2o 4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



ETHNOLOGY OF THE BLACKFOOT TEIBES. 



By HOEATIO HALE. 



THE tribes composing the Blackf oot Confederacy, as it is commonly 

 styled, are in some respects the most important and interesting 

 Indian communities of the Northwest ; but they have been until re- 

 cently less known than any others in that region. A report on these 

 tribes having been requested by the British Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science, a correspondence was opened by the writer 

 with two able and zealous missionaries residing among those Indians. 

 These were the Rev. Albert Lacombe, widely and favorably known as 

 Father Lacombe, author of a valuable grammar and dictionary of the 

 Cree language, and now missionary among the Siksika, or proper Black- 

 foot Indians ; and the Rev. John McLean, missionary of the Canadian 

 Methodist Church to the Blood and Piegan tribes, who is now pre- 

 paring a translation of the Scriptures into the Blackfoot tongue. To 

 these gentlemen, who responded most courteously and liberally to the 

 inquiries made of them, the report (of which the following is mainly 

 a summary) is indebted for most of the facts which it contains. For 

 the conclusions drawn from these facts the writer only is responsible. 

 Some other sources have been consulted, particularly the valuable 

 official reports of the Canadian and United States Indian Depart- 

 ments. Something has also been drawn from the writer's own notes, 

 made formerly during an exploring tour in Oregon. 



Fifty years ago the Blackfoot Confederacy held among the West- 

 ern tribes much the same position of superiority which was held two 

 centuries ago by the Iroquois Confederacy (then known as the Five 

 Nations) among the Indians east of the Mississippi. The tribes of the 

 former confederacy were also, when first known, five in number. The 

 nucleus, or main body, was as it still is composed of three tribes 

 speaking the proper Blackfoot language. These are the Siksika, or 

 Blackfeet proper, the JTena, or Blood Indians, and the Piekane, or 

 Piegans (pronounced Peegans) a name sometimes corrupted to Pa- 

 gan Indians. Two other tribes joined this original confederacy, or, 

 perhaps, more accurately speaking, came under its protection. These 

 were the Sarcees from the north and the Atsinas from the south. The 

 Sarcees are an offshoot of the great Athabascan stock, which is spread 

 over the north of British America, in contact with the Esquimaux, and 

 extends, in scattered bands the Umpquas, Apaches, and others 

 through Oregon and California, into Northern Mexico. The Atsinas, 

 who have been variously known, from the reports of Indian traders, 

 as Fall Indians, Rapid Indians, and Gros Ventres, speak a dialect simi- 

 lar to that of the Arapahoes, who now reside in the " Indian Terri- 

 tory" of the United States. It is a peculiarly harsh and difficult Ian- 



