Social life of the Crow Indians / by Robert H. Lowie.

  • Robert Lowie
Date:
1912
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Social life of the Crow Indians / by Robert H. Lowie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    5/72 page 181
    INTRODUCTION. I first visited Crow Agency in the summer of 1907, making a general survey of the field in the interests of the American Museum of Natural History. In 1910 I began a more systematic study of the military and ceremonial organizations, which was continued the following summer. In the course of these investigations considerable material accumulated on the clans and social customs of the Crow, and a very brief, fourth visit to the reservation in 1912 enabled me to fill in a number of gaps in my knowledge and to present a fairly systematic outline of the subject. On some points the evidence is contradictory, and, in spite of the generous assistance of various Indians, there are doubtless many sins of omission. Nevertheless, the essential points, I believe, are covered in the following presentation. It may be well to state that the chapter on War Customs is not meant to give a full treatment of the subject, but is merely an outline included on account of the social aspects of military life. I feel under the greatest obligations to many residents of the Crow Reservation, who have been of material assistance in the progress of my work there, but must acknowledge my greatest indebtedness to my inter- preters in the several districts of the Reservation: Messrs. James Carpenter and Robert Yellow-tail of Lodge Grass; David Stewart of Reno; Henry Russell of Pryor; and Ralph Saco of the Bighorn District. This paper will be followed by studies of other phases of Crow culture. The approximate phonetic values of letters employed in writing Crow words are indicated in the following list: — a, e, 1, 0,-U Continental vowels a, e, 1, 0, u, above the line parasitic vowels é English a in bare E obscure vowel al English 7 in bite au English ow in house b, d weakly nasalized, related to m and n & | English sh, not always easily distinguishable from s g-, k- : palatized stops, often suggesting palatized d and ¢
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