This culture exists in both Canada and the U.S.A.

                          Location: Members of the Blackfoot Confederation presently live in
        Montana, USA and Alberta, Canada. Their territory once
               covered an areas from Edmonton and Calgary, Alberta to the
        Yellowstone River, and from the Rocky Mountains to the
present day North Dakota border.

       Language: the official language is Pikuni, which belongs
to the Algonkian linguistic group

    History: They Blackfoot Confederacy consists of four
      different tribes, the Pikuni/Peigan, North Peigan Pikuni,
Blood/Kainai, and Blackfoot/Siksika. The Blackfoot
 migrated to their present territory from the northern
              Great Lakes Region. They became nomadic buffalo hunters.
  The Blackfoot were first introduced to horses in 1730
                    when the Shoshoni attacked them on horseback. After this, they
                obtained through own horses through trade with the Flathead,
    Kutenai and Nez Perce. They also traded buffalo hides
           with settlers as far away as the east coast for many things,
           but especially horses and guns.Some of the most important
         items gained through these trades were horses and guns.
      However, by the winter of 1884, the  buffalo were nearly
        extinct and many Blackfoot starved. They were forced to
depend upon the Indian Agency for food.

In 1870, one of the worse slaughters of Indians by
                      American troops occured, known as the Marias Massacre. On the
                     morning of Jan. 23, 200 Peigans were killed, most of them women,
    children, and elderly. The Peigans were a friendly tribe,
not the hostile camp that the troops were supposed to
   attack. However, the commander had permission to use
his judgment and attack the Peigans and punish them
             for thingsthey may be guilty of in the past or future. After the
         massacre, the troops left to find their real target, but it was
too late as the hostile tribe had moved.

Daily Life: The Blackfoot were a nomadic people
                  who followed the buffalo. The most important event of the year
               was the Sundance Festival, or the MedicineLodge Ceremony,
   which wascelebrated with other  Plains Indians tribes.
                  An important religious area for the Blackfoot is the Badger-two
  Medicine area. This area was lost in 1895 to the U.S.
  government in a treaty which was poorly translated to
      the Blackfoot Best Known   Feature: Head-Smashed-In
         is a hill  site in southwestern Alberta. The Blackfoot used
     it for hundreds of years.  It is known as a very spiritual
                         place to the tribe. It hasbeen around for approximately 7,000 years.