How 2007 Changed Us

By Jay Harris and Mary Hudetz
CrowNews.Net

With the final hours of 2007 upon us, we are taking a look back at who our Crow news makers were, and what changes the tribe saw, enjoyed or endured during the last 12 months.

We start our retrospect in late January when a basketball story out of Pryor highlighted not our tribe's legacy in this sport but a divided school board, an embattled superintendent and a coach looking to lead an alcohol-free team at odds.

In these early weeks of 2007, a heated controversy surfaced when Larry Falls Down, the former boys basketball coach for Plenty Coups High School, was fired by the Pryor School Board in a 3-2 vote. Falls Down had suspended a player for violating the team's alcohol rules.

Days after tensions in Pryor virtually vanished from the state's news pages, our tribal secretary Andrew Old Elk, beloved by many, passed away at age 62. Later in the spring, Scott Russell was elected as the tribe's secretary, having defeating Leon Old Elk Stewart 1,445 to 1,185.

It was the spring when some of the year's best news happened in our communities, save for the floods that inundated the reservation's lower reaches and displaced many.

The Hardin boys basketball team finished with its best record in a decade come March and the Rams -- Little Big Horn College's basketball team -- wrapped up their first season ever. Tuff Harris, a tribal member and former University of Montana Grizzly All-American, signed a two-year contract with the Miami Dolphins, becoming the first Crow to play major league professional sports.

On Easter, Saint Dennis Catholic Church reopened the doors to its chapel nearly a year after fires and other damages caused by vandals that shook the community. To see what the church looks like now, click here and watch an audio slideshow created by photographer Adam Sings in the Timber.

The spring hand game tournaments that took place for decades in Crow Agency's Round Hall were played down the road in the Apsaalooke Center, or Crow Multi-Purpose Building. Weeks before the competitions started, the Round Hall had been torn down by the tribe's administration.

By October, tribal politics returned to the spotlight with Chairman Carl Venne making clear his intent to run for reelection in 2008 with his supporters and administration declaring that our six-year-old constitution allows tribal officials to serve two, full four-year terms.

Also in November, half of the incumbents were defeated in their bid for reelection. Oliver Half, Jr., Woody “Shorty” Plain Feather, Patrick Alden, Jr., Conrad Stewart, Carlson “Duke” Goes Ahead, and Dana Wilson all won seats to the Crow Legislature in the races across the reservation's seven districts.

At the year's end, talks of natural resource development that remain an ongoing conversation with many of our politicians peaked in December when natural gas was struck in Black Lodge and Venne announced plans for a coal-to-liquid fuel plant that will be constructed on the reservation in the coming years.

People and events defined our year, but some studies showed changes too. Meth-use is down among Montana reservations high schoolers, for example, and domestic violence is on the decline on our reservation, too.

Pryor has got new rodeo grounds, while community halls for dances and other gatherings were built for St. Xavier and Black Lodge. In Crow Agency, a new hall is also being built at the site of the old Reno Hall that could potentially hold the dances the tribe puts on annually to celebrate the New Year.

Happy New Year from CrowNews!

Heywood Big Day III, also called "Third," contributed to this story.