The Crow Clubwoman

Abstract

This article explores the history of the Crow Indian Woman’s Club, an organization founded in 1930 that persisted, on and off, through the early 1980s. Marshalling their identities as “educated Indian women” and lacking direct channels of political power, Crow clubwomen relied heavily on the written word, creating a paper trail of the club’s perspectives. Foregrounding sources produced and curated by clubwomen and their descendants, this article recounts these women’s advocacy in health, education, and family life, as well as politics and policy—as women and tribal members, but also as clubwomen who took their responsibility for advancing their people’s welfare seriously. Toward this end, they navigated complicated alliances, including with the colonial state and with white clubwomen whose commitment to Crow causes proved fickle.