Aahkawirahkata

Aahkawirahkata lies in the Yellowstone River country of southern Montana, where high plateau and sparse grassland run up toward the Beartooth and Pryor mountains. The climate is cold and dry, with long winters and strong winds, and wild game was the main resource.

This was Crow territory. The Apsáalooke moved into the Yellowstone valley from the east in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and held it against Shoshone, Blackfoot and Sioux rivals. After about 1730 they acquired horses and became noted horse breeders and traders. Bands followed bison across the plateau, wintered in the river bottoms, and met trappers and traders along the Yellowstone from the early nineteenth century.