"The Crow Country is a good country. The
Great Spirit has put it in exactly the
right place; while you are in it you
fare well; whenever you go out of it,
whichever way you may travel you fare
worse.
"If you go to the south, you have to
wander far over great barren plains; the
water is warm and bad and you meet with
fever and ague. To the north it is cold;
the winters are long and bitter and
there is no grass; you can not keep
horses but must travel with dogs. What
is a country without horses?
"On the Columbia they are poor and
dirty, paddle about in canoes and eat
fish. Their teeth are worn out; they are
always taking fish bones out of their
mouths; fish is poor food.
"To the east they dwell in villages;
they live well, but they drink the muddy
water of the Missouri - that is bad. A
Crow's dog would not drink such
water.
"About the forks of the Missouri is a
fine country; good water, good grass,
plenty of buffalo. In summer it is
almost as good as the Crow Country, but
in winter it is cold; the grass is gone
and there is no salt weed for the
horses.
"The Crow Country is in exactly the
right place. It has snowy mountains and
sunny plains, all kinds of climates and
good things for every season.
"When the summer heat scorches the
prairies, you can draw up under the
mountains, where the air is sweet and
cool, the grass fresh, and the bright
streams come tumbling out of the snow
banks.
There you can hunt the elk,
the deer and the antelope when their
skins are fit for dressing; there you
will find plenty of white bears and
mountain sheep.
"In the autumn when your horses are fat
and strong from the mountains and
pastures, you can go down into the
plains and hunt the buffalo, or even
trap beaver on the streams.
"And when winter comes on, you can take
shelter in the woody bottoms along the
rivers; there you will find buffalo meat
for yourselves and cottonwood bark for
your horses, or you may winter in the
Wind River Valley, where there is salt
in abundance.
"The Crow Country is in exactly the
right place. Everything good is to be
found there. There is no country like
the Crow Country."
NATIVE AMERICA INDEX
MAIN INDEX
HOME
