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Crow War of 1887
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Crow War of 1887
The Crow War was a brief armed conflict on the Crow Reservation in Montana Territory. The crisis grew from a horse raid and a confrontation with federal officials, then ended with fighting near Crow Agency on November 5, 1887. Sword Bearer led a Crow faction whose resistance exposed deep tensions within reservation life. The Crow Nation did not act as a united army against the United States. [1–5]
| Item | Details |
| Other names | Sword Bearer Incident, Crow uprising and Wraps Up His Tail uprising |
| Core dates | September 30 to November 5, 1887 |
| Location | Crow Reservation and Little Bighorn River area in southeastern Montana Territory |
| Main figures | Sword Bearer; agent Henry E. Williamson; General Thomas H. Ruger; Colonel Nathan A. M. Dudley |
| Outcome | Federal suppression of the faction; Sword Bearer killed; prisoners removed to Fort Snelling |
The dates above describe the main crisis. Military movements and the treatment of prisoners continued afterward. [4, 5, 8–10]
Crow relations with the United States
Crow leaders had often cooperated with the United States to defend their homeland against rival Plains peoples. Crow warriors helped the Army in 1876, including at the Battle of the Rosebud. Their alliance served Crow interests, especially the protection of land and communities. It did not mean that federal demands always matched what Crow people wanted. [2]
The treaty signed with the Crow at Fort Laramie on May 7, 1868, promised peace and established a reservation. It also provided for a resident agent, schools and agricultural support. Article 1 required the surrender of people accused of certain wrongs, while Article 4 preserved a conditional right to hunt beyond the reservation. These terms help explain the later dispute over raiding and federal authority. They do not, by themselves, prove that officials handled the 1887 crisis fairly. [1]
Reservation pressures and Sword Bearer
By the early 1880s, buffalo had disappeared from the Yellowstone Valley. Illness, drought and harsh winters added to the hardships of reservation life. Federal officials pushed farming and other changes. Plenty Coups viewed crops and cattle as ways to preserve his people and homeland, but the loss of older ways of life left some young men dissatisfied. [2, 7]
Sword Bearer was also known as Wraps Up His Tail. In an account published in 1896, Smithsonian ethnologist James Mooney linked his rise to participation in a Cheyenne Sun Dance in 1887 and the gift of a red-painted ceremonial saber. Mooney reported that Sword Bearer claimed protection from bullets. His religious standing helped give his leadership force. [3]
Mooney suggested that Sword Bearer offered followers religious deliverance, but he acknowledged that official records did not clearly establish that teaching. His wider religious message remains uncertain. [3]
The confrontation on September 30
On September 30, a Crow raiding party returned with horses taken from the Piegan, a Blackfeet people. Williamson’s October 1 letter reported that about twenty men returned and that six fired into agency buildings. He requested troops from Fort Custer and pressed for arrests when the raiders resisted. [4]
Williamson described the shooting as unprovoked. His letter is valuable evidence of what he reported and why he requested force, but it gives the agent’s account rather than the raiders’ explanation. The dispute had moved beyond a horse raid into a direct challenge to reservation authority. [4]
The fighting on November 5
The crisis continued for several weeks. On November 4, Dudley moved from Fort Custer with six troops of the 1st Cavalry, infantry and Hotchkiss guns. General Ruger directed the broader operation. The following day, the Army demanded the surrender of the men it wanted and allowed ninety minutes for compliance. [4, 5]
Captain R. P. Page Wainwright’s regimental history states that soldiers advanced after the deadline and that roughly 120 to 150 Crow warriors rode out. The cavalry repulsed their movement, after which the Crow used timber and rifle pits along the river. A troop of the 7th Cavalry operated on the Army’s right. The account reports that fighting stopped soon after Sword Bearer fell. The cavalry returned to Fort Custer on November 13. [5]
Wainwright’s account explains the Army’s movements, but it was written from the regiment’s viewpoint. Its description should be read beside Crow historical evidence rather than treated as the complete story. [5, 6]
Sword Bearer was killed and losses remain disputed
Little Big Horn College’s finding aid for historian Don Rickey’s papers gives a more specific account of Sword Bearer’s death. It states that he was wounded in the skirmish, went to the Little Bighorn River and was shot in the head by Fire Bear, an agency policeman, while kneeling for water. This differs from a simple account in which Army gunfire alone killed him. The finding aid summarizes research material rather than reproducing every underlying witness statement. [6]
The overall death toll is less certain. An American Historical Association report on the 1987 scholarly commemoration identifies Sword Bearer as the only fatality and notes other wounded people. Wainwright’s older military history refers to men killed without giving a reliable complete tally. These accounts do not support presenting one exact casualty total as settled. Sword Bearer’s death is firmly documented; the wider totals require caution. [5, 7]
Prisoners and the families left behind
The National Archives identifies eight Crow prisoners sent to Fort Snelling in Minnesota. In council on December 31, 1887, Plenty Coups asked that they return to help their families farm and tend cattle. He questioned the seriousness of their alleged wrongdoing. [4]
The imprisonment led into the federal boarding school system. A May 1888 War Department record documents the approved transfer of Crow prisoners from Fort Snelling to Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania. The surviving copy records communication with Richard Henry Pratt and approval by the Secretary of War. This was an official transfer of prisoners, not simply ordinary school enrollment. [8]
The records also show that returning home could take years. Correspondence from March and April 1890 discusses sending Big Hail, also recorded as Egbert B. Hail, and Theron Lears back to Crow Agency. Carlisle official Alfred John Standing described them as prisoners treated as students and said he did not object to their return. His description reflects the institution’s own position. [9]
On July 1, 1890, Pratt sought permission to use Montana treaty funds to pay for their journey home. The letter documents a request for travel money; it does not by itself establish their actual departure date. The paper trail shows how military detention, schooling and control over travel became connected. [10]
What the conflict reveals
The Crow War shows divisions over how to survive under federal control. Some leaders pursued negotiation and farming. Sword Bearer’s followers challenged the limits of reservation life. Crow police also participated in the suppression of the faction. These roles make a description of the entire Crow people fighting as one force misleading. [2, 4, 6]
The military result was the defeat of Sword Bearer’s movement and the removal of prisoners. Its wider meaning lies in the power federal officials exercised over movement, punishment and family life, even among people who had cooperated with the Army. That conclusion draws on the treaty, military account and later transfer records together. [1, 5, 8–10]
Crow voices remain central to remembering the event. At the 1987 centennial, tribal historian Joe Medicine Crow discussed interviews he had conducted with participants. The commemoration included a marker and an honor song for Wraps His Tail. Little Big Horn College preserves Rickey’s research collection, including oral history transcripts and archival records. These materials help historians compare official descriptions with Crow memories. [6, 7]
Sources and working URLs
Numbered citations identify the sources below. All URLs were opened during research. Item 11 is further reading for which only the catalog record was checked.
[1] Treaty with the Crows. May 7, 1868. Primary treaty text, hosted by Oklahoma State University Libraries. See Articles 1 through 8.
https://treaties.okstate.edu/treaties/treaty-with-the-crows-1868-1008
[2] R Laurie Simmons and Thomas H Simmons. Chief Plenty Coups Home. National Historic Landmark nomination, June 4, 1998. Scholarly historical synthesis prepared for the National Park Service. See printed pages 19 through 22.
https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NHLS/70000354_text
[3] James Mooney. The Ghost Dance Religion and the Sioux Outbreak of 1890. Bureau of Ethnology report, published 1896, pages 706–707. Early ethnographic account, reproduced by Project Gutenberg.
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/74335/74335-h/74335-h.htm
[4] National Archives and Records Administration. Montana Primary Sources, Lesson 5, printed pages 53 through 66. Contains Williamson’s October 1, 1887 letter, December 31 council minutes and historical background.
https://www.archives.gov/files/denver/education/materials/lessons-montana.pdf
[5] Captain R P Page Wainwright. The First Regiment of Cavalry, in The Army of the United States, edited by Theo F. Rodenbough and William L. Haskin, 1896. See pages 171–172. Military account preserved by Göttingen University Library.
https://webdoc.sub.gwdg.de/ebook/p/2005/CMH_2/www.army.mil/cmh-pg/books/r&h/r&h-1cv.htm
[6] Little Big Horn College Archives. Don G. Rickey, Jr. Collection, accession 03239501. Finding aid for military records, historical research and Crow oral histories. The page is a collection guide rather than the full archive.
https://lbhcedu.host/lbhc-library/archives/collections/don-g-rickey-jr
[7] American Historical Association. Wraps His Tail Rebellion Recalled in Montana. Perspectives on History, May 1, 1988. Report on the centennial conference, historical interpretations and Crow commemoration.
https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/wraps-his-tail-rebellion-recalled-in-montana/
[8] War Department correspondence. Transfer of Crow Prisoners at Fort Snelling to Carlisle. May 1888. Primary record and scanned documents, National Archives RG 75, hosted by Dickinson College.
https://carlisleindian.dickinson.edu/documents/transfer-crow-prisoners-fort-snelling-carlisle
[9] Alfred John Standing and related correspondence. Standing Responds to Request to Return of Big Hail and Theron Lears. March 30 to April 8, 1890. Primary records, National Archives RG 75, hosted by Dickinson College.
[10] Richard Henry Pratt. Pratt Requests to Use Treaty Funds to Return Big Hail and Theron Lears. July 1, 1890. Primary letter, National Archives RG 75, hosted by Dickinson College.
[11] Colin G Calloway. Further reading. Sword Bearer and the Crow Outbreak, 1887. Montana 36, no. 4 (1986): 38–51. Catalog only; full article not consulted.