Written by: Roanne Hill

Pretty Eagle point is located on the Crow Indian Reservation near Fort Smith, Montana.  

It is a peak overlooking the Big Horn Canyon.  The view is truly breathtaking.  It is also considered an important historical landmark and has important spiritual significance for the Crow.  The tribe specifies that only tribal members are allowed to go there, and even then, the site is approached with reverence and respect.

Chief Pretty Eagle (Déaxitchish), born in 1846, was a war chief of the Apsáalooke.  He was a member of the Peigan clan and War Society.  He was highly regarded among the Crow for his many battle deeds, earning the status of chieftainship.

He died around 1903 and was buried 11 miles southwest of present-day Hardin.  His body, along with 60 other bodies of Crow tribal members, was sold by a Big Horn County employee to museums all over the country, with some ending up in foreign countries.  It took until 1994 (over 90 years later) for his descendants to retrieve his remains and have them returned to Crow country.  He was later reinterred at his famous fasting site.

Pretty Eagle Point is not only Chief Pretty Eagle’s fasting site but his final resting place.  This is why it is held in such high reverence among the Crow.

The St. Labre Indian School has in its school system the Pretty Eagle school, which was named after Chief Pretty Eagle.

The Crow language classes at St. Labre visit the site after a lesson on Chief Pretty Eagle and why the site exists.  

The students are very respectful and love to hike behind the fasting and burial site, closer to the canyon edge, for a better view of the spectacular Big Horn Canyon and the river far below.

Following the hike to and from Pretty Eagle Point, the students get an opportunity to see Okabay Marina and see the Yellowtail Dam in the distance.