The Crow-Yellow Ribbon

 

The Crow (Absaroka) were a clever, fierce and tenacious people caught between a rock and a hard place.  Like their neighbours they had originated from a far away place.  They had been pushed West by an expanding United States as had their neighbours.  The Crows and their neighbours didn't get on.  In fact their neighbours were in the process of pushing the Crow out.  Land had already been lost.

The Crow knew that America was coming for them.  They knew how that always ended up.  More immediately, the Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho were already exerting relentless and bloody pressure.  Luckily, someone had a dream.  Dreams were major events for all Indians and the Crow were no exceptions.

The important thing about dreams was the correct interpretation of the message.  The message in this case was "Ally with the Americans and We might hang on to a bit of land and live to enjoy it."  It was the best choice from a menu of bad options.  The Crow, no slouches, actioned it.

Here are my Crow drawn from Minifigs, QRF and mainly Peter Pig.  Note that they have an awful lot of US Army gear.  This is not loot.  As allies the Crow received  arms, equipment and betimes wages.  When the Crow rode out they were well prepared.

In Yellow Ribbon they count as Well Armed.  They remained committed to the Indian Way of War and behave like any other Indian Band. 

Yellow Ribbon requires you to rate your Indian Bands.  The various skill levels do impact on the game.  Let us rate our Crow Band.  Do note the Medicine level.  In Yellow Ribbon you throw either 2 or 3 D6 to establish a band's Medicine.  You get 3 dice for a Band defending their territory.  Our Crow aren't doing that, they are making sure the Cavalry can get at the Sioux or Cheyenne.  Two dice then.

Crow	Indian Band	Leader, Old Crow
Movement Foot	Indian
Movement Mounted	Crack
Exhaustion Foot	12
Exhaustion Mounted	11
Field Craft	Crack
Close Combat	Crack
Marksmanship	Good
Weapons	Well Armed
Medicine	10

  

Mostly the Army used them as scouts, they could be trusted to run off pony herds too.  As for fighting they would if they wanted to.  They did at the Rosebud. Then they would fight very hard indeed.  That was the Indian way.  Otherwise, they might go home or just watch as they did at Little Big Horn.  The aim of the game for the Crow was survival.

I'd say Peter Pig have got the Crow style off best. Two front plaits in tubes or wrappings, forelock long and greased high and back.  Sometimes painted white, the rest of the hair worn long.  Of course an Indian might, and did, wear whatever took his fancy.  The tribal hair style tended to be maintained.

We have a description of the Crow from Lt. Edward Maguire of the 7th.

"A very handsome set of men....extremely good natured".  Maguire was of course seeing them on their best behaviour.  All the same he thought they looked "more aggressive than the Ree." and that their language resembled Spanish in its musicality. 

Lt. Bourke noted the Crow were lighter complected than the Sioux.  He put it down to mountain living.

My last Crow pic' with a couple more Peter Pig and a nice Minifig Crow Scout. I'll add that there is at least one figure in the Minifigs Plains Indians pack with the distinctive Crow hair do.  There could be more, mine being bought second hand, I cannot say.

Here's a thing.  You may have read that Custer shot himself at the Little Big Horn.  For certain you didn't want to be captured by Plains Indians if you were a grown white man.  Soldiers did sometimes suicide rather than face protracted agony.  Did Custer do so?  Maybe.  The story seemingly originates with two Crow warriors.

The Crow liked Custer.  Custer was doing just what the Crow wanted in the West.  Hammering the enemies of the Crow.  They had no reason to traduce him.  Then again all Indians found White behaviour puzzling.  Who knew what they would do next?  They were probably just saying what the Crow believed.

Benteen, who didn't like Custer, said the story was wrong. Then again Benteen was a career soldier and even he had to toe the line sometimes.  Custer, post mortem, was by then doing useful service as a culture hero.

In short we don't know.

A word about what is coming up in this series.  I had intended to do a single post showing my 3, maybe 4 Indian Bands.  Mounted and dismounted of course. Instead there will be a post on each Band.  

The reason being I'm reading Paul L Hedren's two books Powder River and Rosebud.  I'm reasonably well read on the Plains Wars yet Hendren is greatly improving my knowledge and understanding of the subject.  I want to share some of that with you.

First up the All Brave Dogs Warrior Society. Then the HQ Company of the 7th. After that the Kit Foxes Warrior Society.  Then another US Cavalry Company.  There is my Indian Village too and another Warrior Society as well.

I also want to try my hand at some scenarios for Yellow Ribbon and to show a couple of games.