Blackfeet

Treaty of October 19, 1865 – Blackfeet

Articles of a treaty made and concluded at Fort Sully, in the Territory of Dakota, by and between Newton Edmunds, governor and ex-officio superintendent of Indian affairs, of Dakota Territory, Edward B. Taylor, superintendent of Indian affairs for the northern superintendency, Major-General S. R. Curtis, Brigadier-General H. H. Sibley, Henry W. Reed, and Orrin Guernsey, commissioners on the part of the United States, duly appointed by the President, and the undersigned chiefs and headmen of the Blackfeet band of Dakota or Sioux Indians. Article 1.The Blackfeet band of Dakota or Sioux Indians, represented in council, hereby acknowledge themselves to be … Read more

Treaty of April 29, 1868

Treaty with the Sioux—Brulé, Oglala, Miniconjou, Yanktonai, Hunkpapa, Blackfeet, Cuthead, Two Kettle, Sans Arcs, and Santee—and Arapaho, April 29, 1868

Blackfeet Reservation

Piegan Chiefs and Headmen, Blackfeet Agency, Montana

Blackfeet Agency Report of Special Agent Horatio L. Seward on the Indians of the Blackfeet reservation, Blackfeet agency, Montana, January 1891: Names of Indian tribes or parts of tribes occupying said reservation Blackfoot, Blood, and Piegan. The unallotted area of this reservation is 1,760,000 acres, or 2,750 square miles, The reservation has not been surveyed or subdivided. It was established, altered, or changed by treaty of October 17, 1855 (11 U. S. Stats, p. 657); unratified treaties of July 18, 1866, and of July 13 and 15 and September 1, 1808; executive orders, July 5, 1873, and August 19, 1874; … Read more

Oliver Racine, Blackfeet Tribe

Picture shows Oliver and two of his children at his home.

Allottee No. – 524Age – 42Degree – ½Status – Fee Pat.Family – 7 Children Home on Badger Creek near Old Agency. Forty horses, seven cattle, no chickens. Has twenty acres wheat, eight acres oats, garden. Family in good health. Date of survey ———- May 11, 1921 Oliver Racine is a patent in fee Indian and lives on one of his children’s allotments near the day school. He was formerly married to Miss Belle Alvares of the Fort Peck reservation. They have seven children. These people were recently divorced and his wife, Belle, is married to a young Indian boy by … Read more

Siksika Indians

Siksika Indians. Located in the territory stretching from North Saskatchewan River, Canada, to the southern. headstreams of the Missouri in Montana, and from about longitude 105° W. to the base of the Rocky Mountains. The Siksika belong to the Algonquian linguistic stock, forming the most aberrant of all the well-recognized tongues of that family except Arapaho and Atsina.

Kainah Tribe

Kainah First Nation, Kainah Indians, Blood Indians (Ah-kai-nah, ‘many chiefs,’ from a-kai-im many , ni´-nah chiefs ). A division of the Siksika, or Blackfeet, now living on a reservation under the Blood agency in Alberta, Canada, between Belly and St Mary Rivers. The subtribes or bands are Ahkaiksumiks, Ahkaipokaks, Ahkptashiks, Ahkwonistsists, Anepo, Apikaiyiks, Aputpsikainah, Inuhksoyistamiks, Isisokasimiks, Istsikainah, Mameoya, Nitikskiks, Saksinahmahyiks, Siksahpuniks, and Siksinokaks. According to the Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for 1858, there were then 300 tipis and 2,400 persons. In 1904 there were 1,196 persons on the reservation, of whom 958 were classed as pagans. Alternate … Read more

Siksika Tribe

Siksika Indians. A tribe of the Siksika confederacy (see below). They now (1905) live on a reservation in Alberta, Canada, on upper Bow River, and are officially known as the Running Rabbit and Yellow Horse bands. They were divided into the following subtribes or bands: Aisikstukiks, Apikaiyiks, Emi-tahpahksaiyiks, Motahtosiks, Puhksinahmahyiks, Saiyiks, Siksinokaks,Tsiniktsistsoyiks. Pop. 942 in 1902, 795 in 1909. Siksika Confederacy Siksika Confederacy, (‘black feet’, from siksinam ‘black’, ka the root of ogkatsh ‘foot’. The origin of the name is disputed, but it is commonly believed to have reference to the discoloring of their moccasins by the ashes of the … Read more

Atsina Tribe

Atsina Indians (Blackfoot: ăt-se´-na, said to mean ‘gut people.’). A detached branch of the Arapaho, at one time associated with the Blackfeet, but now with the Assiniboin under Ft Belknap agency, Montana

Blackfeet Tribe in War

The Blackfeet were a warlike people. How it may have been in the old days, before the coming of the white men, we do not know. Very likely, in early times, they were usually at peace with neighboring tribes, or, if quarrels took place, battles were fought, and men killed, this was only in angry dispute over what each party considered its rights. Their wars were probably not general, nor could they have been very bloody. When, however, horses came into the possession of the Indians, all this must have soon become changed. Hitherto there had really been no incentive … Read more

Blackfeet Tribe, Social Organization

The social organization of the Blackfeet is very simple. The three tribes acknowledged a blood relationship with each other, and, while distinct, still considered themselves a nation. In this confederation, it was understood that there should be no war against each other. However, between 1860 and 1870, when the whiskey trade was in its height, the three tribes were several times at swords’ points on account of drunken brawls. Once, about sixty or seventy years ago, the Bloods and Piegan had a quarrel so serious that men were killed on both sides and horses stolen; yet this was hardly a … Read more

Blackfeet Religion

In ancient times the chief god of the Blackfeet their Creator was Na’pi (Old Man). This is the word used to indicate any old man, though its meaning is often loosely given as white. An analysis of the word Na’pi, however, shows it to be compounded of the word Ni’nah, man, and the particle a’pi, which expresses a color, and which is never used by itself, but always in combination with some other word. The Blackfoot word for white is Ksik-si-num’ while a’pi, though also conveying the idea of whiteness, really describes the tint seen in the early morning light … Read more

Blackfeet Customs

Indians are usually represented as being a silent, sullen race, seldom speaking, and never laughing nor joking. However true this may be in regard to some tribes, it certainly was not the case with most of those who lived upon the Great Plains. These people were generally talkative, merry, and light-hearted; they delighted in fun, and were a race of jokers. It is true that, in the presence of strangers, they were grave, silent, and reserved, but this is nothing more than the shyness and embarrassment felt by a child in the presence of strangers. As the Indian becomes acquainted, … Read more

Blackfoot Tribe, Past and Present

Fifty years ago the name Blackfoot was one of terrible meaning to the white traveler who passed across that desolate buffalo-trodden waste which lay to the north of the Yellowstone River and east of the Rocky Mountains. This was the Blackfoot land, the undisputed home of a people which is said to have numbered in one of its tribes the Pi-k[)u]n’-i 8000 lodges, or 40,000 persons. Besides these, there were the Blackfeet and the Bloods, three tribes of one nation, speaking the same language, having the same customs, and holding the same religious faith. But this land had not always … Read more

Blackfeet Medicine Pipes and Healing

The person whom the whites term “medicine man” is called by the Blackfeet Ni-namp’-skan. Mr. Schultz believes this word to be compounded of nin’nah, man, and namp’-ski, horned toad (Phrynosoma), and in this he is supported by Mr. Thomas Bird, a very intelligent half-breed, who has translated a part of the Bible into the Blackfoot language for the Rev. S. Trivett, a Church of England missionary. These gentlemen conclude that the word means “all-face man.” The horned toad is called namp’-ski, all-face; and as the medicine man, with his hair done up in a huge topknot, bore a certain resemblance … Read more

Blackfeet Indian Research

Siksika (‘black feet’, from siksinam ‘black’, ka the root of oqkatsh, ‘foot’. The origin of the name is disputed, but it is commonly believed to have reference to the discoloring of their moccasins by the ashes of the prairie fires; it may possibly have reference to black-painted moccasins such as were worn by the Pawnee, Sihasapa, and other tribes). An important Algonquian confederacy of the northern plains, consisting of three subtribes, the Siksika proper or Blackfeet, the Kainah or Bloods, and the Piegan, the whole body being popularly known as Blackfeet. In close alliance with these are the Atsina and … Read more

Blackfeet Hunting Customs

The Blackfoot country probably contained more game and in greater variety than any other part of the continent. Theirs was a land whose physical characteristics presented sharp contrasts. There were far-stretching grassy prairies, affording rich pasturage for the buffalo and the antelope; rough breaks and bad lands for the climbing mountain sheep; wooded buttes, loved by the mule deer; timbered river bottoms, where the white-tailed deer and the elk could browse and hide; narrow, swampy valleys for the moose; and snow-patched, glittering pinnacles of rock, over which the sure-footed white goat took his deliberate way. The climate varied from arid … Read more

Blackfeet Tribe, How they Lived

The primitive clothing of the Blackfeet was made of the dressed skins of certain animals. Women seldom wore a head covering. Men, however, in winter generally used a cap made of the skin of some small animal, such as the antelope, wolf, badger, or coyote. As the skin from the head of these animals often formed part of the cap, the ears being left on, it made a very odd-looking head-dress. Sometimes a cap was made of the skin of some large bird, such as the sage-hen, duck, owl, or swan. The ancient dress of the women was a shirt … Read more

Blackfeet of Today

In the olden times the Blackfeet were very numerous, and it is said that then they were a strong and hardy people, and few of them were ever sick. Most of the men who died were killed in battle, or died of old age. We may well enough believe that this was the case, because the conditions of their life in those primitive times were such that the weakly and those predisposed to any constitutional trouble would not survive early childhood. Only the strongest of the children would grow up to become the parents of the next generation. Thus a … Read more

Blackfeet Tribe

Blackfeet Indians, Siksika Tribe, Siksika Indians (‘black feet’, from siksinam ‘black’, ka the root of oqkatsh, ‘foot’. The origin of the name is disputed, but it is commonly believed to have reference to the discoloring of their moccasins by the ashes of the prairie fires; it may possibly have reference to black-painted moccasins such as were worn by the Pawnee, Sihasapa, and other tribes). An important Algonquian confederacy of the northern plains, consisting of three subtribes, the Siksika proper or Blackfeet, the Kainah or Bloods, and the Piegan, the whole body being popularly known as Blackfeet. In close alliance with … Read more