What did the Crow TRIBE do for entertainment?

Like all native American people, the Crows of Montana had a wide range of games that could be played at all times of year, including in winter snows.

A favourite game of the men was "throwing arrows", where a specially-marked "target" arrow was thrown first (as far away as possible) then each man would try to get his own arrows closest to it. Each man's arrows had his own particular markings, so everyone knew who was the winner - he was entitled to keep all the other arrows and change the markings to his own.

The link below is to a photograph of Crow men playing this game.

Other games (for boys) included throwing stones high in the air so they landed in water with a loud splash - you had to say the Words icbirikyu' babirikyu'p as you threw and the last syllable (kyu'p) had to match exactly the sound of the splash.

There was shinny (something like hockey), ball-kicking, tobagganing on a sled made of buffalo ribs covered in rawhide, spinning tops (binna'ce), and the wonderful game called "snow snake".

Snow snake involved teams of children each taking a long stick with a swelling at one end (the snake). Then they would make long, narrow channels in the snow, packing it down to form ice channels. The idea was to slide your snake as far as possible along the channel of ice - each stick would be painted so the owner could recognise it.

Adults played "gambling games" for items of clothing, weapons and so on. These often involved hiding a stone or other object in one of a pair of moccasins and teams took turns to guess which one hid the object - such games were accompanied by drumming and singing and might go on all day.

There were many other games for both children and adults.