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The Plains Indians of North America
The Plains Indians of North America lived for thousands of years without horses. The nomadic Blackfoot Indians in particular were known for their great skills in hunting the enormous buffalo long before the first pyramids of Egypt were built. It was after the introduction in 1730 of the animal named “elk-horse” for its great size that the Blackfoot tribes became renowned for their expert horsemanship and continued their dominance of neighboring Native American groups as they pushed westward toward the Rocky Mountains. They had a reputation as fierce warriors and by the mid-19th century controlled a vast amount of territory stretching from northern Saskatchewan to the southernmost waters of the Missouri. They were also known as the strongest and most aggressive military power on the northwestern plains, preventing white men, whom they considered poachers, from impinging on their land and their natural resources for a quarter of a century (“Blackfoot” Britannica Online). But the end of the nineteenth century saw a population decimated by the near extinction of the buffalo as well as repeated epidemics of smallpox and measles§. And though still dependent on the land, the remaining were forced onto reservations. By US policy and blindly placed into a way of life that lacked social cohesiveness and resulted in the weakening of native institutions and cultural practices (“Native American
The Blackfoot Indians of Alberta and Montana were divided into three closely related Algonkian-speaking tribes: the Piegan, the Blood and the Siksika, or Blackfoot proper. The name Blackfoot is believed to have been derived from the discoloration of moccasins from ashes . They were typical of the Plains Indians in that they were nomadic hunter-gatherers who lived in tipis (tepees) and subsisted mainly on buffalo; the separate bands would wander on foot in order to follow the herds (Martin 1996). Other animals such as deer and small game also contributed to the diet, as well as gathered vegetables. Fish were abundant thought they were only eaten in times of extreme necessity, such as when the buffalo populations dwindled.
An average buffalo bull provided a great deal of meat, about 700 kilograms. Prepared fresh, the meat was roasted on a spit or boiled in a skin bag by adding stones hot from the fire to make a rich soup. The remaining meat was either cut into thin slices and dried in the sun to produce jerky or it was made into pemmican, a high protein food which consisted of dried meat pounded into a powder and mixed with melted buffalo fat and berries. Both foods were packed tightly into skin bags and would remain edible for years. Almost nothing of the buffalo was wasted. Bones were fashioned into tools and a horn served as containers, sinew was used as thread and shaggy hair was braided into halters. Hooves were either made into rattles or boiled to make glue. The hides of the animal provided most of the clothing for the Indians and were sewn together to produce tipi covers (Ottawa 1996).
The women were experts in the tanning of skins, a long and tiring process. This process was considered so important that each woman was judged largely on the quality and quantity of the skins she tanned. Even making the simplest hard rawhide for moccasins was an exhausting process that required both sides of the skin to be scraped clean; soft skin took a week to produce. The woman also made the tip is, and therefore had ownership of them. In addition to the preparation meats and skin women made weapons, shields, tools, drums, and pipes, although men were the primary hunters (Ottawa 1996)
Military societies had the important function of policing and regulating life in camp and organizing the defenses. These military societies of the Blackfoot, known as the aiinikiks, or All-Comrades, had membership by purchase only and promotion in the various societies was age graded. A man could sell his membership to a younger man and then purchase that of an older man in the next appropriate society every four years. Age graded men’s society was a principle for organization among ceremonial groups, which may have otherwise lacked social stratification due to the absence of a division of labor or any other economic inequality. Each society had its own distinctive song and dance. The members of the Blackfoot societies wore headdresses made from the white winter skins of weasels; only a few important leaders of the Sioux wore the full feather headdress. White eagle feathers with sharp, black tips were highly regarded and, when worn in the hair, symbolized acts of bravery. The picture above is of a Piegan elder who would have been highly valued for his wisdom and experience.
Each Blackfoot tribe was divided into several hunting bands led by one or more chiefs and several councilors. Band membership was quite fluid and headman-ship was very informal. Success in war and ceremonial experience were the qualifications for head office, and as long as the headman provided benefits to his people they would stay with him. But if his generosity should slacken the members were free to leave. The bands wintered separately in river valleys and congregated each summer to observe the Sun Dance. There was also a head chief for each the three geographical tribes: the Piegan, the Blood, and the Blackfoot. His primary purpose was to call councils to discuss affairs of importance to the group.
Spirituality & the Sun Dance
”In the beginning all the world was water. One day the Old Man, also called Napi, was curious to find out what might be beneath the water. He sent animals to dive beneath the surface. First duck, then otter, then badger dived in vain. The Old Man sent muskrat diving to the depths. After a long time muskrat rode to the surface holding between his paws a little ball of mud and blew upon it. The mud began to swell, growing larger and larger until it became the whole earth.
The Old Man then made the people.”
(Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, 1996)
Spiritual beliefs and ceremonies were an important part of the Blackfoot culture. Their religious life centered upon medicine bundles which were individually owned and originated from a supernatural experience. It was the adolescent warrior who attempted the vision quest by going to a remote area and fasting until he had a vision. He would be given a war song or dance by a guardian spirit and be told of the magical amulets (such as feathers, birds’ beaks, or stones) that should be worn to give him power. Most failed and did not have a vision, in which case they would buy a bundle and its ritual. Individual bundles acquired much respect and gave its owner prestige, especially those associated with war such as headdresses and shields. (Martin 1996)
One of the most important bundles to the Blackfoot group as a whole was the Sun Dance bundle. Each year around the beginning of summer the separate wintering bands would gather to observe the Sun Dance, the principal religious ceremony. The buffalo, considered the very source of life and the major symbol of the Sun Dance, influenced the time and locality of the ceremony, which were chosen by the proximity of the buffalo herds. The overall importance of the Sun Dance was the renewal of personal spirituality as well as the renewal of the living earth, a time when kinships within both social and natural realms were reaffirmed; and by doing so prosperity and social harmony would be extended for another year.
After moving the camp on four successive days, the medicine bundle of the ceremony, the Sun Dance lodge, was built on the fifth day . It was here that the people gathered, though only a few men actually participated. They strove to obtain supernatural aid and enhance their personal power through sacrifice in order to become a more meaningful member of their society. The sacrifice required the participants to dance for three or four days while fasting and abstaining from drink. Skewers that pierced the skin and muscles of the men were used as part of the self torture and they performed such feats as hanging from the ceiling of the lodge by the skewers. This self-inflicted pain reflected their desire to return something of themselves to nature in exchange for past and future benefits.
The Creation was expressed in the Sun Dance by the use of symbolic objects that represented the attributes of various animal kin. Animals were viewed as wise and powerful and served as intermediaries between humans and the supernatural forces. The eagle was the chief of all creatures in the air and respected for his wisdom and wealth. The life sustaining buffalo was the central figure. Its’ tongue, considered the most sacred part, was consumed as a sacramental food during the ceremony and its’ skull was used to express the theme of rebirth as bone was presumed to be where the soul resided. The Sun Dance was an important part in reconciliation of killing the buffalo, which violates the kinship between animal and man. After the conclusion of the ceremony the lodge was abandoned and all animal objects left inside so they could return to the earth. This symbolized the renewal of the living and emphasized the necessity of human cooperation in order to bring about universal regeneration. (Lawrence 1996)
In 1904 the U.S. government banned the Sun Dance because of the self torture and mutilation it involved. The Blackfoot continued to celebrate their ritual, though often times in an altered form.
Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump
the cliffs of Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump In addition to its massive size the buffalo also had a keen sense of hearing and smell. Before the advent of horses and guns, the Blackfoot tribe, along with other Plains Indians, developed effective hunting techniques involving hundreds of people. The evidence of one such method can be seen today at a site just outside Fort Macloed, Alberta. In the picture to the right are the 10 meter high cliffs known as Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump. It is one the oldest, largest and best preserved buffalo jumps in North America. The name refers to a young Piegan brave who stood below the sandstone cliffs to watch a hunt and was later found under a pile of buffalo with his skull crushed in (Corbett 1997). The jump is rich in prehistory; bone and tool beds nearly 11 meters thick lie beneath the cliffs. Radiocarbon dating of the bones establishes that the site was first used as a buffalo jump over 5,700 years ago, more than 500 years before the Stonehenge was built in England. There is also evidence from two 9,000 year old spear points that man visited during early prehistoric times, thought it is uncertain if the jump was used by these hunters (HSIBJ Official Site 1997).
Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump is just one part of a communal kill site complex. The buffalo would graze in the basins above the cliffs where the young men would disguise themselves under wolf and buffalo calf skins to lure and then push the herd into narrow drive lanes marked by stone cairns (heaps of stones), some of which are still evident. Along the way hunters hidden behind brush piles would jump up and wave buffalo robes to keep the animals going on course. There was a visual deception that made the land above and below the cliff appear unbroken; the buffalo, usually galloping at full speed, were unable to stop or veer away once they saw the cliff. After the drive hunters used spears to finish off the buffalo as the 10 meter fall didn’t always immediately kill the animals (Corbett 1997). The carcasses were then dragged to the nearby campsite for butchering and skinning, a task shared by the hunters. The meat was divided accordingly to the need of each family while special allotments were made for the sick and elderly. Communal hunts took place in June, July, and August when the buffalo fat and their meat prime.
Out of respect of kinship with the buffalo and the sense of eating their own flesh the Blackfeet describe the hunt as leading the buffalo and calling to them, not driving or chasing them to their death. It was a good life that sustained itself for thousands of years, but it all ended in less than a century with the arrival of the horse and gun in 1730.
Today the Blackfoot tribes reside on four reservations. Over 6,000 Indians, mostly of Piegan decent, live on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Montana (also known as Pikuni); fewer than 20 percent are full blood. In addition, there are more than 9,000 Indians living on the Blackfoot, Blood, and Piegan reservations in Alberta.
The Blackfoot Indians of Alberta and Montana were divided into three closely related Algonkian-speaking tribes: the Piegan, the Blood and the Siksika, or Blackfoot proper. The name Blackfoot is believed to have been derived from the discoloration of moccasins from ashes . They were typical of the Plains Indians in that they were nomadic hunter-gatherers who lived in tipis (tepees) and subsisted mainly on buffalo; the separate bands would wander on foot in order to follow the herds (Martin 1996). Other animals such as deer and small game also contributed to the diet, as well as gathered vegetables. Fish were abundant thought they were only eaten in times of extreme necessity, such as when the buffalo populations dwindled.
An average buffalo bull provided a great deal of meat, about 700 kilograms. Prepared fresh, the meat was roasted on a spit or boiled in a skin bag by adding stones hot from the fire to make a rich soup. The remaining meat was either cut into thin slices and dried in the sun to produce jerky or it was made into pemmican, a high protein food which consisted of dried meat pounded into a powder and mixed with melted buffalo fat and berries. Both foods were packed tightly into skin bags and would remain edible for years. Almost nothing of the buffalo was wasted. Bones were fashioned into tools and a horn served as containers, sinew was used as thread and shaggy hair was braided into halters. Hooves were either made into rattles or boiled to make glue. The hides of the animal provided most of the clothing for the Indians and were sewn together to produce tipi covers (Ottawa 1996).
The women were experts in the tanning of skins, a long and tiring process. This process was considered so important that each woman was judged largely on the quality and quantity of the skins she tanned. Even making the simplest hard rawhide for moccasins was an exhausting process that required both sides of the skin to be scraped clean; soft skin took a week to produce. The woman also made the tip is, and therefore had ownership of them. In addition to the preparation meats and skin women made weapons, shields, tools, drums, and pipes, although men were the primary hunters (Ottawa 1996)
Military societies had the important function of policing and regulating life in camp and organizing the defenses. These military societies of the Blackfoot, known as the aiinikiks, or All-Comrades, had membership by purchase only and promotion in the various societies was age graded. A man could sell his membership to a younger man and then purchase that of an older man in the next appropriate society every four years. Age graded men’s society was a principle for organization among ceremonial groups, which may have otherwise lacked social stratification due to the absence of a division of labor or any other economic inequality. Each society had its own distinctive song and dance. The members of the Blackfoot societies wore headdresses made from the white winter skins of weasels; only a few important leaders of the Sioux wore the full feather headdress. White eagle feathers with sharp, black tips were highly regarded and, when worn in the hair, symbolized acts of bravery. The picture above is of a Piegan elder who would have been highly valued for his wisdom and experience.
Each Blackfoot tribe was divided into several hunting bands led by one or more chiefs and several councilors. Band membership was quite fluid and headman-ship was very informal. Success in war and ceremonial experience were the qualifications for head office, and as long as the headman provided benefits to his people they would stay with him. But if his generosity should slacken the members were free to leave. The bands wintered separately in river valleys and congregated each summer to observe the Sun Dance. There was also a head chief for each the three geographical tribes: the Piegan, the Blood, and the Blackfoot. His primary purpose was to call councils to discuss affairs of importance to the group.
Spirituality & the Sun Dance
”In the beginning all the world was water. One day the Old Man, also called Napi, was curious to find out what might be beneath the water. He sent animals to dive beneath the surface. First duck, then otter, then badger dived in vain. The Old Man sent muskrat diving to the depths. After a long time muskrat rode to the surface holding between his paws a little ball of mud and blew upon it. The mud began to swell, growing larger and larger until it became the whole earth.
The Old Man then made the people.”
(Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, 1996)
Spiritual beliefs and ceremonies were an important part of the Blackfoot culture. Their religious life centered upon medicine bundles which were individually owned and originated from a supernatural experience. It was the adolescent warrior who attempted the vision quest by going to a remote area and fasting until he had a vision. He would be given a war song or dance by a guardian spirit and be told of the magical amulets (such as feathers, birds’ beaks, or stones) that should be worn to give him power. Most failed and did not have a vision, in which case they would buy a bundle and its ritual. Individual bundles acquired much respect and gave its owner prestige, especially those associated with war such as headdresses and shields. (Martin 1996)
One of the most important bundles to the Blackfoot group as a whole was the Sun Dance bundle. Each year around the beginning of summer the separate wintering bands would gather to observe the Sun Dance, the principal religious ceremony. The buffalo, considered the very source of life and the major symbol of the Sun Dance, influenced the time and locality of the ceremony, which were chosen by the proximity of the buffalo herds. The overall importance of the Sun Dance was the renewal of personal spirituality as well as the renewal of the living earth, a time when kinships within both social and natural realms were reaffirmed; and by doing so prosperity and social harmony would be extended for another year.
After moving the camp on four successive days, the medicine bundle of the ceremony, the Sun Dance lodge, was built on the fifth day . It was here that the people gathered, though only a few men actually participated. They strove to obtain supernatural aid and enhance their personal power through sacrifice in order to become a more meaningful member of their society. The sacrifice required the participants to dance for three or four days while fasting and abstaining from drink. Skewers that pierced the skin and muscles of the men were used as part of the self torture and they performed such feats as hanging from the ceiling of the lodge by the skewers. This self-inflicted pain reflected their desire to return something of themselves to nature in exchange for past and future benefits.
The Creation was expressed in the Sun Dance by the use of symbolic objects that represented the attributes of various animal kin. Animals were viewed as wise and powerful and served as intermediaries between humans and the supernatural forces. The eagle was the chief of all creatures in the air and respected for his wisdom and wealth. The life sustaining buffalo was the central figure. Its’ tongue, considered the most sacred part, was consumed as a sacramental food during the ceremony and its’ skull was used to express the theme of rebirth as bone was presumed to be where the soul resided. The Sun Dance was an important part in reconciliation of killing the buffalo, which violates the kinship between animal and man. After the conclusion of the ceremony the lodge was abandoned and all animal objects left inside so they could return to the earth. This symbolized the renewal of the living and emphasized the necessity of human cooperation in order to bring about universal regeneration. (Lawrence 1996)
In 1904 the U.S. government banned the Sun Dance because of the self torture and mutilation it involved. The Blackfoot continued to celebrate their ritual, though often times in an altered form.
Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump
the cliffs of Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump In addition to its massive size the buffalo also had a keen sense of hearing and smell. Before the advent of horses and guns, the Blackfoot tribe, along with other Plains Indians, developed effective hunting techniques involving hundreds of people. The evidence of one such method can be seen today at a site just outside Fort Macloed, Alberta. In the picture to the right are the 10 meter high cliffs known as Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump. It is one the oldest, largest and best preserved buffalo jumps in North America. The name refers to a young Piegan brave who stood below the sandstone cliffs to watch a hunt and was later found under a pile of buffalo with his skull crushed in (Corbett 1997). The jump is rich in prehistory; bone and tool beds nearly 11 meters thick lie beneath the cliffs. Radiocarbon dating of the bones establishes that the site was first used as a buffalo jump over 5,700 years ago, more than 500 years before the Stonehenge was built in England. There is also evidence from two 9,000 year old spear points that man visited during early prehistoric times, thought it is uncertain if the jump was used by these hunters (HSIBJ Official Site 1997).
Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump is just one part of a communal kill site complex. The buffalo would graze in the basins above the cliffs where the young men would disguise themselves under wolf and buffalo calf skins to lure and then push the herd into narrow drive lanes marked by stone cairns (heaps of stones), some of which are still evident. Along the way hunters hidden behind brush piles would jump up and wave buffalo robes to keep the animals going on course. There was a visual deception that made the land above and below the cliff appear unbroken; the buffalo, usually galloping at full speed, were unable to stop or veer away once they saw the cliff. After the drive hunters used spears to finish off the buffalo as the 10 meter fall didn’t always immediately kill the animals (Corbett 1997). The carcasses were then dragged to the nearby campsite for butchering and skinning, a task shared by the hunters. The meat was divided accordingly to the need of each family while special allotments were made for the sick and elderly. Communal hunts took place in June, July, and August when the buffalo fat and their meat prime.
Out of respect of kinship with the buffalo and the sense of eating their own flesh the Blackfeet describe the hunt as leading the buffalo and calling to them, not driving or chasing them to their death. It was a good life that sustained itself for thousands of years, but it all ended in less than a century with the arrival of the horse and gun in 1730.
Today the Blackfoot tribes reside on four reservations. Over 6,000 Indians, mostly of Piegan decent, live on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Montana (also known as Pikuni); fewer than 20 percent are full blood. In addition, there are more than 9,000 Indians living on the Blackfoot, Blood, and Piegan reservations in Alberta.
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