Who Are the Blackfoot?
The Blackfoot Confederacy (Siksikaitsitapi, "Blackfoot-speaking Real People") comprises four nations: the Siksika, Kainai (Blood), Piikani (Peigan) in Canada, and the Blackfeet Nation in Montana, USA. Together numbering approximately 50,000, the Blackfoot historically dominated the northwestern Great Plains, controlling territory from the North Saskatchewan River to Yellowstone. Renowned warriors and buffalo hunters, the Blackfoot were among the last Plains peoples to be confined to reservations. Their language, Blackfoot, is Algonquian but distinct from neighboring tongues.
Buffalo Days
The Blackfoot relationship with iinnii (buffalo) was spiritual as well as practical. Buffalo provided everything—food, clothing, shelter, tools—and the Blackfoot developed sophisticated communal hunting techniques, including driving herds over cliffs at "buffalo jumps" like Head-Smashed-In (a UNESCO World Heritage Site). The slaughter of the buffalo in the 1880s was deliberately catastrophic for the Blackfoot. Starvation and disease reduced the population by over 60%. Today, Blackfoot nations are restoring buffalo herds, seeing the animals' return as essential to cultural renewal.
Bundle Keepers and Sacred Societies
Blackfoot spirituality centers on sacred bundles—wrapped collections of powerful objects transferred through ceremony with detailed ritual knowledge. Bundle keepers maintain specific ceremonies and songs. The Thunder Pipe Bundle, Beaver Bundle, and Medicine Pipe bundles each connect to particular spiritual powers. Societies like the Horn Society and Brave Dogs societies organize men's ceremonial and social responsibilities. Women hold significant ceremonial roles, including critical positions in the Okan (Sun Dance). These societies and bundles survive, though their ceremonies were long prohibited.
The Sun Dance (Okan)
The Okan or Sun Dance is the Blackfoot's central annual ceremony, held each summer to renew the world and give thanks. A sacred woman makes a vow to sponsor the ceremony, often in prayer for a sick relative. The Okan involves construction of a sacred lodge, several days of dancing, fasting, and for some, piercing. Banned by Canadian and US governments from the 1880s to 1950s, the Sun Dance was practiced secretly and has experienced powerful revival. Today, Okan ceremonies attract participants from across the Confederacy.
Cross-Border Nation
The Canada-US border, established by colonial powers, divides Blackfoot territory and people. The Medicine Line (as the Blackfoot called it) separated families and disrupted traditional movement patterns. Cross-border visiting requires navigating two countries' immigration systems—though the Jay Treaty (1794) theoretically guarantees free passage. Modern Blackfoot work toward reunifying the Confederacy across the border. Joint cultural events, language programs, and buffalo restoration projects reconnect the four nations despite international boundaries.
References
- Ewers, J. C. (1958). The Blackfeet: Raiders on the Northwestern Plains
- Hungry Wolf, A. (1977). The Blood People: A Division of the Blackfoot Confederacy
- Bastien, B. (2004). Blackfoot Ways of Knowing