Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1942-06-26
Powerful, Resourceful Blackfeet Confederacy
Was Vests Most Intelligent Race Of Redmen

tury the Blackfeet nation comprised
approximately 10000 Indians. This
great nation. or confederation. was
split into three divisions, the Black
feet proper, the Blood and the Pie
gans. All sprung from Algonquin stock.
They spoke common language, rec
ognized their kinship to each other,
were usually united in war. had the
same customs and frequently inter-
married. In their tribal government,
though, they had three distinct coun-
els, separate chiefs and separate sun
dances.
Before the white man came to re-
strict them, these three interlocked
tribes dominated all of this section Of
the west between the Yellowstone
river in Montana and the North Sas-
katchewan in Alberta, east Of the
main range of the Rocky mountains
to about the l05th parallel of longi-
tude. Originally. it is said, this con-
federacy lived in western Canada, and
their name comes from the dark fer
tile loan of Alberta, now a great
wheat growing country. In damp
weather, the black soil stained their
moccasins, hence the name "Sikssi-
kaua," in the Blackfeet language,
IHedIllllR oldCk lOCCdSlllS, Vi do
translated into English, "Blackfeet."
OF all of the tribes east of the
main range of the Rocky mountains,
they were the most warlike and adj
venturous. They were quick to resent
on his return trip from the Columbia,
killed a Piegan horse thief on the
Marias river, they declared war
ocy to vr,l,if FIJI fhrao-
fourths of a century their hand was
always against the whites. because Of
this age-old deed They made it par
ticularly hard for the fur trappers and
traders who followed in the wake Of
the Lewis and Clark expedition. The
first of these traders to enter what
is now Montana, was Manuel Lisa.
who came in the decade following the
experiences OF Lewis and Clark. His
first trading post at the mouth of
the Big Horn river was too far out
of the Blackfeet domain for molesta-
ton, but his second fort built at the
Three Forks of the Missouri. was
wiped out root and branch within a
few months after its completion.
Perpetually at War
The Blackfeet we're always at war
with the Crows, Sioux, Cheyennes,
Assinniboines, Flatheads and Snake
Indians, and this war finally drove
the Crows from their old and choice
hunting grounds along the eastern
slope of the Rocky mountains, where
deer and other game abounded. For
a time after the exodus of the Crows,
war parties would occasionally sally
into the lands from which they had
been driven, and they we're fortunate
indeed if they did not meet the patrols
of the Blackfeet who gave them no
quarter.
The best authorities are agreed that
the Blackfeet Of all Of the Indian
tribes of the northwest, were a SUI
perior race of redmen. Catlin wrote Of
them:
1.-THE several Indian tribes inhabit-
ing the upper Missouri, are undoubt-
edly the finest looking, best equipped
and most beautifully costumed. They
live in a country well stocked with
buffalo and wild horses. which fur
nish them with an excellent and easy
living; their atmosphere is pure,
which produces good health and long
life, and they are the most independ-
ent and happiest Indians I have met.
They are all In state of primitive
rudeness and wildness, and are pic
turesque and handsome beyond de-
scription Nothing in the world of its
kind can surpass their games. amuse-
ments and parades. In my travels I
have more than realized my former
predictions that these Indians who
could be found almost entirely in a
state of nature, with the least knowl-
edge of civilized society, would be
found the most clearly in their per-
sons, elegant in their dress and man.
ners. and enjoying life to the greatest
perfection"
We're Lords of Vast Area
In search of the trophies of the
chase food and the loot of primitive
war, these former lords of Montana
roamed over a wide area. Their war
parties, composed of veterans, led by
chiefs of proven valor and ability, led
them as far south as New Mexico,
across the plains into the big grass
country of southern Alberta, ready to
throw down the gauge OF battle to any
who would fight them. They went
about in mounted bands of from so
to 500, and were ever ready to ride
for and strike hard whenever the &C.
casion presented itself. They fought
for the preservation of their hunting
domain, for furs with which they
could always purchase supplies from
the factors of the Hudson's Bay Co.,
with whom they were ever on friendly