112 THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



various colors that completely covered and almost obscured the horse's head and 

 neck, and extended over its back and its hips, terminating in a most extravagant 

 and magnificent crupper, embossed and fringed with rows of beautiful shells and por- 

 cupine quills of various colors. 



With all these picturesque ornaments and trappings upon and about him, Avith a 

 noble figure and the bold stamp of a wild gentleman on his face, added to the rage 

 and spirit of his wild horse, in time with whose leaps he issued his startling (though 

 smothered) yelps, as he gracefully leaned to an fro, leaving his plumes and his plumage, 

 his long locks and his fringes, to float in the wind, he galloped about, and felt exceed- 

 ing pleasure in displaying the extraordinary skill which a lifetime of practice and 

 experiment had furnished him in the beautiful art of riding and managing his horse, 

 as well as in displaying to advantage his weapons and ornaments of dress, by giving 

 them the grace of motion as they were brandished in the air and floating in the wind. 

 (Catlin's Eight Years, pages 191, 192.) 



They are really as handsome and well formed a set of men as can be seen in any 

 part of the world. There is a sort of ease and grace added to their dignity of manner 

 which gives them the air of gentlemen at once. I observed the other day that most 

 of them were over six feet high, and very many of them have cultivated their natural 

 hair to such an almost incredible length that it sweeps the ground as they walk. 



The Crows and Blackfeet, who are here together (Fort Union, 1832), are enemies 

 of the most deadly kind while out on the plains, but here they sit and smoke quietly 

 together, yet with a studied and dignified reserve. 



The Crows, who live on the headwaters of the Yellowstone and extend from this 

 neighborhood also to the base of the Rocky Mountains, are similar in the above re- 

 spects to the Blackfeet, roaming about a great part of the year, and seeking their 

 enemies wherever they can find them. 



They are a much smaller tribe than the Blackfeet, with whom they are always at 

 war. Mr. McKenzie has repeatedly told me, within the last four weeks, while in 

 conversation relative to the Crows, that they were friendly and honorable in their 

 dealings with the whites, and that he considered them the finest Indians of his ac- 

 quaintance. — G. C, 1832. 



The Crows, nevertheless, in 1885, continue to have the reputation of 

 being the fondest of horse flesh, the property of others, of any Indians on 

 the plains. 



Mr. Catlin continues: 



I have conversed often and much with Messrs. Sublette and Campbell, two gentle- 

 men of the highest respectability, who have traded with the Crows for several years, 

 and they tell me they are one of the most honorable, honest, and high-minded races 

 of people on earth ; and with Mr. TuUock, also, a man of the strictest veracity, who 

 is now here with a party of them ; and he says they never steal, have a high sense of 

 honor, and, being fearless and proud, are quick to punish or retaliate. 



The prevailing opinion amongst the Indian tribes of to-day in the 

 West is, however, quite different as to the early Crows. 



DAKOTA OR SIOUX-CROWS. 



The Crows, or, as they call themselves, Absarolca, meaning " something or aaything 

 that flies," when first known occupied the Lower Yellowstone and the valleys of the 

 Big Horn and Tongue Rivers, but roamed over much of the surrounding country, 

 carrying their incursions even to the plains of Snake River and to the valley of the 

 Green. Were originally one with the Minatarees, or Gros Ventres, but separated from 

 them, and were afterward driven from their territory by the Ogalallas and Cheyennes, 

 settling finally about the head of the Yellowstone, disi)ossessing in their turn the 

 Blackfeet and Flatheads. Are div ided into three bands, with a dialect peculiar to each, 



