. The other trail winds upstream in a westerly direction through the Little Horn Canyon. The Little Horn Canyon trail was originally established for the purposes of delivering mail to Bald Mountain City,

6561-477: Was killed in a suicidal attack on some Sioux, who previously had killed three soldiers from Camp Lewis on the upper Judith River (near Lewistown). George Bird Grinnell was a member of the exploring party in the Yellowstone National Park that year, and he saw the bringing in of the dead chief. A mule carried the body, which was wrapped in a green blanket. The chief was placed in a tipi "not far from

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