Before Wyoming: American Indian Geography and Trails

Description

“The Crow country is exactly in the right place,” Crow Chief Arapooish told U.S. Army officer Robert Campbell in the 1830s. “It has snowy mountains and sunny plains; all kinds of climates and good things for every season. When the summer heats scorch the prairies, you can draw up under the mountains, where the air is sweet and cool, the grass fresh, and the bright streams come tumbling out of the snow-banks.” Arapooish clearly possessed a deep knowledge of geography and ecology in his part of the world, today’s northern Wyoming and southern Montana. His people followed seasonal abundance through the mountains and plains, making a living off the natural cycles of wildlife migrations. He described hunting elk, deer, antelope and bighorn sheep in summer at high elevations, where horses grew “fat and strong from the mountain pastures.”