Montana Historical Society Archives
MC 427
Lake, Bud
Bud Lake and Randy Brewer Crow Indian History research collection
1849-2015
2.2 linear feet of shelf space.
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.
93:1-2
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.
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.
Arranged by series and subseries. Some material housed in Archives Map Cases. See inventory below for more information.
Collection open for research.
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.
Item description and date. Collection Title. Collection Number. Box and Folder numbers. Montana Historical Society Research Center, Archives,
Helena, Montana.
Acquisition information available upon request.
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.
Printed materials separated to the Library. Artifacts separated to the
Museum. See inventory below for more information.
Photographs are part of the Montana Historical Society’s Photograph Archives collection (Lot #35).
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related
topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.
Lake, Bud
Brewer, Randy
Crow Indian Reservation (Mont.)
Chief Plenty Coups State Park (Mont.)
Crow Indians (Mont.)
Native Americans
Photographers
research (function)
Detailed Description of the Collection
The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection
Correspondence
1 / 1
Incoming Letter and Note (re: purchase of dolls made by Winona
Plenty Hoops’ dolls; re: General Babcock’s saddle)
1982, undated
Ephemera
1 / 2
Apsaalooke Committee for the Arts newsletters
1994, 1996
1 / 3
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)
1996, 2008
1 / 4
Chief Plenty Coups Day of Honor programs
2000 - 2005
1 / 5
Crow Fair Programs (buttons, passes, patches,
tickets, and stickers)
1926, 1988 - 2010
1 / 6
Crow Fair Admissions
1952, 1988 - 2010
1 / 7
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)
1908, 1955, 2000
1 / 8
"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”)
1913
1 / 9
Les Ballets Peaux Rouges Program (for Theater Des
Champs-Elysias,“American Indian Dance Pow Wow, with Crow Indians of the
Reservation in Montana”)
undated
French
1 / 10
Thomas B. Marquis Booklets on Little Big Horn Battle
(re George Custer, Kate Big Head, Rain-In-The Face, Curley, Sitting Bull, and Gall)
1927 - 1934
1 / 11
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)
1900 - 2006
Subject Files
Presentations
1 / 12
"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)
2005 - 2006
1 / 13
“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)
2009
2 / 1
“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)
undated
2 / 2
“The Well-Dressed Crow Horse”
(information and illustrations on Crow Indian saddles and saddle blankets)
undated
2 / 3
“Late 19th Century Crow Photographs: Who Shot the Crow?”
(presented at Plains Indian Seminar, 2002; includes handout with list of photographers)
2002, undated
2 / 4
“Crow Census Data” (compiled and transcribed from 1891 census records)
1891
2 / 5
“Crow Creation” (photocopies and typed transcriptions of manuscript
at Gonzaga University re Crow creation myths dictated by Long Tail to Peter Paul Prando)
undated
2 / 6
“Crow Death Records, Vol. 1, sorted by name”
(from census records including date of death, name, allotment #, age, and relatives)
undated
3 / 1
“Crow Death Records, Vol. 1, sorted by relative”
(from census records including date of death, name, allotment #, age, and relatives)
undated
3 / 2-3
“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])
1923 - 2010
3 / 4
“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)
1927 - 1953
3 / 5 - 4 / 1
“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)
1903 - 2009
4 / 2-3
“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)
1887 - 1953, 2009
Photographs
4 / 4
"Catalog of Photographers of the Crow" (biographical and professional
information)
2000 - 2001
4 / 5
“Catalog of Photographers of the Crow Update”
2002 - 2009
4 / 6
Thomas Nathan Barnard
2008 - 2010
4 / 7
David F. Barry
1996 - 2010, undated
4 / 8
Alfred Baumgartner
1957 - 2010
5 / 1
Edward S. Curtis
(photogravures from publications)
undated
5 / 2
Thomas Dalgleish
2005
5 / 3
Joseph K. Dixon / Wanamaker Expeditions
(photogravures from “The Vanishing Race”)
1913, undated
5 / 4
Ralph Russell Doubleday
2004, undated
5 / 5
Orlando S. Goff
1949 - 2010
5 / 6
Frank J. Haynes
2002, 2008, undated
5 / 7
Henry R. Locke
2001 - 2010, undated
5 / 8
Fred E. Miller
(includes individual history cards for Inez Wesley, Mary Shaffer, and Lilian Jefferson)
2007 - 2011, undated
5 / 9
Stanley Morrow
2001 - 2010
5 / 10
William A. Petzoldt
1929, undated
5 / 11
Peter Paul Prando
undated
5 / 12
Frank A. Rinehart
2002 - 2003
5 / 13
Kenneth F. Roahen (letterhead, business cards, etc.)
1955 - 2004, undated
5 / 14
Joseph Henry Sharp (exhibition catalog)
1926
5 / 15
Richard Throssel
(includes photocopies of layout of buildings at Crow Reservation and individual
history card for Takes Wrinkle)
1999 - 2015, undated
5 / 16 - 6 / 1
Willem Wildschut
2002, undated
6 / 2
Joseph Young-Hunter
2000, undated
6 / 3
Unidentified Photographers
1997 - 2009
Manuscript Materials
6 / 4
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)
1997 - 2009
6 / 5
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)
1908 - 1923
6 / 6
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)
1891 - 1901
6 / 7
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)
1997 - 2009
6 / 8
George W. Hamill (Kiowa) letters and receipts
(re lease and payments to U.S. Indian Service for farm in Oklahoma)
1913 - 1916
Clippings
6 / 9
Miscellaneous (re Crow Reservation centennial, Sundance, dedication
of Plenty Coups Peak, Crow Fair)
2003, undated
1
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]
1867 - 1941
Printed Materials and Artifacts
6 / 10
List of items transferred from the Library and to the Museum