Hello, I just registored with the Blackfoot Indian Nation for myself and my family. We just got our membership enrollment ID's. I am so proud and honored to a part of this great nation. I have always felt there was apart of me missing and now I feel I have found it. I have a family where I feel a great part of. I do will be doing my best to learn all I can about them,so I teach what I learn to my family, and they inturn can teach it to their family,too. I go by the name EagleFeather, because I saw and Eagle one day and he had lost some of it's feathers, after he left a friend got them and gave them to me. The eagle I saw was the prettyest birds I had ever seen before in my whole life. I could never kill one myself. I know that some times you have to kill in order to have food and clothing,but just to kill for the fun of it isn't my idea of fun at all. I will never understand why people want to hurt and kill them. I feel if they don't bother me why should I go after them. I don't like the idea of killing anthing,if I can help it.They are so pretty and they fly with such real grace. I think that all wild life is wounderful and should be left alone. They have as much right to as we who are human do. I have tried to teach this to my daugther,so that when she is older and married,she will then teach it to her own family. I am looking forward to going the revation one day and earning the eaglefeathers of my tribe. I haven't earned any as yet. I have been looking for a place where I can get the jewerly and clothes,also shoes of the Blackfoot. So far I haven't found a place. But I will keep looking. I would be greatful if anyone could help me out. I am very much into the way that my people wear thier Indian clothes,Jewerly,shoes, I also like the feathers they wear in thier hair. I have always wanted to do this.



Here are some inportant dates in Blackfoot History

1540 The Spanish explorer Francisco Coronado introduces the horse to Native Americans in the Southern Plains. Through intertribal trading, the horse gradually makes its way north to Blackfoot territory.

1806 The American explorer Meriwether Lewis, of the Lewis and Clark Expedition,travels through the northwest territories and encounters the isolated Blackfoot. He reports that they are a strong and honest people.

1830 Blackfoot civization is at its height with an estimated population of more than 18,000.

1836 The first great smallpox epidemics kills close ro half of the Blackfoot.

1845- Disastrous smallpox epidemics again strike the Blackfoot, 1857 reducing the tribe's population to five or six thousand people.

1855 Lamed Bull's Treaty is signed. It is the first treaty between the U>S> government and the Blackfot.

1860s White settlers pour into Blackfoot territory in vast numbers. They begin to raise large herds of cattle, and fence in vast parts of the rich grasslands,reducing the grazing space of the buffalo.

1869 The Baker Massacre takes place in which more than 300 Blackfoot men,women,and children are mistakenly mass- acred by the U.S.Gavalry.

1869 Another smallpox epidemic strikes the Blackfoot,further reducing thier already-small numbers.

1873- U.S.President Ulysses S.Grant signs two executive orders 1874 reducing the size of Blackfoot lands that had been guar- anteed by the Lamell Bull Treaty. The appropriated land gives white ranchers more room to expand.

1880 The offical U.S. census lists a scant Blackfoot popula- tion of 2,200.

1883 The buffalo, once estimated to number more than 60 mil- lion,are all but completely gone from the Plains. Hunt- ing by white people and white ranchers' appropriation of buffalo grazing lands are largely responsible for the buffalos'demise.

1883- The Blackfoot endure what has come to be known as "Star- 1884 vation Winter." More than 600 Blackfoot die of hunger.

1898 Congress passes the Curtis Act, abolishing the rights of all tribal governments for all Native Americans.

1934 Congress passes the Wheeler-Howard Act, reversing the Curtis Act and allowing Native Americans to reinstit- ute their tribal governments.

1950s- Blackfoot culture deteriorates to such a degree that 1960s few Blackfoot know or study the tribe's ancestral language,Algonguian.

1970s- The remaining Blackfoot,realizing they have almost 1990s completely lost all traces of their heritage,begin to turn to their surviving elders to learn the stories and traditions of their ancestors. Indian Days celebrations are organized annually in July on Blackfoot reservation lands in Montana.

Blackfoot Organized Autonomus Bands
Peigan having at least 23,the Blood 7 and the Blackfeet at least6. Among the Blood and Northern Blackfoot,there was a women's society called The Malaki. The dead were placed on a tree scaffold and of horse was killed for the jounery to the land of the dead. When a Blackfoot died in his tipi,however,it was often used as a burial tipi. Mourners cut thier hair,affected a disheveled appearance and sometimes slashed thier arms or legs or cut off fingers. The skin tipi was the usual house style of the Blackfoot and other Nomadic Plains Indians In the Early Days,these portable dewellings were dragged by dogs pulling travies. With the advent of the horse,longer tipi poles could be carried. The women contructed and put up the tipi while the men often painted them with star constellalions and other designs. Other duties of women included dressing of hides,making clothing,gathering,cooking,storing food,carrying wood and water and all work connected with packing and moving camp. Women owned the tipis,travais,household impletements and the horses the rode. The Blackfoot were primarily buffalo hunters,but supplemented their diet by gattering wild foods,such as turnips,potaroes,onions,cherries,plums and berries. Meat and plant foods were usually dried and stored. Pemmican was made of dried pounded meat mixed with dried bries or chockecherries and stored in skin bags. The surplus was sold to traders. one pound to be equivalent to five pounds of meat in food value.



Here are some great Blackfoot Indian Cheifs

1) Ona-stik-pa-kah,Two Guns White Calf, Cheif and orator.Died in Washinton,D.C. in 1904 while there on a mission for his people. President Theodore rosevelt sent his remains back to the reservation in Montana with a military escort. He was the last head chief of the Piegans in Montana.

2) Cheif Mountain-signed the Treaty known as Treaty 7 on Oct.17,1855,which was ratified on April 15,1856.

3) Cheif Curly Bear(Car-io-scuse)-A great Chief of his time.In

3) Good Striper- An old Blood warrior. He was present at the last fight with the crees near the site of Lethbridge,Alberta. A Leader proud of his Traditions of his eople.

4) Big Face Chief- A stalwart member of the north Piegan band of Blackfoot of Canada.

5) Striped Wolf- A prominent member of the Bllod Tribe. A leader who is recogized by his people as a man of excellent judgment. He has a great record as a warrior.

6) Sure Chief- Was a great warrior.

7) Buffalo Bull's Back Fat- Lead Chief of the Blood Indians.

8) Shot on Both Sides- Chief of the blood indians. in the governing of his tribe, his diplomacy and leadership have done a great deal towards inaling his people Sel-supporting.

9) Cheif AJ-As set world record for shotting hid bow. He has the largest Yew Warbow made.He is the best at Archery shotting. He also helps his poeple when he can.I am proud to call him friend and my cheif.He also well known for ability as an expect shot with the rifle. Lots of fans from all over the world from far and near come to him at work.He is a true master.

Here are some other things about the BlackfootT

For nearly two centuries the Blackfoot have been known to white men. Together, the three tribes of which they are composed-the Pikuni or Piegan,the Kainah or Blood, and the siksika or blackfoot proper. Made up the strongest military power on the Northwestern plains in the historic buffalo days.

The Blackfoot have long had a reputation for savage and relentless warfare for half a century up to 1805, they were almost constantly at war with the Shoshonis,and came very near exterinating them.They aggressively asserted themselves against the Flatheads and Kutenais, shoving them westward across the Rockies. They got on fairly well with the English and Canadian trade on the saskatchewon River, but on the upper Missoure,they early took a dislike to the Americans, whom they called"Big hnives." The American fur trade was made hazardous by them-Manuel hisa,Pierre Menard, and Andrew Henry were literally chased out of Montana by the Blackfeet.

From raiding,horse stealing,and other depridatins altinatily from thier bases in Canada and Montana,they gradually lost ground late in the ninteeth century,as the buffalo were extermiated. Today,like many other Indians they are moving towards complete assimilation to the white culture which overwhelmed thiers.



The Blackfoot Name:

It came from the color of the soles of the moccasins worn by the tribal members; these soles were darkened either with paint or from walking over burnt prarie grasses. It was proabably not rised to indecate people outside the Siksika division before the arrival of the whites; since the three divisions are culturally and linguistically identical and often fought togther as allies, white obstervers used the name Blackfeet to designate people from all three divisions.



Blackfoot Legends

1) The forests,valleys,mountains,and rivers of thier territory were all vreated by the sons of creator Sun during thier escape from the moon.

2) Blackfeet myth holds that the medical and spiritual knowledge of a shaman orginated with the Creator Sun.



The Introduction of Alcohol

In the 1850s caused immediate fatalities from alcohol poisoning,violence,and exposure. Traders often doctored cheap moonshine with substances such as ink to make it resemble whiskey, making what was already probably impure alcohol into a truly poisionous mix.



Blackfoot women and menwent on vision uests to make their maturation into adults. The questor would go off to an isolated area for a few days and wait for a vision to appear. Although visions were important a person who did not have one was considered merely unlucky,not cursed or unworthy.



The Sun Dance

The Sun Dance ceremony was considered one of the most important ceremonies of the year, allowing tribe members to give thanks to the Creator Sun for his beneficence. Despite efforts by government authorities to ban the Sun Dance Ceremony,it is still obsterved, although retual self-mutilation is now rarely practiced.



Blackfoot Societies

The Buffalo Bull Society is the only one for women, they hold its ceremonies in concert with tose of the all-male Horn Society.



Blackfoot Revervation Schools

The children attend reservation schools.Such schools were ofhten overcrowed,underfunded,unsanitary,and hostile to the traditional Blackfoot Culture.

Despite the pressure to assimiate and the intermarriage between whites and Native Americans,the Blackfeet Culture will remain strong,because the children of white oriented families who have achieved a measure of economic seciety are taking an increased interest in indian traditions...College youth who have been taken up in the...student Indian Movements... and their peers on the Revervation are not only asserting their Indian identity, but thier tribal identity as well.



Blackfoot Indian Servival

We have servived open intentions of wiping us out,and since the tide turned we have even weathered the good intentions toward us,which can be much more deadly.

Many indians have served in the armed forces in america's two world wars and in Korea,and are now serving in Vietnam. More Indians than any other raical group tok part in World War 1 even though theywere not citizens at that time. Citizenship was granted to the Indians in 1924. Many Indian paratroopers were dropped behind enemy lines because they were such excellent scouts. In World WarII. Lra Hayes,a Pima Indian, was one of the Marines who raised the American Flag on Mount Suribachi,Iwo Jima.



This is something new I found that I thought was interesting



A Blackfoot Hymn-Transtion in Blackfoot and English

First Blackfoot

TSIAS KITAKOMIMOKI KAKASAWAKAMOKSI KITAKOMIMAU NOTAKKI NITSITAPIPIKS KSESTOWA AYO NINNA KSISSAKIT NAKSTAIKIHTOYIS ANOU SPOMOKIT NAKITOTOS ISSOHTSIK KOKOWAYI

Now in English

JESU LOVER OF MY SOUL LET ME TO MY BOSOM FLY WHILE THE NEARER WATERS ROLL WHILE THE TEMPEST STILL IS HIGH HIDE ME O MY SAVIOUR HIDE TILL THE STORM OF LIFE BE PAST SAFE INTO THE HAVEN GUIDE O RECEIVE MY SOUL AT LAST

Here are some Blackfoot Indian Prayers I Found

FOUR WINDS PRAYER By Frank Fools Crow Cheif and Medicine Man of the Lakota Nation

By Chief Seattle

AN INDIAN PRAYER