Crow Agency

Crow Agency is a town in Southeast Montana. The namesake agency is in the town. The privately-owned town of Garryowen is nearby, as is the site of the Little Bighorn battlefield.

Understand


The town has some 1,500 inhabitants (2010). It is the governmental headquarters of the Crow Native Americans and the location of the agency offices, where federal representatives interact with the Crow Tribe, pursuant to federal treaties and statutes.

The Crow Tribe's reservations, and the tribe's relations to the United States were defined by treaties between the Crow Tribe and the United States, and by United States statutes. The Treaty of Fort Laramie of 1851 created extensive reservation lands for the Indian tribes in Montana, Wyoming and the Dakotas at a time when the non-Indian presence in this area was limited to roving traders and the Crow tribe consisted of nomadic bands whose culture was based on hunting the migratory buffalo herds. Conflicts began when bands of the Sioux migrated westwards, and in 1863 when gold was discovered in western Montana. The Sioux went to war and forced the United States to close the trail through the Powder River country. The Crow reservation boundaries were remade in the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, as the Sioux were given land in the former Crow areas. In compensation the Crow were promised some support. Sporadic conflicts with the Sioux continued. In 1874 miners encroached on the western margins of Crow lands in the Absaroka Range, and the reservation was again reduced in 1875. Rapid transition on the plains of eastern Montana and Wyoming followed, together with gold found in the Black Hills resulting in the Great Sioux War of 1876, where the Crows provided scouts for the United States military forces.

In the battle of Little Big Horn, the U.S. 7th Cavalry under George Custer suffered a major defeat to the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho.

The defeat resulted in a concerted military backlash against the Sioux, and soon the Sioux had to flee to Canada or were confined to reservations along the Missouri River. This first gave relief for the Crow, but with the Sioux presence neutralized, hide hunters came to harvest the northern buffalo herds. Also, the Northern Pacific Railroad was built. By 1882 the buffalo were gone and other game reduced, and the Crow's nomadic way of life could no more be sustained.

Get in
Interstate Highway 90 from Casper and Buffalo, Wyoming (in the south) and US Highway 212 from Belle Fourche, South Dakota (in the east) merge in Crow Agency, continuing to Billings, Montana.

Eat

 * Custer Battlefield Trading Post
 * Shake and Burger Hut