Red was the Blood of Our Forefathers: Episodes from Crow Indian Intertribal Warfare

Because a man's status in his tribe was based on deeds in combat, Crow history revolves around stories of intertribal warfare. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Sioux, Cheyenne, Blackfeet, and Shoshoni tribes applied constant pressure in attempts to take over Crow land in the Big Horn and Yellowstone regions of Montana and Wyoming. The conflict ranged from horse-stealing expeditions to battles where the losing group was "rubbed out." Brian L. Keefe chronicles many of these encounters in Red was the Blood of Our Forefathers.