Book in progress

Biscuits & Buffalo: The Reinvention of American Indian Culture in the 20th & 21st Centuries

Biscuits and Buffalo investigates how American Indians have reinvented their culture in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and how they have done so not only in conflict but also in collaboration with non-Indians. Racism and alliances, friendships and prejudices all happened at the same time. This story is about that messy middle ground on the Crow reservation of Montana and Wyoming. It covers the history of ranching, wheat farming, gardens, rodeo, a 30-year joint project called All-American Indian Days, and the life work of a cook who modernized traditional Crow Indian fare in the fashion of her contemporary Julia Child. Through these stories, Biscuits and Buffalo aims to understand how American Indians have tried to reconcile their experiences in a modern globalized world with persistently romantic expectations of what it means to be Indian.

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Preview of Pictures & Stories from the Book

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These politically-active Crow Indian women who traveled across the State of Montana as part of the women’s club movement defy early anthropologists’ images of them as wedded to the past. “Kate Stewart and Mary Shane, two Crow Indian women, sit together indoors. They wear dresses and high moccasins. Standing behind them are Elva Carlo Williamson, Henrietta Crocket (national representative from the League of Women Voters), and Mrs. Joseph Lyndon Smith. Furnishings in the room include a large armchair and a lamp with a fringed shade” ca. 1920-1930. Bud Lake and Randy Brewer Crow Indian Photograph Collection (Lot 035), Montana Historical Society Research Center.

Alma Snell saw herself as much a tribal historian as a wild plant specialist. She learned to identify plants and their uses from her grandmother Pretty Shield, yet she was expansive in her vision of Native heritage plants. In <i>Taste of Heritage</i>, she wrote, “Of course apples don’t grow wild in Crow country, but they were already a favorite fruit by the time I was growing up….” Alma Snell (1923-2008) at her home on the Crow Reservation, 2007. Photograph by William P. Yellowtail, Jr.

In a recent Facebook post, many Crow Indians were in awe of this flour sack from the mill that operated on the reservation from the 1900s to 1950s. Many successful Crow Indians grew the wheat that produced the flour that was known as the best in the region. Crow Agency flour sack, ca. 1905. Mr. and Mrs. Forrest Fenn Collection, reproduced in Sarah E. Boehme, <i>Absarokee Hut: The Joseph Henry Sharp Cabin</i> (Cody: Buffalo Bill Historical Center, 1996).

The BIA agent of the Crow reservation cut off rations to the community in 1905 so hunger and an effort to fend for themselves could explain why Crow Indians became gardeners, but not why they became garden enthusiasts, as they eventually did. These photographs depict Crow Indians bringing their produce to compete for premiums at Crow Fair, 1937. “Annual Report of Extension Workers of Crow Indians Reservation, Crow Agency, Montana, Jan. 1, 1936 - Dec. 31, 1936. U.S. Department of Interior, Office of Indian Affairs, Division of Extension & Industry. Record Group 75: Records of Bureau of Indian Affairs, Central Classified Files 1907-39, Crow, Box 3, 938-1937-031 to 54140-1938-031

“These pictures show how we helped the Crow Indians haul 106 head of buffalo to the Big Horn Canyon, Dec. 8th to 16th, 1935.” These photographs document a collaboration between the first American Indian Superintendent Robert Yellowtail and local white ranchers to re-introduce buffalo to the Crow reservation. The relationships between American Indians and Crow Indians was full of conflict but also collaborations, such as this one. Elsa Byron Spears scrapbook, Wyoming Room, Fulmer County Library, Sheridan, WY.

This is one of many photographs that Bill Yellowtail (b. 1948) took of life on his family ranch in the Big Horn Mountains on the Crow reservation. He is a third generation rancher there. Although white government agents viewed Plains Indian ranchers and farmers as assimilating into a white way of life, many Indians envisioned agriculture work as a way to sustain their families and communities. Photo by Bill Yellowtail, ca. 1970.

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