Editing Crow people (section)

===Gradual displacement from tribal lands===
[[File:Crow Indian territory (area 517, 619 and 635) as described in Fort Laramie treaty (1851), present Montana and Wyoming.png|thumb|Crow Indian territory (areas 517, 619 and 635) as described in Fort Laramie treaty (1851), present Montana and Wyoming]]

When European Americans arrived in numbers, the Crows were resisting pressure from enemies who greatly outnumbered them. In the 1850s, a vision by [[Plenty Coups]], then a boy, but who later became their greatest chief, was interpreted by tribal elders as meaning that the whites would become dominant over the entire country, and that the Crow, if they were to retain any of their land, would need to remain on good terms with the whites.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=B6oMQY0pS2oC&dq=%22Plenty+Coups%22+little+person&pg=PA31 Plenty Coups and Linderman, ''Plenty-Coups, Chief of the Crows,'' 2002, p. 31-42.]</ref>

By 1851, the more numerous Lakota and Cheyenne were established just to the south and east of Crow territory in Montana.<ref name="brown">{{cite book|title=The Plainsmen of the Yellowstone|first=Mark H|last=Brown|publisher=University of Nebraska Press|year=1959|isbn=978-0-8032-5026-0|pages=128–129|ref=brown}}</ref> These enemy tribes coveted the hunting lands of the Crow and warred against them. By [[right of conquest]], they took over the eastern hunting lands of the Crow, including the Powder and Tongue River valleys, and pushed the less numerous Crow to the west and northwest upriver on the [[Yellowstone River|Yellowstone]]. After about 1860, the Lakota Sioux claimed all the former Crow lands from the [[Black Hills]] of South Dakota to the [[Big Horn Mountains]] of Montana. They demanded that the Americans deal with them regarding any intrusion into these areas.

The [[Treaty of Fort Laramie (1851)|Treaty of Fort Laramie of 1851]] with the United States confirmed as Crow lands a large area centered on the Big Horn Mountains: the area ran from the [[Big Horn Basin]] on the west, to the [[Musselshell River]] on the north, and east to the [[Powder River (Montana)|Powder River]]; it included the Tongue River [[Drainage basin|basin]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/Vol2/treaties/sio0594.htm#mn10 |title=Text of the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851, see Article 5 relating to the Crow lands |access-date=24 September 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140812163225/http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/Vol2/treaties/sio0594.htm#mn10 |archive-date=12 August 2014 |url-status=dead }}</ref> But for two centuries the [[Cheyenne]] and many bands of [[Lakota people|Lakota Sioux]] had been steadily migrating westward across the plains, and were still pressing hard on the Crows.

[[Red Cloud's War]] (1866{{ndash}}1868) was a challenge by the Lakota Sioux to the United States military presence on the [[Bozeman Trail]], a route along the eastern edge of the Big Horn Mountains to the Montana gold fields. Red Cloud's War ended with victory for the Lakota. The [[Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868)|Treaty of Fort Laramie of 1868]] with the United States confirmed the Lakota control over all the high plains from the Black Hills of the Dakotas westward across the [[Powder River Basin]] to the crest of the Big Horn Mountains.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/Vol2/treaties/sio0998.htm#mn5 |title=Text of Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, See Article 16, creating unceded Indian Territory east of the summit of the Big Horn Mountains and north of the North Platte River |access-date=24 September 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111126131814/http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/Vol2/treaties/sio0998.htm#mn5 |archive-date=26 November 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Thereafter bands of Lakota Sioux led by [[Sitting Bull]], [[Crazy Horse]], [[Gall]], and others, along with their [[Northern Cheyenne]] allies, hunted and raided throughout the length and breadth of [[eastern Montana]] and northeastern [[Wyoming]], which had been for a time ancestral Crow territory.

On 25 June 1876, the Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne achieved a major victory over army forces under Lieutenant Colonel [[George Armstrong Custer]] at the [[Battle of the Little Big Horn]] in the [[Crow Indian Reservation]],<ref>Kappler, Charles J.: Indian Affairs. Laws and Treaties. Vol. 2, Washington 1904, pp. 1008–1011.</ref> but the [[Great Sioux War]] (1876–1877) ended in the defeat of the Sioux and their Cheyenne allies. Crow warriors enlisted with the U.S. Army for this war. The Sioux and allies were forced from eastern Montana and Wyoming: some bands fled to Canada, while others suffered forced removal to distant reservations, primarily in present-day Montana and Nebraska west of the Missouri River.

In 1918, the Crow organized a gathering to display their culture, and they invited members of other tribes. The [[Crow Fair]] is now celebrated yearly on the third weekend of August, with wide participation from other tribes.<ref>93rd Annual Crow Fair. [http://www.crow-nsn.gov Welcome from Cedric Black Eagle, Chairman of the Crow Tribe].</ref>