Before the Crow acquired the horse, they bred large grey wolves for pack animals. With the introduction of horses, all that changed. It started when a young Crow boy by the name of Bishish set out on an “adventure” to prove his manhood. With his companion, Bites the Marrow Bone, * Bishish headed into Jackson Hole to fast in the Tetons.
While fasting he had a vision in which he was shown “animals he had never seen before” – ridden by men with “beards and metal on their bodies”. This vision started him on a 7-year quest in the 1770s where he and his comrades went deep down into the south. It was from this journey that Bishish brought back the Crow’s first horses.
In later tellings of this story Grant translates his companion’s name as ‘Carries the Marrow Bone In His Mouth’. Both he and Bishish were historical figures.
You may also be interested in:
Dinosaurs & the Missouri River In Grant’s stories people often speak with animals as equals. These two stories both involve…
Sacred Tobacco Young Crow men who did not receive their energy or spiritual power from nature could…
Great Basin Wild Rye Buffalo Grass or púppau, is the Crow name for great basin wild rye which is…
Battle of Rainy Buttes 1858 marked a significant encounter between the Crow and their enemy the Sioux. It was…
Elk Gifts Fire The story of how the gift of fire came to the Shoshone people is told…
