The Government
In the past, the Crow Indians had three main branches of government. They were the Mountain Crow, River Crow, and Kick in the Bellies. Much has changed since then. They have recently adopted many ways of the Americans. In 2001 the Crow tribe passed a new constitution, that replaced their old constitution which was signed in 1948. Now they have three branches; Judicial, Executive, and Legislative. The Judicial branch consists of three courts; The Crow Tribal Court, The Crow Juvenile Court, and The Crow Appellate Court. The Executive Branch has four main positions; Chairman, Vice-Chairman, Secretary, and Vice-Secretary. Like the United States Government, they also have cabinet members. The Legislative Branch is broken up into six districts. All members serve four year terms, like the president of the United States. The districts are the Arrow Creek District, Big Horn District, Black Lodge District, Center Lodge District, Mighty Few District, and the Valley of the Chiefs District. In their government system, leadership, trust, and respect was earned. There were certain accomplishments that had to be met before one was called a good man. Only good men were used to lead war parties. The most recent leader of the Crow tribe is Darrin Old Coyote and he is still in the middle of his term. The most recent census was in 2000 and there were 6,894 Crow Indians on the reservation at the time.