Material culture of the Blackfoot Indians

Wissler, Clark

Book

Material culture of the Blackfoot Indians

The Trustees • 5 (1) • Published In 1910 • Pages: 1-175, plates

By: Wissler, Clark.

Abstract
This monograph presents a descriptive survey of the material culture of the Blackfoot, comparing the Peigan, Blood and Northern Blackfoot with each other and with the neighboring Prairie, Plains, Plateau, Shoshone, and occasionally Eastern Algonkian societies. Since Wissler intends 'to present Blackfoot material culture in perspective rather than in isolation' (p. 7) a brief ethnographic summary is included in the introduction. Wissler concludes, on the basis of distributional evidence, that the Blackfoot, though linguistically distinct from other groups in the Missouri-Saskatchewan region, share a large proportion of cultural traits with their neighbors. While the author collected some data on the Blackfoot while in the field, much additional material is taken from historical accounts and comparative material comes from both historical accounts and American Museum collections.