The Blackfeet Indians
THE BLACKFEET INDIANS
Claude Schaeffer, Curator Museum of the Plains Indian
The modern Blackfeet are the descendants of a people who were the most powerful and most numerous Indian tribe of the northwestern Plains. In reality the Blackfeet were three tribes - the Piegan, the Blood, and the Blackfeet proper. The last tribe is now commonly referred to as North Blackfeet. These tribes were neighboring people, who spoke the same language, shared the same customs, intermarried and often went to war against their common enemy. It has been customary to speak of them all as one people, under the general term Blackfeet. Nevertheless they were really politically independent. Each had its own head chief. Each held its own annual sun dance, its great tribal religious festival.
The three tribes of Blackfeet are believed to have numbered approximately 15,000 people in 1780. Today they are about half that number, living on four reservations in Montana and in Alberta, Canada. Those residing on the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana are mostly Piegan. The term Piegan or Pikuni, according to one authority, refers to people having badly dressed robes.
The Blackfeet Indian Reservation is situated at the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains immediately south of the International Boundary. It contains slightly more than a million and a half acres or approximately 2,400 square miles. This is slightly larger in area than the State of Delaware.
The reservation is bounded on the north by Canada; on the west by an irregular line forming the eastern boundary of Glacier National Park; on the south by a meandered line, which is also part of the northeast boundary of Lewis and Clark National Forest. The southeastern boundary is formed by Birch Creek, one of the upper tributaries of the Missouri River, while the eastern boundary is formed in part by Cut Bank Creek and for 24 miles by a line surveyed north and south. The extreme distance east and west is along the north boundary and is 56½ miles, while the extreme distance north and south is through the center and is approximately 60 miles.
The Blackfeet Reservation was established by Act of Congress on May 1, 1888. It was greatly reduced in size by Presidential Order in 1896.
The conception of the Indian as a member of a vanishing race needs some correction. Since 1895 the number of Indians on the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana has been increasing. There were barely 1,800 then. Now (1948) there are 5579 Indians enrolled at the Blackfeet Agency. In the old days of intertribal wars women outnumbered men two or three to one but today there are more males than females among the Blackfeet. Intermarriage with whites, a practice that began in the early fur trade days nearly two centuries ago, has changed the racial character of most of the Blackfeet. Today, more than four-fifths of those enrolled at the Blackfeet Agency are mixed bloods. Thus the full bloods number less than 20% of the Blackfeet Reservation population. As a result of intermarriage with whites (i.e., Indian women with white men) many of the Indians now have surnames of French, English, Scotch or German origin. Among the full bloods are retained many picturesque Indian names such as Green Grass Bull, Wades in the Water, Chewing Black Bones, Weasel Tail and Bear Child.
Less than 3% of the Blackfeet now living are old enough to remember the days of the buffalo which vanished from the plains in 1884. In a very few years the Blackfeet will be dependent entirely upon writings, museums and stories handed down from past generations for their knowledge of the history and customs of their tribe in buffalo days.
Most of the Blackfeet now speak English, and can read and write it. A portion of the older full-bloods still speak only their native tongue. Nearly all of them can sign their names. A large proportion of the Indians speak both Blackfeet and English, although many of the younger mixed-bloods have great difficulty with the Blackfeet language, or know only a few words of it. Some of the older Indians are able to converse by means of gestures with Indians of other tribes in the traditional sign language.
The great majority of land on the reservation is in a trust status, either allotted or tribal. It is administered through the Indian Service. Some of the land is being occupied by Indian owners, heirs and other Indians. A large portion of it is being leased for grazing to whites and Indians, and some is leased for farming.
Prior to 1907 the reservation land was held in common but beginning at that time it was divided up into private, individual holdings. Approximately 2750 allotments of 320 acres each were made in 1912. Each Indian was privileged to receive trust title to 280 acres of grazing land and 40 acres of farm land. Provision was also made for the setting aside of tracts of timber lands for the use of the Indians of the Reservation in common (i.e., tribal lands). The balance of the land was to be disposed of by sale under the homestead and similar federal land acts, and the money received deposited in the U.S. Treasury to the credit of the tribe. The Tribal Income account thus started was increased by $350,000 in 1948 through oil royalties alone. Per capita payments to the Indians are made from this source from time to time. In 1918 the first Trust Patents were issued, permitting Indians to trade their allotted lands with other Indians on the Reservation. Later that same year the first Fee Patents were issued, permitting Indian owners to retain, sell, or otherwise dispose of their personal lands as they desired. In the years that followed a considerable number of Indians with Fee Patents sold their lands to white men and were soon left with little or no income. In 1934 the Reorganization Act provided for the revesting of landless Indians with land for subsistence; for the conservation of timber, grass, soil and water resources on Indian lands; for the establishment of an adequate fund and credit system in the development of Indian agriculture and industry; for tribal veto power over the leasing and disposal of their natural resources and over-expenditure of tribal money held in Government trust, and an advisory status with respect to Federal appropriations for Indian benefit. In 1935 the Constitution of the Blackfeet Tribe, drawn up in accordance with the Reorganization Act, became effective, entitling the Blackfeet Tribe to full powers defined by that Act.
Farming and stock raising are the most common ways of making a living on the Blackfeet Reservation today. It is estimated that over 50% of the Indian families have agricultural incomes. Others work for wages in stores, on roads and ranches, and in the Government service. A considerable number of women and some men obtain additional income through their handicrafts made for sale through the Blackfeet Craft Shop, an organization founded in 1936 as an Indian Cooperative. Tribal members also receive income from agricultural, grazing and oil leases. The development of the oil resources of the reservation, started some fifteen years ago, now provides a considerable source of income to the tribe. From time to time the Blackfeet Council appropriates tribal funds for direct relief in the form of purchase orders, supplemented by small amounts of food - "rations" - provided from the Government surpluses. This aid is extended largely to full-blood individuals, many of whom are no longer employable.
The Blackfeet today live in frame or log houses. Some of these structures are modern ones with several rooms. Others have only one room. As in many modern rural communities, most of the houses do not have inside plumbing. For a week or ten days in early summer a number of families occupy canvas tipis during the Sun Dance ceremonial.
A well equipped hospital, containing fifty beds, is maintained by the Indian Office at Browning. The health of the Indians is cared for by a staff of three full-time physicians, an additional part-time specialist and hospital and field nurses. The most serious diseases among the Blackfeet today are tuberculosis, trachoma and the venereal diseases. Excellent progress has been made in the treatment of trachoma, a blinding eye disease, through the use of sulphanilimide. This treatment was developed by Indian Office physicians. A considerable number of maternity cases are now cared for in the hospital. The Blackfeet have accepted the hospital as part of their modern way of living.
The educational situation on the reservation differs little from that of any American rural community. All Indian children attend school and are subject to the compulsory school laws of the State of Montana. There are over twenty public schools in eight public school districts on the reservation. Formerly the Indian Agency made contracts with each of the public school districts to educate the Blackfeet children. Federal funds were allotted to pay for tuition, school lunches and, in some cases, transportation. Now the District Indian Office contracts with the State Department of Public Instruction, which allots funds among the various reservations and school districts. This is in keeping with the modern trend of turning over educational work to the local public school districts. One government boarding school and one day school have been retained on the reservation.
Students, particularly of high school age, are occasionally sent away to government non-reservation boarding schools, usually for special vocational training. Educational loans are made by the Agency to needy and qualified Indian pupils above the high school level for commercial, technical and university training. Considerable use is now being made of federal aid through the G.I. bill of rights.
The great majority of the Indians on the Blackfeet Reservation today are members of the Catholic Church. A Methodist Church is also maintained by the Home Mission Board and a few Blackfeet have identified themselves with other denominations. An annual Sun Dance ceremonial, a religious festival which is a survival from the old days of nature worship, is still held on the reservation. The participants, largely older full-bloods, are now few in number. The ceremony, observed each year around the Fourth of July, is now given in an abbreviated form, but the most sacred parts of it are still retained and performed with the utmost care and sincerity. Traditional ceremonial dress and equipment is used by the Medicine Woman, the central figure in the Sun Dance. There is but one man now living on the reservation with sufficient knowledge of the complex series of songs and rituals to lead in the performance.
Social dances are held periodically in the district community houses on the reservation. These are usually followed by the traditional "give away" in which presents are distributed to visitors by those giving the dance. The Browning High School is a center for young people's activities. Here are held frequent dances, plays, entertainments and athletic contests. Browning High School is noted for its light, but fast and scrappy football teams, its championship basketball aggregations. Many Indians are frequent patrons of the movies. The 4-H Club, Boy Scouts and Camp Fire Girls organizations are active on the reservation.
The Blackfeet enjoy visiting and entertaining. Frequent visits are made back and forth across the line with their friends and relatives on the Canadian reservations. They also visit other Montana reservations. Their relations with many of their old enemy tribes are now friendly. Numbers of these tribes attend the Blackfeet Sun Dance in summer.
All Blackfeet Indians, who are of legal age and meet the qualifications for voters of the State, have a right to vote. They take an interest in local, state and national elections. They also vote, every other year, for representatives on their own tribal council.
The former title of "Chief" no longer carries with it any governmental authority on the Blackfeet Reservation. It has simply become an honorary title.
The legislative body for tribal affairs, under the Blackfeet Tribal Constitution, is the Tribal Council, a body of 13 elected officers. Among the powers of this council are: the management of tribal property in land and money, the preservation of reservation wildlife, the regulation of law and order on the reservation (except for certain major crimes), and the encouragement of Indian arts and crafts, culture and traditions.
In 1937, the Blackfeet Tribe put into effect its own code of municipal ordinances, covering all offenses between Indians other than the "ten major crimes" which are punishable in Federal Courts under Federal statutes. The Tribe has its own courts of law, judges, law enforcement officers, and a jail. The Tribal Code includes comprehensive game laws designed to conserve the wildlife of the Blackfeet Reservation. Marriage and divorce are subject to the laws of the State of Montana.
The Museum of the Plains Indian, operated by the Office of Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior, represents one of the important centers of tourist interest in the Northwest. It is a regional museum located at Browning, which was designed and built to interpret the life of the Plains tribes in the days of the buffalo. Extensive collections of ethnological specimens lend themselves to a portrayal of the economic, social and religious life of the Blackfeet and other tribes in this area. Traditional methods of exhibit and display are supplemented by new techniques utilizing dioramas, murals and slide projectors. The Museum is open to the touring public every year from May first to November first.
In addition to its educational role, the Museum serves another and equally important function in the field of folk industries. Indian craftsmen of the Montana-Wyoming reservations have formed local arts and crafts organizations to market their products. Each season their wares are brought together and placed on sale in the Museum. The parent agency - the Northern Plains Arts and Crafts Association - was established to revive and perpetuate native handicrafts in this area. The Association maintains high standards of workmanship and design to insure the production of well-made and authentic articles. The returns from the sale of their products provide an additional source of income for Indian workers, many of whom are past the employable age.
