ETHNOLOGY OF THE BLACKFOOT TRIBES. 211 



from a deer-horn scraper severed the member. The severed piece was 

 taken up, held toward the sun, and the prayer made, when it was 

 dropped into a bag containing similar members. This ceremony was 

 gone through with each in turn. After this was done, each carried 

 an offering, and climbing the sacrificial pole, with the face reverently 

 turned toward the sun, placed the offering on the top of the pole. 

 This year seven or eight persons went through the above ceremony. 

 The other sacrificial ceremony consisted of the slitting of the flesh, in 

 two pieces in each breast. A wooden skewer was thrust through each 

 breast, a rope fastened to the sacrificial pole was placed around each 

 skewer, and then the suppliant whistling all the time upon the bone 

 whistle jumped about until the flesh gave way. In some instances 

 the flesh was cut so deeply that two men had to press upon the per- 

 former's shoulders in order to tear it away. The ' shield ceremony ' 

 was the same process, only performed on the back, and the rope with 

 a shield attached fastened to the skewers, and the ceremony continued 

 until the suppliant was released." 



Mr. Riggs, it will be noticed, says that the ceremony was most 

 zealously performed among the most westerly of the Dakota tribes, 

 that is, those w T hich are nearest to the Rocky Mountains and to the 

 Blackfeet. Possibly the Blackfeet may have learned the rite from 

 the tribe from which they acquired the foreign element of their lan- 

 guage, and may have taught it to the Western Dakotas and Crees. 

 In any case, it is clear that they have a mixed religion as w r ell as a 

 mixed language which are both facts of considerable interest in 

 ethnological science. 



The form of government among the Blackfeet, as among the Al- 

 gonkin tribes generally, is exceedingly simple, offering a striking con- 

 trast to the elaborately complicated system common among the nations 

 of the Iroquois stock. Each tribe has a head chief, and each of the 

 bands composing the tribe has its subordinate chief ; but the authority 

 of these chiefs is little more than nominal. The office is not hereditary, 

 the bravest or richest being usually chosen. The term " confederacy," 

 commonly applied to the union of the Blackfoot tribes, is somewhat 

 misleading. There is no regular league or constitution binding them 

 together. " They consider themselves," writes M. Lacombe, " as form- 

 ing one family, whose three branches or bands are descended from 

 three brothers. This bond of kinship is sufficient to preserve a good 

 understanding among them." They can hardly be said to have a gen- 

 eral name for their whole community, though they sometimes speak of 

 themselves as Sawketapix, or "Men of the Plains," and occasionally as 

 Netsepoye, or " People who speak one language." 



The facts thus derived from the best authorities concerning this 

 interesting people suggest some important conclusions. The opinion, 

 still entertained by many, of the impossibility of bringing the nomadic 

 Indians or at least the grown-up people under the restraints of civ- 



