Fish and Game Stamps of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe
by David R. Torre, ARA
60.8MB
Introduction
Information about stamps issued by Indian Reservations in South Dakota was first published in revenue publications in the early 1960s (see Figure 1).
Figure 1. Editor David Strock informed collectors about fish and game stamps issued by the Sioux tribes of South Dakota in the Sate Revenue Newsletter in early 1964.
Since then, a relatively small group of state revenue and fish and game collectors have avidly pursued these paper artifacts. As the early tribal stamps feature printed text only, they may not appear especially attractive in comparison to many of the classic pictorial fish and game stamps issued during this period. The first tribal stamps include those issued by the Rosebud Sioux and the Lower Brule Sioux for use on reservation lands (see Figures 2 and 3).
Figure 2. The Rosebud Sioux became the first tribal government to issue fish and game stamps in 1959.
Figure 3. The Lower Brule Sioux started issuing stamps in 1962.
Despite this fact, they have held a special interest for many collectors as they link stamp collecting with the study of Native American culture. The choice on the part of tribal governments to adopt the system of stamps and licenses previously developed by the federal and state governments represent an effort on the part of the Indian peoples to assimilate with an American institution of special interest to revenue collectors. Collections that include these interesting stamps serve to document this accomplishment.
In 1989 and 1990, the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe introduced several different types of pictorial stamps. These attractive stamps are likely to be of interest to a much broader spectrum of collectors, and will hopefully bring attention to this important area of American revenue philately.