[2] One of many Crow creation stories for the physical world recalls that Old Man Coyote (OMC) was alone in a large ocean when he saw two male ducks floating upon its surface.
One example of this tolerance is the overview of the world's religions provided by Thomas Yellowtail, a Crow medicine man and Sun Dance chief.
Yellowtail used the metaphor of a wagon wheel to describe religious belief, noting that, each spoke represented a unique people and religion.
The stars, as created by God, are also considered highly sacred and their spirits can interact with humans in the same way as an animal patron.
A squirrel spirit, as it stores nuts for the winter to feed its family, is believed to do the same for humans, helping the tribe find food.
Before embarking upon the quest a Crow might visit a medicine man to help determine what type of Baaxpée would most aid them, and to go over the rites and prayers to ensure their endeavour follows the rituals.
In Crow the ritual is called bilisshíissanne, which translates as 'to fast from water,' as the participant vows not eat or drink for two to three days to show their devotion to God through their sacrifice.
[16] Once the quest is complete and Baaxpée gained, the Crow quester would return home, often visiting a medicine man to talk through their vision to fully understand its meaning.
To commemorate their experience the quester will create a Xapáaliia to represent their patron, the power they have gained, and to help a Crow in channelling and maintaining their Baaxpée.
If a Crow's Xapáaliia is known to be especially powerful, proven by its ability to influence life, they may find themselves inundated with requests to use it, the decision however it is ultimately up the owner as to who they give it to.
[18] The powers that Xapáaliia bestows to its owner usually reflect the pragmatic concerns of a Crow's daily life, whether this be to gain food, good health, wealth or to bring victory over one's enemies.
To keep their Xapáaliia pure and their patron happy, it is vital that it does not come into contact with menstruates, if it does, this would offend their Medicine Father and bring disease upon the owner.
Although victorious the man's friends are grievously injured, so together they perform the Sweat Lodge ceremony, which heals all the bison to full strength.
However first it is necessary to look at the building of the Big Lodge, the Ashé Isée, as this is vital if one is to understand the Dance in context and the complex symbolism involved in its construction.
The Lodge acts as the closest building that the pre-reservation Crows had to a church, and is constructed by the community on land owned by the dance sponsor.
To the central pole are also hung the head of a buffalo and the body of an eagle, patrons who will come to life in the minds of the dancers during the ceremony.
Around this totem are placed twelve posts of cottonwood, around forty feet from the centre, creating the boundaries of the lodge, with the doorway on the east side.
[30] It is in these way that the Sun dance lodge is designed to focus and channel the Baaxpée of God, giving the Crow participants visions and blessing for the whole tribe.
Traditionally the Sun Dance's primary purpose was to give a mourner God's blessing to take revenge on the tribe that had killed their kinsman, and specifically to enable the participant to harm those individuals responsible for their murder.
[32] However, with imposed peace of the reservations the purpose of the ritual had to change, instead there are a variety of reasons for performing a Sun Dance including season renewal, to gain God's blessing, and in rare cases to attain sacred power to help Crows going to war.
[33] Although the general aim of a particular Sun Dance may be to bring good luck on the tribe each dancer had their own personal agenda for participating.
If the dancer stared at the head of the Buffalo and danced long enough for the spirit to come alive, it is believed that the patron charged the participant, causing the Crow to have a 'hard fall,' inducing a vision.
When a dancer collapsed and entered into a visionary state, other members of the tribe carefully removed them from the ceremony centre, allowing their vision to run its course.
To aid them through this difficult second day, and in recognition of their sacrifice, members of the tribe offered gifts and words of advice, as well as constructed willow structures in the lodge to shade and support the dancers.
[40] It was at noon on the third day that the ceremony typically came to an end, with the breaking of the fast by the drinking of blessed water brought by the women of the tribe.
As the plant is especially revered, the Tobacco Society ensures that all the rites and rituals are performed correctly, cultivating it so that the tribe may be successful.
Bond practiced a strict form of Protestantism, and therefore refused to acknowledge traditional Crow beliefs and culture, thereby alienating the tribe.
[54] The only successful Christians sect to get Crows to worship only God was Evangelicalism, which in the 1980s experienced a religious boom, establishing churches in districts throughout the reservation.
that peyote ceremonies were brought to the US by the nomadic Apache and Comanche Native Americans who would often travel south of the border to raid and graze their horses.
[59] The use of peyote spread so rapidly on the reservations of Oklahoma because it was an element of indigenous culture that had not yet been destroyed by whites, providing Native Americans with an invaluable link with their past.