250 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [VOL. IV. 



repeatedly that the name referred to a period when the prairie was 

 burned, leaving the ground black and dry. As the Indians travelled 

 over the prairie their moccasins became black and they were named by 

 the tribes adjacent Blackfeet. Jerry Potts, Government guide and in- 

 terpreter, who is a reliable authority on questions of this nature, says 

 that there is another account of the origin of the name, and he is strongly 

 inclined to give it the preference. This tribe lived for some time in the 

 northern part of the country, where the mud was soft and of a dark 

 colour, and at that time, and from that cause, their moccasins became 

 dark, and consequently they received the name of Blackfeet, which now 

 they bear. This name has also been applied to the Confederacy by some 

 as a distinctive name. 



Many years ago the Blackfeet, Crees, Sarcees and Gros Ventres were 

 one people, and lived peaceably together in the Red River country. 

 Together these tribes travelled westward and settled near a large lake 

 surrounded by woods in the country of the Saskatchewan. The present. 

 Provisional District of Alberta was at that time peopled by the Flat- 

 heads, Shoshonees, Crows, and other Indian tribes. The first white men 

 whom the Indians met were the traders, who came to barter goods for 

 furs and hides. From these traders the members of the Blackfoot Con- 

 federacy received guns, and they drove the Flatheads and Shoshonees 

 across the mountains and the Crow Indians into the region of the Yellow- 

 stone. The Blackfeet do not now know the exact location of the lake 

 where they settled many years ago in the north. During the period 

 when the Crees and Blackfeet were one people they were travelling south- 

 ward when a quarrel arose about a dog. Dogs were very scarce at that 

 time, and hence the quarrel became an important one, involving the 

 tribes. So serious did the affray become, and the hostility manifested so 

 very great, that the Crees and Blackfeet separated and have remained 

 independent until the present day. A long period before the advent of 

 any white settlers the Blackfeet travelled as far southward as Salt Lake,, 

 hunting wild horses and buffalo, and they went eastward for trading pur- 

 poses to a trading post at Qu'Appelle, in the provisional district of 

 Assiniboia. 



The three tribes, Blackfeet, Blood and Piegan, which constitute the 

 Blackfoot Confederacy, are three distinct tribes, having no common 

 council, or bond of unity, except the ties of a common parentage, 

 language, customs, traditions and interests. I have never learned that 

 any common council consisting of delegates from each of the tribes has 

 ever been held since they separated. Whenever any important matter 

 was under consideration which affected the Confederacy, a young man,. 



