August 1977 Crow Fair and Rodeo

8-16-77 Gordon and Edith’s

Gordon said that they go to pow wows all over during the summer. We go every weekend. Crow, Ft. Peck, Bismark. Fort Hall, Idaho. We don’t go to Canada though. Us Indians are funny that way. The Indians up in Canada don’t like us especially the Bloods. They hate the Gros Ventre.

Edith said that they were going to the Crow Fair this weekend. We’ll camp down there. Gordon said that they would spend most of their time at the rodeo on Saturday. They have a real good parade in the morning. We also want Dion to see his relatives.

8-20-77 Crow Fair

Susie and I, her parents and sister went to the Crow Fair on Saturday. The celebration began on Thursday and will last until Tuesday. People on Ft. Belknap have been talking about it all summer. It is the largest pow wow in the area and has one of the best all-Indian rodeos in the country. It is also known as the tipi capital of the world, and it was announced that 834 tipis were set up at the camp this year. There were thousands of people there, and many from Ft. Belknap. We didn’t see everyone, but we did see Ray, Gordon and Edith, Bobby and Caroline, Joyce and Seanna, George and Mary Candler, Madeline, Jeb and Lou, Quentin and Lilly, Snuffy Main, Dianne Longknife and Kelly Thomas.

The camp area was enormous. People were in campers, tents and tipis and many of the tipis had arbors built in front of them for shade. Many of the Crows come out a week in advance to camp out there, and they are in the same spot every year.

The parade started at about 11:00 in the morning. It was announced by a camp crier on horseback and a pickup with a speaker. Both shouted in Crow. The parade went in front of a viewing stand next to the dance arbors and around the camping areas. The outfits were beautiful, men, women and children and from all over the west, and even the horses had beadwork and were decorated. The parade was led by three men, one with an American flag, all on horseback.

The front of the parade was all people on horseback. They were followed by people in cars and trucks, covered with blankets and shawls. The parade lasted about 45 minutes.

At 1:00 there was a youth and adult rodeo that lasted until 6:00. People from Ft. Belknap participated and were spectators.

The dance began at 7:30. We heard that there were so many dancers that you couldn’t even see the drums. The pow wow was well covered in the media. In one of the camp areas there was the exhibit from the National Park Service, Indian Pride on the Move, which is touring reservations across the west. They don’t feed at the dances, so people have to bring their own food at their campsites.

One of the main activities at the fair is visiting. People walk around the campsites and visit with friends and relatives from other reservations, some that they only see once a year at the fair or other pow wows during the summer.

We ran into Kelly Thomas at the rodeo. He said that the rest of his family was at the fair somewhere.

We also ran into Quentin and Lilly. I asked him if they were going to the rodeo in the afternoon. He said no, they had too many people to visit and they wouldn’t have time.

Jeb and Lou were there with Bob Hogan. I asked Jeb how he was related to Jim and Beatrice. He said that his father, Moses, Stiffarm was Jim’s uncle. Jeb said that their house would be done in October. He said that they own that land now, 240 acres that runs adjacent to the mission land from the pines back east. Star hill is on our land. He said that he would still let people go back there to star hill. He said that their right of way is through mission land. Lou inherited this land.

Gordon and Edith drove to the Crow Fair on Saturday afternoon. They drove in Glen’s car and they brought Dory and Dion with them. They left to go to find Gabby, Edith’s son from South Dakota. He was there with his wife and kids. Bobby and Caroline were going to come down later.

After the parade at the fair, Madeline walked by and she stopped to talk to us. She said that she was one of the members of the Indian Council on Aging, a national organization. They are dealing with the feeding programs for old people and other services and programs for the elderly. She said that her husband drove her down and then he went back home. He’ll work on the garden all weekend. My husband is non-Indian. I go to a lot of pow wows and I don’t think he’ll do that anymore. I rented a tipi to stay in here. Some Canadian men helped me put it up.

Crow Fair

Crow Parade

Crow Rodeo