An instance of the employment of buffalo chips among the Crows in ceremonial dances of a warlike character is noted by an officer concerned in the Dakota campaign of 1876. Several officers and men had left camp for a short hunting trip--
They were sighted by the Crow scouts at some distance below and mistaken for Sioux, whereupon the latter made a tragical rush for our camp to give the alarm. As they appeared in view across the valley running in single file at a lively speed, occasionally deviating from a direct line to describe a small circle indicating that they had seen an enemy, quite an excitement was aroused in the camp. The soldiers gathered in throngs, while the Crows formed in line, shoulder to shoulder, behind a pile of buffalo chips placed for the purpose and stood there swaying their bodies and singing while the scouts approached. As the leader of the scouts came up he paused to kick over the pile of buffalo chips, which was equivalent to a solemn pledge to tell the truth, then sat down surrounded by his fellow Crows, and after resting a minute or two, told what he had seen (_Montana, 1._)
[Illustration: FIG. 105--Winter 1849-50--Dance over slain Pawnee.]
_Ä´`gótä K`ádó_, "Chinaberry sun dance," so called because held near a thicket of these trees on Beaver creek (_P'o P'a_) or upper North Canadian river, a short distance above the junction of Wolf creek at Fort Supply, Oklahoma. In the figure the tree above the medicine lodge represents the chinaberry tree with its leaves and berries. No other event is recorded in connection with this summer.
[Illustration: FIG. 106--Summer 1850--Chinaberry sun dance.]
_Tañgíapá Ehótal-de Sai_, "Winter that Tañgíapa was killed." The bust above the winter mark represents the man killed, whose name, signifying a male deer, is indicated by the connected figure of a male (horned) deer.
[Illustration: FIG. 107--Winter 1850-51--Buck-deer killed.]
He had led a small war party into Tamaulipas or the adjacent region beyond the Rio Grande. They overtook a party of Mexicans, and Tañgíapa, who was mounted, was pursuing a Mexican on foot and was just about to stab him with a lance when the Mexican turned and shot him through the body, and was himself immediately killed by the Kiowa warrior. Tañgíapa was carried into the mountains, where he died the same evening. No other Indian was killed.