March i6, 191 i] 



NATURE 



83 



THE BLACKFEET OF MONTANA.^ 



''pHE Piegan Blackfeet of Montana are one of the 



■*■ most interesting of the tribes classed as Plains 



Indians, and it was well worth the while of Mr. 



Walter McClintock to spend many summers in living 



Fig. I. — A Woman Praying to the Sun. From " The Old 

 North Trail." 



among them in order to study and record their cus- 

 toms and religion. The worthiness of his intention 

 and his personal character so appealed to Mad Wolf — 

 one of the prominent men of the tribe — that he adopted 

 Mr. McClintock as his son, hoping for 

 an alliance with a white man that 

 would be productive of sympathy, and 

 fidelity to the welfare of his tribe, and 

 who, by being familiar with their cus- 

 toms, religion, and manner of life, 

 would tell the truth about them to the 

 white race. The present book is a 

 justification of Mad Wolf's action. 



Mr. McClintock has not written a 



formal treatise on the Blackfeet, and 



much that students would like to learn 



'">ut them has been omitted. A book 



I Would satisfy specialists would not 



ppeal to the public, and doubtless the 



"l)ject of 'Mad Wolf will be better at- 



'lined by the narrative form in which 



the book is cast. The descriptions of 



■niate and scenerv, of hunting experi- 



cs, and the daily life of an Indian 



lip give a live and accurate impres- 



n, not only of the present conditicn 



ilie Indians, but enable the reader to 



in some idea of what that life was 



in the past, w'hen immense herds of 



niiclope and bison roamed over the plains and when 



the Blackfeet warriors traversed wide tracts of country 



1 "The Old North Trail." or Life, Legends, and Religion of the Blark- 

 feet Indians. By W. McClintock. Pp. xxvi+539. (London : Macmillan 

 and Co , Ltd., 19 to.) Price 15^. net. 



in quest of plunder and adventure. The old men re- 

 member the days of their pride, but soon the memory 

 of them will pass away and meagre records will alone 

 be available in the books of such writers as Catlin, 

 Mackenzie, Grinnell, and McClintock. 



Several ceremonies are described, that of the 

 " Beaver Medicine " being illustrated with numerous 

 photographs showing various phases of the ceremony ; 

 as these were taken under adverse circumstances in a 

 tipi, they are not so clear as the majority of the illus- 

 trations. Most readers will probably be astonished 

 at the number of prayers that are said at these cere- 

 monies, and Mr. McClintock deserves our thanks for 

 having recorded so many of the prayers and chants. 

 It is mainly by having the actual words that we can 

 get a true insight into a ceremony, but, in addition, it 

 is necessary to have a ceremony recorded by a sym- 

 pathetic observer like the author, for it is quite pos- 

 sible to record every action and yet miss the spirit of 

 a ceremony, as has too frequently been the case. 

 Even at the present day the older Indians are ex- 

 tremely devout and spiritually-minded ; this religious 

 attitude of mind combined with a sense of dignity and 

 personal worth are perhaps the most prominent char- 

 acteristics of the Indian. The present writer has seen 

 a Pawnee and a Blackfeet sacred bundle opened, and 

 he quite endorses Mr. McClintock's statement that "It 

 is difficult for one of the white race to realise the deep 

 solemnity with which the Indians opened the sacred 

 bundle. To them it was a morpent of deepest rever- 

 ence and religious feeling." 



The Blackfeet are firm believers in the supernatural 

 and in the control of human affairs by both good and 

 evil powers in the invisible world. The great spirit, 

 or great mystery, or good power, is everywhere and in 

 everything — mountains, plains, winds, waters, trees, 

 and animals. They believe that all animals receive 

 their endowment of power from the sun, differing in 

 degree, but the same in kind as that received by man 

 and all things animate and inanimate. Some, such 

 as the grizzly bear, bison, beaver, wolf, eagle, and 

 raven, are worshipped because they possess a larger 

 amount of the good power than the others, and so, 

 when a Blackfoot is in trouble or peril, he naturally 

 prays to them for assistance. The sun, as the great 





I 



NO. 2159, VOL. 861 



Fig. 2.— Tribal Camp of the Bl.-ickfeet. From " The Old North Trail." 



centre of power and the upholder of all things, was 

 the Blackfeet 's supreme object of worship. He saw 

 that every bud, leaf, and blossom tmiK'd its face to 

 the sun, that the berries ripened uiuhn lis warmth, 

 that men and animals thrived under its sustaining 



