What are the Day of Honor and Crow Fair?

Every year, the Crow Indian people hold celebrations to remember Plenty Coups and to keep the Crow Indian traditions alive. People get together to camp out, visit friends and relatives, hear music, watch dances or go to a rodeo. The Chief Plenty Coups Advisory Council (Friends) holds a Day of Honor in memory of Chief Plenty Coups. The event, staged around the Labor Day weekend, is open to everybody in the area and may offer a presentation by local high school students, a prayer or a dance. In the past, guest speakers who have associated with Plenty Coups, such as writers and elders, tell stories or describe a segment of their lives in which they encountered the Chief. It turns out pretty well because we also have a buffalo feast. Volunteers from the community help to feed everyone at the event for free that day. We are starting to grow as a community into different agendas which may include more dancers, drum groups, more speakers and state representatives in the future.

Crow Fair is an annual event held every third weekend in August. Everyone on the reservation goes to Crow Agency and camps under teepees or under traditional brush arbors for the four-to-seven day event. They can participate in rodeos, dances and powwows or just visit relatives they haven't seen for quite awhile, like they did long ago. People also come from all over the country to Crow Fair, which has been called the "Teepee Capitol of the World."

From: Vincent Goes Ahead, Jr., Museum Interpreter, Vice Chairman of the Crow Tribe