Blackfoot

By Gerald T. Conaty and John Beierle

Blood (Kainai; Kainawa); Northern Blackfoot (Siksika); Peigan (North Peigan; Pikunii); Blackfeet (South Peigan)

The Blackfoot of the United States and Canada consist of three geographical-linguistic groups: the Siksika (formerly called Blackfoot), the Kainai (or Bloods), and the North Peigan and South Peigan (the Blackfeet of Montana). The term Blackfoot (Siksika) derives from legends which alternatively refer to people walking across prairies scorched by fire or to people who lived near a lake surrounded by black mud. The term Kainai means "Many Chiefs" while Peigan refers to "Scabby (poorly tanned) robe people". Although these groups are sometimes called a confederacy, there was no overarching political structure and the relations between the groups do not warrant such a label. Rather, the three groups had an ambiguous sense of unity.

Before settling on reserves in the late nineteenth century, the Blackfoot occupied a large territory that stretched from the North Saskatchewan River in central Alberta, Canada to the Yellowstone River in Montana and from the base of the Rocky Mountains, eastward to the Great Sand Hills (about 105 degrees west longitude). The Peigan were located along the western edge of this territory, the Siksika lived in the eastern regions and the Kainai occupied the central area. Historically, the Blackfoot were surrounded by the Cree to the east and north, the Assiniboine to the east, the Crow and Shoshone to the south and the Kt'unaxa (Kootenay) to the west. The Tsuu T'ina (Sarcee) were Dene-speaking allies who lived along the edge of the foothills. In the 1990s the Blackfoot live on four reserves: the Siksika Nation, Kainai Nation, and Peigan Nation in Alberta and the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Montana.

In 1790 David Thompson estimated that there were 9,000 Blackfoot while Catlin suggested in 1832 that the population was 16,500 and in 1833 Prince Maximilian put the number at 18,000 to 20,000. During the nineteenth century, starvation and repeated epidemics of measles and smallpox reduced the population to 4,635 by 1909. In 1980 there were about 15,000 Blackfeet living on the Reservation in Montana and 10,000 Kainai, Siksika and Peigan living in Alberta.

Blackfoot is an Algonkian language and is on a coordinate level with Arapaho and Cheyenne. Dialects of Blackfoot are Sikiska, Kainai, and Peigan.

Horses, guns, and metal were probably present among the Blackfoot early in the eighteenth century, although the first direct contact with Europeans probably did not occur until 1690 when Henry Kelsey met a group near the Saskatchewan River. The introduction of the horse and the gun intensified conflict on the Plains and reordered intercultural relationships. Prior to this, the Blackfoot were allied with the Cree, Tsuu T'ina, and Gros Ventre and their principle enemy was the "Snakes" (who may have been Shoshone). After the 16th century the Cree, along with the Assiniboine, Kt'unaxa, and Crow became significant adversaries. Warfare between the groups often centered on raiding for horses and revenge. The westward movement of White settlers increased tensions with the Blackfoot. In 1855 the U.S. Government and South Peigan signed the Judith Treaty which defined the boundaries of the Blackfeet Reservation and promised provisions and educational aid for the people. The Kainai, Peigan, and Siksika signed Treaty 7 with the Canadian government in 1877 on much the same grounds. By 1884 the bison had all but disappeared from the plains and the Blackfoot, decimated by disease and starvation, settled on the allocated reserves in Alberta and Montana.

Each of the nations of Blackfoot came together in their own large camp during the summer. At this time they engaged ceremonial activities such as the OK'AN (sometimes called the sun dance) and undertook large scale bison hunts. During the winter they dispersed into smaller family- or clan-based bands of ten to twenty households. While membership in these smaller units was fluid, it was usually based on kinship.

The Blackfoot were nomadic hunter-gatherers who lived in tipis.The bison was the mainstay of their life, providing food and the raw material for shelter and other aspects of the material culture. Much of the ceremonialism focussed on the importance of bison for survival. This does not mean that other animals or plants were unimportant in either the subsistence or the ceremonial aspects of their life. In fact, the Blackfoot were extremely knowledgeable of their environment and managed all aspects of it with care.

In the 1990s, the economies of the Blackfoot reserves are based on ranching, farming, leased land, wage labour, and welfare. Oil and gas potential varies among the reserves and the Kainai have entered into co-management agreements with the federal government and private oil companies. The Kainai have also initiated the Blood Tribe Agricultural Project which, as the second largest irrigation project in North America, will produce revenue through a variety of specialty crops grown for export.

In traditional times the bison was the primary source of food as well as hides for tipi covers, bedding, parfleche containers, and shields, and sinew for sewing. Hides from deer and elk were used for most articles of clothing. Scrapers were made from elk metapodials and elk antlers inset with stone scraper-bits. After trade with Whites was established, canvas became popular as lodge covers, cloth replaced hide as clothing, and iron replaced bone and stone as scraping tools.

The Blackfoot were an integral part of the trade networks which existed throughout North America prior to the arrival of Europeans. Lithic raw materials, shells, and other decorative items were exchanged with other Native groups in all directions. This non-commercial trade defined alliances and reinforced extensive kinship-like relationships. As European traders arrived, the Blackfoot controlled not only access to their traditional territories, but also access to trade guns and horses by other Native groups.

There was a strict division of labour based on sex. Men hunted, protected the camp, raided enemies, made weapons and tools, and painted designs on tipis and shields. Women tanned the hides, made the clothing and tipis, gathered wood and water, and moved camp. Bundles were owned and cared for by both men and women. Both genders were honoured and respected for their contribution to the community welfare.

Traditionally, there were no formal rules relevant to access to or use of land, although the use of some resources may have been restricted to those who had the "rights" transferred to them through sacred ceremonies. Land ownership and allocation varies among the four nations.

Kin terms were of the Hawaiian type. The term "clan" is used by the Blackfoot to refer to a level of sociopolitical and kinship organization which integrates nuclear families. Traditionally, clan membership was flexible as people changed affiliation for political, social, or economic reasons. A man traced his clan ancestry through his father's family while a woman would assume the clan name of her husband. In old age, a woman might recall the ancestry of her father. If a family changed clans it might take several generations before the new association replaced the older one in the minds of the other people.

Marriages were most often arranged between the parents of the spouses. Although most marriages were monogamous, polygyny was common, especially among wealthier men and bundle owners where the added responsibility required additional help. Marital and kinship relationships in general were governed by rigid avoidance, age-grading, and the use of formal speech with older kin. Sexual jealousy was common and wives suspected of infidelity might be beaten, mutilated, or even killed although this may have been the case with senior rather than junior wives.

In the late twentieth century, family relationships and structures remain amorphous, unstable and fluid. Often, large households composed of related families live in close proximity to one another and form cooperative economic units, much as clans did in the buffalo days.

Traditionally, men and women would be buried with their most important possessions. Any other property would be designated through a verbal will.

Children were and are viewed as individuals worthy of respect. They are expected to be quiet and deferentialwith adults but assertive with peers. Admonishing, teasing and ridiculing are preferred to corporeal punishment, which is considered abusive. Girls are taught by women and boys by men, generally learning the appropriate sex-typed behaviour and skills, first by imitation, them by helping, and finally by instruction. The extended family plays a central role in child rearing and care; it is not uncommon for children to live with their grandparents. Adoption or the bringing-up of children raised by relatives is also fairly common.

The basic sociopolitical unit was the clan (sometimes called a band) which consisted of related extended family members. Clans which lived in close proximity to each other became identified as tribal subdivisions and these, in turn, made up each of the Blackfoot tribes. The Siksika, for example, were divided into northern, middle, and southern groups, each of which included a number of different clans. Although decision-making was by consensus, clans identified headmen as spokesmen, the subdivisions recognized sub-chiefs and each tribe recognized a chief.

Cross-cutting this organization was a series of age-grade men's societies which drew its members from all of the clans of a given tribe and, occasionally, from the other Blackfoot tribes. Membership was through the purchase of the rights to a society bundle and each society had its own distinctive songs, dances, regalia, and duties. The youngest members belonged to the Mosquitoes and the oldest to the Bull society. The OK'AN, or summer camp, was the time at which all members of these societies met and performed their ceremonies. Although it was generally the men who undertook the public performances, in all but the youngest societies it was expected that a man would join with his wife and that the two of them would care for the bundle and partake in the ceremonies.

Although decision-making was by consensus, leadership was recognized. Each clan recognized a headman, one of whom was considered the chief of the tribe. Leadership was informal and prominent men were usually wealthy, successful warriors, respected ceremonialists and had reputations for sound judgment and a willingness to reach decisions through consensus.The Blackfeet Reservation is a business corporation and a political entity. The Peigan, Blood and Siksika nations are organized under the Indian Act, although each has developed distinctive characteristics as they move toward different models of self-government.

The only formal mechanism for social control was the police activities of some of the men's societies in the summer camp. Informal mechanisms included gossip, ridicule, and shaming. Generosity was encouraged and praised.

Intragroup conflict was a matter for individuals, families , or clans.

Traditional Blackfoot understand that human beings coexist with spiritual beings who live in the sky, on earth, and under the water. The holy (sacred) bundles, and the ceremonies which featured them, are manifestations of human links to these other beings. Among the most important bundles are the beaver bundle, the medicine pipe bundle, and the NATOAS or holy woman's bundle from the sun dance. Peyote ceremonies and the ghost dance, as it developed among the Paiute, have never been prominent. By the late twentieth century, many people have been christianized predominantly by the Roman Catholics and Anglicans. Traditional ceremonies are also practiced and seem to becoming stronger.

The Blackfoot sun dance is called an OK'AN or "coming together." at which time all of the clans of one tribe gather and each society performs its major ceremonies for the year. These ceremonies occur in a predetermined sequence, and one society may not begin their rites until another has finished. From time to time a virtuous woman may vow to sit as a Holy Woman for four days. Such vows are usually made after the Creator has granted the woman or a member of her family a special favor. Upon completion of her fast, a center pole is "captured" and erected and a sun dance arbor is constructed. Occasionally, a man may then be pierced and dance in front of the center pole in fulfillment of a personal vow. Unlike other Plains tribes, piercing was never the primary focus of the Blackfoot sun dance Other ceremonies, such as the sweat lodge and pipe ceremony were integral to the completion of most ceremonies.

Singing was an integral part of all religious ceremonies as well as an important form of social intercourse. Porcupine quillwork was considered a sacred craft among women. Some men were highly skilled painters of bison skin shields and tipi covers. Today (in the 1990s), there are many skilled dancers, singers, artists, carvers, leather and beadworkers, orators, and singers. Some have also become important artists in the western traditions of oil painting.

Illness was sometimes attributed to an evil spirit entering the body. Treatment was directed at removing the spirit through singing, drumming, and praying . Other illnesses were recognized as physical ailments which were treated with the extensive Blackfoot pharmacopoeia.

It was believed that the dead moved east, to the Sand Hills. The dead were placed on a platform in a tree or in a tipi or were left on the floor of their dwelling. Some property was left with the body for use in the next life. The Blackfoot avoided the ghosts of the deceased and if a person died in a tipi the structure was sealed and abandoned and the camping spot was subsequently avoided.

Documents referred to in this section are included in the eHRAF collection and are referenced by author, date of publication, and eHRAF document number. The Blackfoot file consists of thirty-four English language documents, focusing in large part on the pre-reservation Blackfoot of northern Montana in the United States and in southern Alberta and Saskatchewan, in Canada. Much of the data in the file is based on memory ethnography or historical reconstruction and ranges in time coverage from the 1600s to around 1970, with a particular time focus on the period from the 1850s to the early 1900s. The most comprehensive studies of traditional nineteenth century Blackfoot ethnography are found in the works of Wissler (1911, no. 1; 1912, no. 2; 1910, no. 3; and 1918, no. 23), and Ewers (1955, no. 8; 1955, no. 9), supplemented with comparable data from Lewis (1973, no. 10), Kane (1925, no. 47,) Lancaster (1966, no. 54), Binnema (1996, no. 59), Conaty (1995, no. 60), Dempsey (1986, no. 61; 1978, no. 62), Nugent ( 1993, no. 65), and Schultz (1930, no. 67). More recent data dealing primarily with the post-reservation period are found in Goldfrank (1966, no. 11), Hanks & Richardson (1966, no. 12), Hanks & Hanks (1950, no. 16), Lismer (1974, no. 29), McFee (1972, no. 6; 1971, no. 14), Robbins (1972, no. 13), Hellson and Gadd (1974, no. 17), and Hungry Wolf (1980, no. 20; 1977, no. 21). Of the nine new works added to the Blackfoot file in 1997 (eHRAF documents 59-67), the study by Samek (1987, no 66) is of particular interest for its analysis of the United States and Canadian government's reservation administration policies. For more detailed information on the content of the individual works in this file, see the abstracts in the citations preceding each document.

The culture summary was written by Gerald T. Conaty in August, 1997. The synopsis and indexing notes were written by John Beierle in October, 1997. The Human Relations Area Files also wishes to acknowledge with thanks the suggestions offered by Gerald T. Conaty for the selection of new documents added to the Files in 1997.

• calumet -- a peacepipe used in maintaining peace and sealing a contract -- category 728

• gentes -- unilineal descent groups (assumed) -- category 614

• Indian scouts -- as members of a military organization -- category 701

• INISKIM -- the good luck Buffalo Stone -- categories 777, 778

• KOS'STAN -- the rawhide dish for mixing tobacco seed -- categories 281, 415

• medicine bundles -- as sacred objects -- category 778

• medicine pipes -- sacred pipes used in ceremonials -- categories 778, 276 (sometimes)

• MOTOKI -- a women's society -- category 575

• political chief -- category 622

• war chief -- category 624

• Royal Canadian Mounted Police -- as a police force on the reservations -- category 657

• smudge altar -- category 778

Conaty, Gerald T. Economic Models and Blackfoot Ideology. American Ethnologist -- Vol. 22, No. 2 (1995): 403-412.

Hanks, Lucien M. and Jane R. Hanks. Tribe Under Trust: A Study of the Blackfoot Reserve in Alberta. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1950.

Hungry Wolf, Beverly. The Ways of My Grandmothers. New York: William Morrow, 1980.

Samek, Hanna. The Blackfoot Confederacy: 1880-1920. A Comparative Study of Canadian and U.S. Indian Policy. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1987.