Bud Lake and Randy Brewer Crow Indian History research collection, 1849-2015
Table of Contents
Overview of the Collection
- Creator
- Lake, Bud
- Title
- Bud Lake and Randy Brewer Crow Indian History research collection
- Dates
- 1849-2015 (inclusive)18492015
- Quantity
- 2.2 linear feet of shelf space.
- Collection Number
- MC 427 (collection)
- Summary
- The Bud Lake and Randy Brewer Collection (1849-2015) consists primarily of materials collected by Bud Lake concerning the history and culture of the Crow Indian Tribe. Files include correspondence; ephemera; subject files arranged as presentations, research notes, photographer data, and manuscript materials; and clippings.
- Repository
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Montana Historical Society, Library & Archives
Montana Historical Society Research Center Archives
225 North Roberts
PO Box 201201
Helena MT
59620-1201
Telephone: 4064442681
Fax: 4064445297
mhslibrary@mt.gov - Access Restrictions
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Collection open for research.
- Languages
- English, French
Biographical Note
Bud Lake was born in Virginia. When he was a young boy his father gave him an archaic stone ax head that he found on the family farm. Bud then spent his free time searching the fields for arrowheads. He graduated from college in 1968 with a degree in business management and spent the majority of his career in emergency services. He lived in Arizona during 1980-1990, and worked as 911 director for the city of Santa Fe and Bernalillo County (Albuquerque) in New Mexico from 1993-2011. When he retired, he moved back to Arizona.
In the 1980’s Bud Lake attended the Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo and purchased a book about Crow medicine bundles. That was the beginning of his passion to study the Crow Tribe and collect Crow materials including bead work, rawhide items, toys, horse gear, etc. He spent twenty years going to Crow Fair and talking to tribal elders to learn about the history and culture of the Crow people.
Lake received a copy of Willem Wildschut’s manuscript on Chief Plenty Coups (written in the 1920s) and then began to collect photographs that could be used to illustrate the manuscript for publication. He searched auction houses, talked to collectors, used eBay and other online resources, and attended trade shows and conferences. During 35 years of building the collection, Lake amassed more than 1,500 photographs, primarily of Crow Indians and the Crow Reservation taken before 1940. These photographs are part of the Montana Historical Society’s Photograph Archives collection (Lot #35) and are available for use by researchers.
Beginning in 2002, Bud Lake attended and made presentations at Indian seminars and conferences talking about Crow bead work, dress, and insignias, often illustrating his talks with photographs from his collection. He also created and updated a catalog of individuals who took photographs of the Crow people and their reservation. In 2006 and 2010, Lake produced and financed the Crow Indian Art Symposium in Billings where presentations were made on Crow material culture. He was a member of and volunteer for the Chief Plenty Coups State Park at Pryor.
Randy Brewer was born and raised in the Texas Panhandle. He attended college at the University of Tennessee, Wichita State University, and Eastern New Mexico University. Before retirement, he worked as a physician’s assistant. Brewer collaborated with Bud Lake collecting Crow Indian materials.
Content Description
Research collection. 1849-2015. 2.2 linear feet. This collection consists primarily of information Bud Lake collected about the cultural and material history of Montana’s Crow Indians. He compiled information from various repositories, often photocopying original documents and then typing and transcribing the data. Research notes he compiled included letters on the creation of Plenty Coups State Park, Jesuit diaries from St. Xavier Mission, the Crow creation story as told to a Jesuit priest, details about Crow shields and their owners, and census and death records for individual Crow Indians. These materials were placed in notebooks and the notebooks were numbered and titled by Bud Lake.
Lake also compiled files on more than twenty photographers of Crow Indians and their reservation whose work he collected. These files included biographical information, details on how the vintage photos were acquired, and a list of repositories holding other photographs taken by that particular photographer. In 2000, Lake produced a “Catalog of Photographers of the Crow,” as a resource for others to use, and continued to update the information as it was acquired until 2009.
Lake used some of the research notes he collected to prepare presentations for conferences and seminars where he addressed subjects such as the dress of Crow women, decorative tack for Crow horses, Crow insignias, and photographers of the Crow people. Materials he collected and used for presentations, including notes, illustrations, and information from a variety of sources, were all compiled into notebooks and identified by the name of the presentation.
In addition to the photocopies and transcriptions, Lake also accumulated a small amount of original manuscript material related to Crow Indians including correspondence, receipts, leases, and court claims. He also collected ephemera including Crow Fair programs and buttons, Chief Plenty Coups State Park newsletters and bulletins, a book of Indian songs, booklets about the Little Big Horn Battle, and other materials relating to the tribe.
Use of the Collection
Restrictions on Use
Researchers must use collection in accordance with the policies of the Montana Historical Society. The Society does not necessarily hold copyright to all materials in the collection. In some cases permission for use may require additional authorization from the copyright owners. For more information contact an archivist.
Preferred Citation
Item description and date. Collection Title. Collection Number. Box and Folder numbers. Montana Historical Society Research Center, Archives, Helena, Montana.
Administrative Information
Arrangement
Arranged by series and subseries. Some material housed in Archives Map Cases. See inventory below for more information.
Location of Collection
93:1-2Acquisition Information
Acquisition information available upon request.
Processing Note
Sue Jackson, project archivist for the Bud Lake collection, processed both the photo archives collection and the manuscript collection. Photo and archival material part of single donation.
Separated Materials
Printed materials separated to the Library. Artifacts separated to the Museum. See inventory below for more information.
Related Materials
Photographs are part of the Montana Historical Society’s Photograph Archives collection (Lot #35).
Detailed Description of the Collection
The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection
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Correspondence
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Description: Incoming Letter and Note (re: purchase of dolls made by Winona Plenty Hoops’ dolls; re: General Babcock’s saddle)Dates: 1982, undatedContainer: Box/Folder 1 / 1
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Ephemera
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Description: Apsaalooke Committee for the Arts newslettersDates: 1994, 1996Container: Box/Folder 1 / 2
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Description: Chief Plenty Coups State Park publications (annual bulletins; Friends newsletters; Updates (winter newsletter); park brochure by Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks; postcard invitation to volunteer celebration with picture of Bud Lake and his sister Jo)Dates: 1996, 2008Container: Box/Folder 1 / 3
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Description: Chief Plenty Coups Day of Honor programsDates: 2000 - 2005Container: Box/Folder 1 / 4
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Description: Crow Fair Programs (buttons, passes, patches, tickets, and stickers)Dates: 1926, 1988 - 2010Container: Box/Folder 1 / 5
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Description: Crow Fair AdmissionsDates: 1952, 1988 - 2010Container: Box/Folder 1 / 6
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Description: Crow Indian Articles (“Naming the Indians,” by Frank Terry; “The Crow Indian Fair,” by Lotta Allen Merchen; “Crow Indians Find a Brother in Oral Roberts”; re exhibit of Crow Indian shields at George Gustav Heye Center)Dates: 1908, 1955, 2000Container: Box/Folder 1 / 7
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Description: "Indian Songs with Descriptive Notes" (songbook by Thurlow Lieurance; including Richard Throssel photographs, section entitled “Xmas Festivities at an Indian Dance in Lodge Grass,” and “A Crow Maiden’s Prayer Song”)Dates: 1913Container: Box/Folder 1 / 8
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Description: Les Ballets Peaux Rouges Program (for Theater Des Champs-Elysias,“American Indian Dance Pow Wow, with Crow Indians of the Reservation in Montana”)Dates: undatedContainer: Box/Folder 1 / 9
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Description: Thomas B. Marquis Booklets on Little Big Horn Battle (re George Custer, Kate Big Head, Rain-In-The Face, Curley, Sitting Bull, and Gall)Dates: 1927 - 1934Container: Box/Folder 1 / 10
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Description: Miscellaneous Native American (brochure from Montana Indian Museum in Virginia; 1956 Miss Indian American Contest brochure; leather souvenir letter card with Indian photographs; White Man Runs Him chewing gum collecting card; Plenty Coups Native American collecting card; Iron Bull Red Man Chewing Tobacco collecting card; Burlington Route stamps of Crow Reservation; 1916 membership certificate for Crow Indian Baby Band; Little Big Horn Battle commemorative envelope from 1933 with Smokey Wilson’s thumb print and signatures of Charlotte Jordan [Sioux] and Josephine Pease [Crow]; “Use This For A Pen Wiper” cloth from Charles Higgins Inks; Gros Ventre ration ticket for $10 in supplies; weekly rations tag/ticket; “Painting the First Americans”, by E. A. Burbank in May 1900 issue of The Land of Sunshine: The Magazine of California and the West; front page of January 1, 1900 issue of the Los Angeles Daily Times re water storage reservoirs)Dates: 1900 - 2006Container: Box/Folder 1 / 11
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Subject Files
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Presentations
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Description: "Coyote Tails and Warbonnets: Crow Insignias of the Bad Boys" (presented at the Material Culture of the Prairie, Plains & Plateau Conference, 2005, Rapid City, re pipeholders and becoming a pipeholder; includes agenda for Crow Indian Art Conference, September 2006, Billings)Dates: 2005 - 2006Container: Box/Folder 1 / 12
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Description: “The Crow and the Yellow Jacket” (presented at the Material Culture of the Prairie, Plains & Plateau Conference, 2009, Helena; re Crow floral beading and Metis influence for clothing, saddle blankets, bags, moccasins, tobacco bags; includes 5 CDs labeled “Yellow Jacket” with images of individuals wearing jackets, details of jackets, and other beaded items, possibly used to illustrate the presentation)Dates: 2009Container: Box/Folder 1 / 13
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Description: “A Study of the Dress Clothing of the Crow Women” (illustrations of elk teeth, parade, every day, working, ceremonial, beaded, and hide clothing worn by women and children)Dates: undatedContainer: Box/Folder 2 / 1
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Description: “The Well-Dressed Crow Horse” (information and illustrations on Crow Indian saddles and saddle blankets)Dates: undatedContainer: Box/Folder 2 / 2
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Description: “Late 19th Century Crow Photographs: Who Shot the Crow?” (presented at Plains Indian Seminar, 2002; includes handout with list of photographers)Dates: 2002, undatedContainer: Box/Folder 2 / 3
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Description: “Crow Census Data” (compiled and transcribed from 1891 census records)Dates: 1891Container: Box/Folder 2 / 4
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Description: “Crow Creation” (photocopies and typed transcriptions of manuscript at Gonzaga University re Crow creation myths dictated by Long Tail to Peter Paul Prando)Dates: undatedContainer: Box/Folder 2 / 5
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Description: “Crow Death Records, Vol. 1, sorted by name” (from census records including date of death, name, allotment #, age, and relatives)Dates: undatedContainer: Box/Folder 2 / 6
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Description: “Crow Death Records, Vol. 1, sorted by relative” (from census records including date of death, name, allotment #, age, and relatives)Dates: undatedContainer: Box/Folder 3 / 1
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Description: “Obits” (transcribed from census; biographical notes, obituaries, clippings, and death certificates for individual Crow Indians including Plenty Coups, White Man Runs Him, Curley, Pretty Medicine Pipe, Kills Together, Mary Man With A Beard, Strikes The Iron, Goes Ahead, White Swan, Hairy Moccasin, White Arm, Pounded Meat, He Does It, Lone Tree, Sits In The Middle, Bear Wolf, Other Bull, Twin Woman, Comes Up Red, Bird Hat, Bear Crane, Hugh Leider, The Other Buffalo, Snake Bull, John Sends Part Home, Bushy, Old Crow, Rides A White Horse, Bell Rock, Man With A Beard, The Wet, Medicine Crow, Bull Chief, Cut Ear, Bird All Over The Ground, Onion, Pretty Shell, Crazy Head, Spotted Tail; family history for Sarah Bull Shows [aka Weasel High Up Crane])Dates: 1923 - 2010Container: Box/Folder 3 / 2-3
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Description: “Kiwanis Club Letters re Plenty Coups” (photocopies of correspondence re the creation and maintenance of the Chief Plenty Coups Park in Pryor; correspondents include George E. Snell, Guy Mooney, Congressman Scott Leavitt, James H. Hyde, C.H. Asbury, Senator Burton K. Wheeler, Robert Yellowtail, Russ B. Caples, B.H. McCarty, and Reverend John Frost)Dates: 1927 - 1953Container: Box/Folder 3 / 4
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Description: “S.C. Simms 1905 Shield Collection and Book” (records for Crow Indian shields in the Field Museum collection; “Traditions of the Crows,” by S.C. Simms; individual history cards and other information for Crow shield owners including No Shinbone, Old Horn, Faces Toward the Mountain, Plain Left Hand, Plain Owl, Iron Fork, Young Curlew, Shaveing (sic), Turns Back, Bad Belly, Sharp Horn, Big Sky, Cuts the Bears Ears, Snake Bull, Back Of The Head, Bear In The Middle, Big Medicine, Big Bear, Bull Goes Hunting, Crazy Pen d’Orielle, Spotted Tail, Bull Snake, Spotted Tail, Stops, Big Bear, Cuts the Bears Ears, Bull Goes Hunting, Show As He Goes, Big Medicine, Charges Strong, Bull Tongue, Grey Bull, Plain Left Hand, Rotten Guts/Bad Belly, Young Curlew, Shavings, White Man Runs Him, Bear In The Middle, Turns Back To Charge, Sharp Horn, Corner of the Mouth, Back of the Hand, Crazy Sister In Law, Black Hair, Crazy Pen d’Orielle, All Of The Time, Faces Toward the Mountain/Faces the Mountain, Big Sky, Old Man White)Dates: 1903 - 2009Container: Box/Folder 3 / 5 - 4 / 1
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Description: “St. Xavier Mission Jesuit House Diaries 1893-1926” (transcribed excerpts from diaries at Gonzaga University re Crow Indians; documentation re Father Peter Paul Prando’s photographs and patents, Father DeSmet, and other Jesuit priests at St. Xavier)Dates: 1887 - 1953, 2009Container: Box/Folder 4 / 2-3
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Photographs
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Description: "Catalog of Photographers of the Crow" (biographical and professional information)Dates: 2000 - 2001Container: Box/Folder 4 / 4
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Description: “Catalog of Photographers of the Crow Update”Dates: 2002 - 2009Container: Box/Folder 4 / 5
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Description: Thomas Nathan BarnardDates: 2008 - 2010Container: Box/Folder 4 / 6
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Description: David F. BarryDates: 1996 - 2010, undatedContainer: Box/Folder 4 / 7
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Description: Alfred BaumgartnerDates: 1957 - 2010Container: Box/Folder 4 / 8
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Description: Edward S. Curtis (photogravures from publications)Dates: undatedContainer: Box/Folder 5 / 1
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Description: Thomas DalgleishDates: 2005Container: Box/Folder 5 / 2
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Description: Joseph K. Dixon / Wanamaker Expeditions (photogravures from “The Vanishing Race”)Dates: 1913, undatedContainer: Box/Folder 5 / 3
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Description: Ralph Russell DoubledayDates: 2004, undatedContainer: Box/Folder 5 / 4
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Description: Orlando S. GoffDates: 1949 - 2010Container: Box/Folder 5 / 5
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Description: Frank J. HaynesDates: 2002, 2008, undatedContainer: Box/Folder 5 / 6
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Description: Henry R. LockeDates: 2001 - 2010, undatedContainer: Box/Folder 5 / 7
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Description: Fred E. Miller (includes individual history cards for Inez Wesley, Mary Shaffer, and Lilian Jefferson)Dates: 2007 - 2011, undatedContainer: Box/Folder 5 / 8
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Description: Stanley MorrowDates: 2001 - 2010Container: Box/Folder 5 / 9
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Description: William A. PetzoldtDates: 1929, undatedContainer: Box/Folder 5 / 10
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Description: Peter Paul PrandoDates: undatedContainer: Box/Folder 5 / 11
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Description: Frank A. RinehartDates: 2002 - 2003Container: Box/Folder 5 / 12
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Description: Kenneth F. Roahen (letterhead, business cards, etc.)Dates: 1955 - 2004, undatedContainer: Box/Folder 5 / 13
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Description: Joseph Henry Sharp (exhibition catalog)Dates: 1926Container: Box/Folder 5 / 14
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Description: Richard Throssel (includes photocopies of layout of buildings at Crow Reservation and individual history card for Takes Wrinkle)Dates: 1999 - 2015, undatedContainer: Box/Folder 5 / 15
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Description: Willem WildschutDates: 2002, undatedContainer: Box/Folder 5 / 16 - 6 / 1
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Description: Joseph Young-HunterDates: 2000, undatedContainer: Box/Folder 6 / 2
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Description: Unidentified PhotographersDates: 1997 - 2009Container: Box/Folder 6 / 3
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Manuscript Materials
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Description: re Crow Agency (C.N. Baiston letter; lease receipts for Clarence Brown and Morris Trego; envelopes with Crow Agency postmarks; C.H. Asbury letter to Crow Agency employees and Indians re spring cleanup day; includes 1849 receipt for two Crow scalps)Dates: 1997 - 2009Container: Box/Folder 6 / 4
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Description: Crow Indian damage claims against Burlington Railroad (correspondence and forms by The Bread, Felix Bear Cloud, G.F. Thompson, Peter Wisley, Chief Child, Ray Bear Don’t Walk, and Two Leggings)Dates: 1908 - 1923Container: Box/Folder 6 / 5
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Description: Testimony and examinations before J.E. Edwards (re case against estate of Moses P. Wyman and non-payment of wages to Talks Everything, Scolds the Bear, Covers His Face, and Drunkard)Dates: 1891 - 1901Container: Box/Folder 6 / 6
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Description: Bird Far Away (Crow) letters and receipts (re death benefits for family of Takes A Gun First; patent for 640 acres through Homestead Act; payment to Burlington Railroad)Dates: 1997 - 2009Container: Box/Folder 6 / 7
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Description: George W. Hamill (Kiowa) letters and receipts (re lease and payments to U.S. Indian Service for farm in Oklahoma)Dates: 1913 - 1916Container: Box/Folder 6 / 8
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Clippings
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Description: Miscellaneous (re Crow Reservation centennial, Sundance, dedication of Plenty Coups Peak, Crow Fair)Dates: 2003, undatedContainer: Box/Folder 6 / 9
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Description: Miscellaneous (“The Indian War,” article from New York Tribune, August 2, 1867; article re Crow uprising lead by Sword Bearer from Harpers Weekly, December 3, 1887, including engraving of Pretty Eagle, Spotted Horse, and Iron Fork; “Opening of the Crow Reservation” article from Leslie’s Weekly, July 19, 1906, entitled “A Million Acres of Land Distributed by Lot,” by Mrs. C. R. Miller; “The National American Indian Memorial,” insert from New York Times, February 23, 1913, featuring a collection of articles and photographs including White Man Runs Him, Plenty Coups, President William Howard Taft, Rodman Wanamaker, and J.K. Dixon; “Burial of the Unknown Soldier,” Mid-Week Pictorial insert from New York Times, November 17, 1921, including two photographs of Chief Plenty Coups; “Crow Indians Hold Traditional Ceremonies,” insert from Great Falls Tribune, August 24, 1941, including K.F. Roahen photographs of the Crow Indian sun dance, Crow Fair parade, Max Big Man, and Myrtle Big Man) [Oversize see Archives Map Case]Dates: 1867 - 1941Container: Oversize Folder 1
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Printed Materials and Artifacts
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Description: List of items transferred from the Library and to the MuseumDates:Container: Box/Folder 6 / 10
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Names and SubjectsReturn to Top
Subject Terms
Personal Names
Geographical Names
Occupations
Functions
- research (function)
