570 



SIKAK SIKSIKA 



[b. a. e. 



Xijame.— Ibid., 331, 1731. Xixame.— Valero En- 

 tierros, partida 182, 1732. Zijame.— Valero Bau- 

 tismos, partida 526, 1741. 



Sikak. See Skunk. 



Sikanasankian ( S!tkAnas!d'nk!i-dn, 



'small-black-bear town'). A Tlingit 

 town of the Taku people, on Taku inlet, 

 Alaska. (j. r. s.) 



Sikitipuc. A former Chumashan vil- 

 lage near Santa Ines mission, Santa Bar- 

 bara CO., Cal. — Taylor in Cal. Farmer, 

 Oct. 18, 1861. 



Siknahadi ( ' people of Sinak ' ) . A Tlin- 

 git division of the Wolf phratry, at Wran- 

 gell, Alaska. They are said to have re- 

 ceived their name from a place called 

 Sli^nAx, where they stopped on their way 

 from the n. (j. r. s. ) 



Sick-naa-hulty. — Kane, Wand, in N. A., app., 1859. 

 Siknaq'a'de.— Boas 5th Rep. N. W. Tribes Can., 

 25, 1889. Sliknaxa'di. — Swanton, field notes, 

 B. A. E., 1904. Ssik-nachadi.— Krause, Tlinkit 

 Ind., 120, 1885. 



Sikokitsimiks ( ' black doors ' ) . A band 

 of the Piegan division of the Siksika. 

 Black Doors. — Griunell, Blackfoot Lodge Tales, 

 225, 1892. Si-koh'-i-tsim,— Hayden, Ethnog. and 

 Piiilol. Mo. Val., 264, 1862 (trans. ' band with black 

 doors'). Sik'-o-kit-sim-iks. — Grinnell, op. eit., 

 209. 



Sikopoksimaiks ('black-fat roasters'). 

 A band of the Piegan division of the 

 Siksika. 



Black Fat Roasters. — Grinnell, Blackfoot Lodge 

 Tales, 225, 1892. Sik-o-pok'-si-maiks.— Ibid., 209. 



Sikosuilak. A settlement of the Siko- 

 suilarmiut Eskimo e. of King cape, Baffin 

 land. 

 Sikosuilaq.— Boas in 6th Rep. B. A. E., 421, 1888. 



Sikosuilarmiut ('inhabitants of the 

 shore without an ice floe'). An Eskimo 

 tribe inhabiting the region about King 

 cape, s. w. Baffin land. They are settled 

 in two places, Nurata and Sikosuilak. 

 Sekoselar.— Gilder, Schwatka's Search, 181, 1881. 

 Sekoselar Innuits. — Nourse, Am. Explor., 200, 1884. 

 Sicosuilarmiut, — Boas in Trans. Anthr. Soc. 

 Wash., 95, 1884. Sikosuilarmiut.— Boasin 6th Rep. 

 B. A. E., 421, 1888. Ssikossuilar-miut. — Boas in 

 Deutsche Geog. Bliitt., viii, no. 1, 1885. 



Siksahpuniks ( ' black blood ' ). A band 

 of the Kainah division of the Siksika. 

 Blackblood.— Grinnell, Blackfoot Lodge Tales, 209, 

 1892. Siks-ah'-pun-iks. — Ibid. 



Siksatok. A former Aleut village on 

 Agattu id., Alaska, one of the Near id. 

 groups of the Aleutians, now uninhab- 

 ited. 



Siksika ('black feet', from siksinam 

 'black', A-a the root of ogita/.s/t ' foot ' . The 

 origin of the name is disputed, but it is 

 commonly believed to have reference to 

 the discoloring of their moccasins by the 

 ashes of the prairie fires; it may possibly 

 have reference to black-painted moccasins, 

 such as were worn by the Pawnee, Siha- 

 sapa, and other tribes). An important 

 Algonquian confederacy of the northern 

 plains, consisting of three subtribes, the 

 Siksika proper or Blackfeet, the Kainah or 

 Bloods, and the Piegan, the whole body 

 being popularly known as Blackfeet. In 

 close alliance with these are the Atsina 

 and the Sarsi. 



Within the recent historic period, until 

 gathered upon reservations, the Black- 

 feet held most of the immense territory 

 stretching almost from North Saskatche- 

 wan r., Canada, to the southern head- 

 streams of the Missouri in Montana, and 

 from about Ion. 105° to the base of the 

 Rocky mts. A century earlier, or about 

 1790, they were found by Mackenzie oc- 

 cupying the upper and middle South Sas- 

 katchewan, with the Atsina on the lower 

 course of the same stream, both tribes 

 being apparently in slow migration toward 

 the N. w. (Mackenzie, Voy., Ixx-lxxi, 

 1801). This would make them the van- 

 guard of the Algonquian movement from 

 the Red r. country. With the exception 

 of a temporary occupancy by invading 

 Cree, this extreme northern region has 

 always, within the historic period, been 

 held by Athapascan tribes. The tribe is 

 now settled on three reservations in Al- 

 berta, Canada, and one in n. w. Montana, 

 about half being on each side of the inter- 

 national boundary. 



So far as history and tradition go, the 

 Blackfeet have been roving buffalo 

 hunters, dwelling in tipis and shifting 

 periodically from place to place, without 

 permanent hal)itations, without the pot- 

 tery art or canoes, and without agricul- 

 ture excepting for the sowing and gath- 

 ering of a species of native tobacco. They 

 also gathered the camas root in the foot- 

 hills. Their traditions go back to a time 

 when they had no horses and hunted their 

 game on foot; but as early as Mackenzie's 

 time, before 1800, they already had many 

 horses, taken from tribes farther to the 

 s., and later they became noted for their 

 great horse herds. It is entirely proba- 

 ble that their spread over the plains 

 region was due largely to the acquisition 

 of the horse, and, about the same time, of 

 the gun. They were a restless, aggressive, 

 and predatory people, and, excepting for 

 the Atsina and Sarsi, who lived under 

 their protection, were constantly at war 

 with all their neighbors, the Cree, Assini- 

 boin, Sioux, Crows, Flatheads, and Kute- 

 nai. While never regularly at war with 

 the United States, their general attitude 

 toward Americans in the earl y days was 

 one of hostility, while maintaining a 

 doubtful friendship with the Hudson's 

 Bay Co. 



Their culture was that of the Plains 

 tribes generally, although there is evi- 

 dence of an earlier culture, approximately 

 that of the Eastern timber tribes. The 3 

 main divisions seem to have been inde- 

 pendent of each other, each having its 

 own Sun dance, council, and elective head- 

 chief, although the Blackfeet proper ap- 

 pear to have been the original nucleus. 

 Each of the 3 was subdivided into a num- 

 ber of bands, of which Grinnell enumer- 

 ates 45 in all. It has been said that these 



