Crow Nation, Custer's Battlefield, The Solar Eclipse, Pow-wow and what's a solenoid?

The Crow Indian Reservation

GARRYOWEN, MONTANA

August 18-24, 2017

My occasional stubborn ways led me to complain about not wanting to stay long at the Crow Indian Reservation in Garryowen, Montana.  It was far from any small town and I was reluctant to stay on a reservation. (Throughout this trip, we travel no more than 5-6 hours, staying for 5-7 days,  and the reservation was a spot on the map as we head west.) Perry compromised and agreed to shorten our stay by one day.  With good reviews,  it was the one and only RV park albeit in the middle of nowhere. 

I kept an open mind as we were greeted by the owners (with a free ice cream) who escorted us to our site.  We were on Montana prairie with nothing but rolling hills as far as the eye could see with an occasional train. The state of Montana was ravaged with wildfires so winds blew smoke in the area. 

Smoky sunset from our RV site

Traditional Tepees 

About five miles further into the reservation we visited a Crow Trading Post and restaurant where most of the patrons were from the reservation.   We ordered Indian Tacos ( regular taco on a thick white Indian bread). Our timing was perfect because we were here during the time of the annual Crow Fair Days, Crow Indian parade, rodeo and Pow-wow.  I knew we were in for an interesting stay!  Not only were we going to learn about their culture (we were a short distance from the Little Bighorn National Park), but the history between Little Bighorn and General Custer.  The RV park was actually part of the one time battlefield of 1876.

Arriving early in the morning at the "Crow Agency" for the parade,  we were amidst chaos, between cars, people in costumes and horses.  There seemed to be as many horses as people and carefully we found a place to park, dodging parade participants.  There were tepees everywhere (Crow nation is the largest tepee area in the nation).  We found a spot along the parade route and I jumped a mile when a gunshot went off to start the parade.  The beginning of the parade was led by Crow Seniors who had served in the military and carried the American Flag.  They were followed by Indian princesses on horses and small children and warriors in their native costumes on horseback.  The parade was soon taken over by Indian chants and singing in their native tongue, cars decorated with blankets and an occasional buffalo head.  (The buffalo was always revered by the Indians.)  It was getting hot and the dogs were back in the fifth-wheel so we decided not to go to the rodeo (we regretted this later on.)  Later that night, we arrived at the pow-wow an hour early.   

Crow Native Americans that
served in the military led the parade

I was driving at the time and noticed the truck wouldn't go into the "drive" position and seemed to be stuck in gear.  Since we started this trip in October 2016 we had put on 30,000 on our brand new Dodge Ram 3500.  How could we have truck problems especially in the middle of a reservation? It was early evening so we decided to enjoy the pow-wow and deal with the truck in the morning (a Sunday)  

The highly revered buffalo

I love the costumes!

A young participant   

CROW NATION POW-WOW

Finding parking for the pow-wow was easier than in the morning and close to the arena.   We were just a few of the "white people", but warmly welcomed.   It was getting crowded and the Crow MC announced there were a few empty chairs for the "white People "who wanted to get close up pictures,  "the owners of the lawn chairs wouldn't be back until later that night".  Gullible me thought this was a great idea but asking a young parade member if it was okay, she informed me the MC was "joking"!  I was so glad we were spared the embarrassment.  We found a seat next to a nice Crow Army Vietnam Veteran and his daughter.  I was in awe of the beautiful costumes, chants, native dances,  Christian prayers and camaraderie among the people.  There was so much more to learn about their culture but the next day (being a Sunday) meant that we couldn't go exploring until the truck was fixed. 

The truck wouldn't go more than 60 mph and the freeway speed in Montana is 80, so we crept along the freeway towards the nearby Little Bighorn National Park.

The Little Bighorn National Monument was full of history (don’t' remember this from school) how the Indians and General George Custer with his troops,  fought for this land in a two day battle in 1876.  General Custer and his 220 men army were defeated and killed here. 

I loved being surrounded by history and found out we'd be returning the next day to see the 93% solar eclipse.  In anticipation of a good viewing location, we had searched for solar glasses for well over a week without success.  We couldn't be happier to know we could return the next day (free glasses) to see the eclipse!  As it turned out, Perry had an appointment to bring the truck to Billings the day after the eclipse.

Memorial to the fallen soldiers of Little BigHorn

Tombstones represent where Custer's soldiers fell

THE SOLAR ECLIPSE

I was excited to be returning to Little Bighorn National Park and being a Monday, there were a third of the amount of people as the day before.  We sat near the ranger who had a viewing box,  along with twenty other viewers.  We were so excited to be here to witness this historic event (though we only had 93% coverage). The moon crept in front of the sun, the sky got darker, the shadows changed and the temperatures dropped.  Both days of us being here at the National Park, we were pestered by yellow jackets but during the eclipse, eerily, the pesty insects were no longer around.  This is an experience we will never forget on this day of August 21,2017.  

Our fashionable (but free) solar eclipse glasses

The ranger and the viewing box

The eclipse from my phone

shadows cast by the eclipse

Perry took the truck into a Dodge dealer the next day where they determined it wan an easy fix (something called the solenoid) and soon we were up and running.  We did go back to our original plan of staying six days but there were still things to see and learn on the Crow Indian Reservation.

We visited and picnicked the next day in the Bighorn National Recreation area (still on the reservation).  We were the only visitors at the Yellowtail Dam that supplies water to the reservation built in the early 1900's.  The red rock formations reminded me of a mini Lake Powell in Utah.  It was beautiful, peaceful and very quiet!     

Yellowtail Dam

Bighorn National Recreation Area

"Moooove it!"

THE CROW NATION AND THEIR PEOPLE

As history tells it, the Indians were here long before the European settlers and overtime lost their land to the white people.  The government in the 1800's thought it best that they were given a certain amount of land and forced to live on the reservations with stipulations of some subsidies including food.  Over a century later, my observation of the reservation is there is a lot of poverty, poor education and unemployment.  Working our way back to the RV park, we stopped at a roadside store and learned more about the culture by some Crow women.

There are different clans on a reservation and a Crow child is born into his/her mothers' clan.  When a single clansman is married they are not allowed to look into the eyes of the in-law.  A married  Crow man may not look into the eyes or talk to his mother-in-law.  The Crow children on the reservation learn to ride a horse very early on, the young boys as well as girls, have long black hair. We found the people to be friendly and very willing to share the culture. 

In my trepidation of spending almost a week on a remote Indian Reservation, I can honestly admit I was wrong! 

I have been enlightened and enriched by the Crow Nation!