by Richard C. Hanes and Matthew T. Pifer
The Blackfoot Nation is actually a confederation of several distinct tribes, including the South Piegan (or Pikuni), the Blood (or Kainai), the North Piegan, and the North Blackfoot (or Siksika). They traditionally called each other Nizitapi, or "Real People." The name Blackfoot reportedly derived from the black-dyed moccasins worn by some tribal members at the time of early contact with non-Indians. The Blackfoot are also known as the Blackfeet. The Blood, Siksika, and Piegan freely intermarried, spoke a common language, shared the same cultural traits, and fought the same enemies. This confederation traditionally occupied the northwest portion of the Great Plains from the northern reaches of the Saskatchewan River of western Saskatchewan and southern Alberta, Canada, to the Yellowstone River in central Montana including the headwaters of the Missouri River. The Northern Blackfoot live farthest north, the Blood and North Piegan in the middle just north of the Canadian border, and the South Piegan furthest south along the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains in northern Montana. The confederation had more than one tribal leader. Each tribe consisted of a number of hunting bands, which were the primary political units of the tribe. Each of these bands was headed by both a war leader and a civil leader, the former chosen because of his reputation as a warrior, and the later chosen because of his eloquent oratory.
The Blackfoot were one of many tribes to rely on buffalo for survival.
In 1809, fur trapper and explorer Alexander Henry estimated the North Blackfoot population at 5,200. In 1832, artist George Catlin estimated the population of the entire confederation at 16,500. By 1840, the population began decreasing significantly from epidemics of diphtheria in 1836 and smallpox in 1837, and from increasing warfare. One southern group of 2,000 in central Montana known to some as Small Robes reportedly disappeared altogether. Still, the Blackfoot reigned over the northern Plains region of southern Alberta and northern Montana into the mid-nineteenth century. By 1896, however, only 1,400 Blackfoot lived in Montana.
As a member of the Algonquian language family, the Blackfoot are related to other Algonquianspeaking tribes whom ethnologists believe migrated onto the plains from the eastern woodlands several centuries before contact with whites. Some Blackfoot do not readily accept that historic interpretation. In The Blackfeet: Raiders on the Northwestern Plains, John C. Ewers stated that the Blackfoot were the "earliest Algonquian residents of the plains." Consequently, their culture is a Plains culture, revolving around warfare, buffalo, and the horse. During the nineteenth century, the Blackfoot confederation was the most powerful of the Northern Plains Native groups, actually impeding to some extent the westward U.S. expansion.
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article source : http://www.everyculture.com/multi/A-Br/Blackfoot.html
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