By Brad Devereaux
Familiar faces are visiting Big Horn Canyon this week, the faces of Crow Native Americans whose ancestors lived in the area for many years. The Crow occupied the Big Horn Canyon area in the past, and the area is still home to many historical sites and artifacts.
The Crow Field School is going on this week and the Crow Native Skills and Trade Show will be held Friday and Saturday at the National Park Service Cal S. Taggart Visitor Center. The purpose of the field school is to introduce Crow students to archeological methods and Crow oral traditions of Big Horn Canyon while the skills and trade show is meant to expose the public to crow craftsmanship and offer artists a chance to display and sell their work.
Bighorn Canyon Archeologist Chris Finley said the idea for the trade show was hatched at last year’s field school. While some of the ladies were sitting on the porch of the Ewing-Snell ranch last year, they passed the time by making intricate beaded art. They talked about a venue in which to sell their craft, and Finley checked on the possibility of the Bighorn Canyon Visitor Center in Lovell.
Finley contacted the Western National Parks Association, which is in charge of concessions at the visitor center, and the organization offered to fund a portion of the trade fair.
Several Crow crafters and artists have been invited to share their work and skills and the visitor center lawn will be filled with demonstrations and displays. Visitors will have a chance to learn about Crow culture while walking around the show and witnessing art in progress including traditional beadwork, silver-smithing, rawhide arts, jewelry and dancing and drum performances. Visitors will be able to purchase items directly from crafters.
The show runs from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Friday and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday. Demonstrations will be held both days, with dancing and drum performances starting at 2 p.m. Saturday and a buffalo feast from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday.
Attendees can purchase a bison steak or burger along with sides for $10 per plate. The Crow tribe donated the buffalo and money raised from the feast will pay for expenses of artists and crafters traveling from the reservation to Lovell.
One fo the games that will be demonstrated Saturday is an arrow throwing game that has a special connection, Finley said. The Crow learned the game from Shoshone Native Americans in the Dryhead area of Big Horn Canyon.
After the fair, Crow artists will be featured at the visitor center in Lovell and at Fort Smith, with a new artist each month being featured. The featured artist’s work will be on display for that month.
Some art will be for sale at the visitor center throughout the year, and a digital picture frame will display other items made by the featured Crow crafter that will be available to order. Featured items will also be posted on the Bighorn Canyon Website.
Finley said the show should help Crow artists and craftsmen gain exposure for their work, translating into benefits for the Crow economy. The show will also strengthen relationships between the Crow and the NPS, Finley said, while allowing the public and tourists to learn about Crow culture.
The pieces that will be on sale at the center will be selected and purchased by the WNPA at the show this weekend.
Crow Field School
This weekend’s show goes hand-in-hand with the Crow Field Camp being held at Bighorn Canyon NRA this week. Students from Little Big Horn College are connecting the past with the present while working at the archeology field school hosted by Cody native and University of Indiana Professor Laura Scheiber Phd.
The Crow students are part of the Science Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Camp at LBHC.
Scheiber has operated the field school, which completes research on area tepee rings, since 2008. The LBHC STEM grant summer camp program is in its fifth year, exposing incoming freshmen to the possibilities of careers in the STEM fields. Campers spent the majority of their time at the Crow Tribe’s Black Canyon youth camp in the Big Horn Mountains on the Crow reservation before coming to Big Horn Canyon this week.
This is the second year Scheiber has invited students from LBHC, the Crow reservation tribal college, to join with her pupils. She said the experience is enriching for her as well as fellow archeologists.
“Sometimes I wonder, as academics, who our audience should be,” Scheiber said. “It seems it should at least be the people who are connected to this place and time; to help give the work we are doing an impact in the contemporary world.”
Scheiber says she finds the tribal college student learning process intriguing.
“A lot of the Crow students know about this area, they know about living in tepees, but they have no connection to what a tepee ring is- how it is [literally] shaped,” she said. “For my [University of Indiana] students they make connections between what we are doing, but they have no idea what it is like to live in a tepee.”
The field school incorporates talks by Crow elders and others on a variety of topics. Judson Finley and Matt Rowe were scheduled to talk about flint knapping (shaping) on Tuesday, Mary Bear Cloud, a descendant of Chief Grey Bull, will talk about her ancestor’s life and legacy Wednesday, and the group will hear from Bighorn National Forest Archeologist Bill Matthews and tribal historian Joe Medicine Crow as they visit the Medicine Wheel and Bear Lodge Inn on Thursday.
With a base camp at the historic Ewing-Snell Ranch, students will visit several archeological sites including teepee rings, a buffalo run and buffalo jump. They will learn to map the stone circles (or teepee rings) using pen and paper and GPS tools.
Finley said last year’s field school was a big success, and he expects this year’s school and the skills show to add to the event. The National Park Foundation in Washington, D.C., sponsors the field school, and a representative from the office will be at Big Horn Canyon this week to see the federal funds in action.
Visual media students from Northwest College will film the event and work with Bighorn Canyon NRA to produce an interpretative film to be shown at the visitor center.