Blackfeet

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the Piegan Blackfeet, the band of the tribe located on the Blackfeet Nation in Montana. For the other Blackfoot bands, see Blackfoot. For the similarly translated former Franco-Algerian population, see Pieds-noirs.

Sahpo Muxika, also known as Crowfoot, former Head Chief of the Blackfeet Nation

The Piegan Blackfeet (Pikuni in Blackfoot) are a tribe of Native Americans based in Montana. Many members of the tribe currently live as part of the Blackfeet Nation in northwestern Montana, with population centered in Browning.

The Blackfeet are closely related to three First Nations in the Canadian province of Alberta. These First Nations are the Kainai Nation (formerly the Blood), the Northern Peigan and the Siksika Nation. These First Nations and the Blackfeet are sometimes collectively referred to as the Blackfoot or the Blackfoot Confederacy. Ethnographic literature most commonly uses Blackfoot people, and most Blackfoot people use the singular Blackfoot, though the US and tribal governments officially use Blackfeet as in Blackfeet Indian Reservation and Blackfeet Nation as seen on official tribe website. The term Siksika, derived from Siksikaikwan - "a Blackfoot person" - may also be used in self-identification, as may, in English, "I am Blackfoot" or "I am a member of the Blackfeet tribe." (Nettl, 1989)

The relations of the Blackfoot language to others in the Algonquian language family indicate that the Blackfoot lived in an area west of the Great Lakes. Though they practiced some agriculture, they were partly nomadic. They moved westward partially because of the introduction of horses and guns and became a part of the Plains Indians culture in the early 1800s. However, there is evidence that they were near the rocky mountain front for thousands of years before European contact. The blackfoot creation story takes place directly bellow Glacier National Park in what is referred as 'Badger-Two Medicine'. The introduction of the horse is placed at about 1730. In 1900, there were an estimated 20,000 Blackfoot, while today there are approximately 25,000. The population was at times dramatically lower when the Blackfeet people suffered instances of disease, starvation, and war, such as the starvation year of 1882 when the last buffalo hunt failed or the smallpox epidemic of 1837 which killed 6,000. They had held large portions of Alberta and Montana, though today the Blackfeet Reservation is the size of Delaware, and the three Blackfoot reserves in Alberta have a much smaller area. (Nettl, 1989) The Blackfeet hold belief “in a sacred force that permeates all things, represented symbolically by the sun whose light sustains all things”. Piegan (Pikuni, referring to people having badly dressed robes). One of the 3 tribes of the Siksika or Blackfoot confederacy. Its divisions, as given by Grinnell, are : Ahahpitape, Ahkaiyikokakiniks, Kiyis, Sikutsipmaiks, Sikopoksimaiks, Tsiniksistsoyiks, Kutaiimiks, Ipoksimaiks, Silkokitsimiks, Nitawyiks, Apikaiviks, Miahwahpitsiks, Nitakoskitsipupiks, Nitikskiks, Inuksiks, Miawkinaiyiks, Esksinaitupiks, Inuksikahkopwaiks, Kahmitaiks, Kutaisotsiman, Nitotsiksisstaniks, Motwainaiks, Mokumiks, and Motahtosiks. Hayden gives also Susksoyiks. In 1858 the Piegan in the United States were estimated to number 3,700. Hayden 3 years later estimated the population at 2,520. In 1906 there were 2,072 under the Blackfeet agency in Montana, and 493 under the Piegan agency in Alberta, Canada.

The Blackfoot language is also agglutinative. The Blackfoot do not have well documented male Two-Spirits, but they do have "manly-hearted women" (Lewis, 1941) who act in much of the social roles of men, including willingness to sing alone, usually considered "immodest", and using a men's singing style. (Nettl, 1989, p.84, 125).