Glossary

Some of the words and ideas in this book need further explanation. Hopefully this glossary will help to improve your understanding.

 

Absarokee—this is the name by which the Crow call themselves. The name actually means “Children of the Long Beaked Bird.”

Clan—a division of society that believes it is descended from a common ancestry. The word for clan in the Crow language means, literally, Driftwood Lodges. For the Crow, a child belongs to his mother’s clan. From his father’s clan comes the “joking” relative. By using jokes, this relative is supposed to make a person better by making him think.

Dreams/visions—for the Crow Indians, this was the way in which one communicated with the One Above. It was also used by some to try to foresee the future.

Helper—given in a vision, a helper was usually an animal, which would help and protect the person all through his life.

Medicine Wheel—located high on a mountaintop in the Bighorn Mountains, about 10,000 feet above sea level, this is a wheel of stones. It is thousands of years old. The place where it is situated is a place of great beauty. But if you go there, be advised that there are high winds. While no one knows the origin of the wheel, there are many legends about it. Two of them, I told in my story. An interesting thing is that this summer, my husband and I visited the Medicine Wheel. And I must confess that it was a spiritual experience.

River and Mountain Crow—these are two main divisions of the Crow tribe. An interesting point is that it was the River Crow who scouted for the U.S. Army with Custer. The Mountain Crow never did. They remained neutral.

Societies—all Indian tribes that I have studied have societies. Some were secret. But all men in the tribe belonged to a society. Some of these societies were mystic. Each had their own special dances, as well as individual kinds of clothing, which were often worn for special occasions. Some societies were rivals, like the Lumpwoods and the Foxes in the Crow tribe.

War Lodge—in the northwest war lodges were built much as I have described them in this story. War lodges operated as strategic outposts, allowing the war party to assemble in order to make food—like the women did in this story—to sleep, or to use the lodge as a place of defense if the need arose.