Brien Gives Talk on Crow Scouts, Hand Games

Around 40 people attended the program about the Crow Scouts held on Thursday, August 10, at Fort Phil Kearny State Historic Site.

Jacob Brien, of the Crow Tribe, focused his second talk on how the Crow Scouts helped the Army during the Sioux Wars. He asked if there were any veterans in the crowd, and when several raised their hands he said that most people would agree that veterans love their country.

He said that in the 1860s, when gold was discovered in Montana, and more people came into the Powder River Country, the other tribes, Sioux and Cheyenne, were pushed out of their homelands.

He also talked about one of the first Crow Indians who worked for the government. He said that between Fort Phil Kearny and Fort C.F. Smith.

He said that after the Fetterman and Wagon Box Fight, pressure came from the hostile tribes to force the US Government to shut down the Bozeman Trail. In 1867 there was a commission to restore Crow land, but that dissolved in 1868, when the US Government decided to pacify the hostile tribes by giving them a large swath of what was traditionally Crow land. He added that at the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty, the Crow were left out of the negotiations until after the other tribes had arrived and talked with the Army. In 1874, gold was discovered in the Black Hills, and due to that there were more enemy tribes coming in.

“We seized the moment and

After the talk about Crow Scouts, Brien introduced his brother and two friends that accompanied him to demonstrate the traditional a ‘hand game’ or a gambling game that is still played today.

The game is done to music, and they played rawhide Crow drums and sang several traditional songs that go along with the game.

Brien talked about the game and demonstrated the pieces of bone used in the play.

Brien invited the audience to try the hand game but no one volunteered.

Fort Phil Kearny will host another program on August 19th at 9:30am “10,000+ Years of Human History and Atlatl Toss”