Water Beast Encounter

In the 1830’s a Crow war party encountered a water beast while crossing the Yellowstone River. A young warrior was grabbed by the feet, and despite the efforts of 2 warriors with powerful energy, the young man could not be saved. This incident also appears in the story of the medicine man known as Fringe (in the Stories to Pass On section). There Grant Bulltail speaks of Fringe trying to recover this warrior’s body.

These creatures were sometimes referred to as dinosaurs, and in addition to having stories of them, dinosaurs also appear in other Crow names. The Crow warrior at the Battle of the Little Bighorn called Long Otter, for example, was, according to Grant Bulltail, an exceptionally large man named after the huge marsh-dwelling creatures with long necks the Crow encountered in Canada. These monsters he says, were one of the reasons the Crow left Canada and moved south.

The Crow warrior named Alligator Stands Up was leader of a war party at the Battle of the Rosebud. An exceptionally large man, his name is a mistranslation of the water beast the Crow call buluksée. The name is so old that, according to Grant Bulltail, the Crow have lost its translation.