188 BEPORT— 1887. 



and horses go to the sandhills too ; also the spirits of the dead buffaloes. 

 We hand these traditions down to our children. We point out to our 

 children various places where Napi slept, or walked, or hunted, and thus 

 our children's minds become impressed.' 



From inquiries I have made I am able to corroborate all that Mr. 

 Hale has said in regard to the sun-dance and the amputation of their 

 fingers and offering them as a sacrifice to the sun. Both these customs, 

 on account of the cruelties accompanying them, are now discountenanced 

 by the Canadian Government, and are likely before long to fall into disuse. 



Government &c. 



The head chief of the Blackfeet is Sapomakseka (Crowfoot). Under 

 him are ' Old Sun,' chief of the Northern Blackfeet ; ' Red Crow,' chief 

 of the Bloods ; ' North Axe,' chief of the Peigans. Over the southern 

 Blackfeet, Crowfoot is himself the chief. There are also three or four sub- 

 chiefs belonging to each tribe. The position is not hereditary, but, it 

 would seem, is assumed by the man who possesses the most talent, tact, 

 and power in the tribe. At present the chiefs are paid a small annual 

 pittance by Government, 51. to each principal chief, and 31. each to the 

 minor chiefs. The power of a chief is not defined ; he is in fact a czar, 

 possessing an absolute control over his camp. He has a number of young 

 men employed as soldiers to execute his commands. If the order is given 

 to move camp or to come to a sun-dance and any disobey, the soldiers go 

 round and violently strip the covering from the teepee, tear it to pieces, 

 scatter the contents to the winds, and sometimes kill the dogs. 



Tomahawks are not much used by the Blackfeet Indians. Their 

 weapons are a bow and arrows, a war club, a scalping-knife, and, for 

 defence, a circular skin shield ornamented with feathers. Many of them 

 have also guns or rifles. They will not fight openly, and are regarded by 

 other tribes as cowardly. Their tactics are to avoid the enemies' missiles 

 by jumping from side to side, and they have a hole in the shield through 

 which they look and try to deceive the enemy by putting the shield to one 

 side of their persons, as a mark to aim at, instead of in front. They 

 always scalp their foes when fallen. 



I cannot discover that there are any clans or gentes existing among 

 these people, but they have various orders connected with their dances, and 

 those who belong to the order have to imitate the bird or animal whose 

 name they have adopted as their totem. Toung unmarried men wear a 

 badge of bead work and hair on each shoulder to show that they are 

 available for marriage. 



Food. 



The principal and almost only food of these people was formerly 

 buffalo meat. A man would eat on an average about eight lbs. a day. 

 White people who have lived on it say that there is something very appe- 

 tising about buffalo meat, and that it is no hardship to eat it alone without 

 bread or vegetables. It is very different, they say, to eating beef. The 

 Blackfeet Indians have never grown any corn, and never knew what bread 

 was until the white man came among them. When in camp it was 

 usually their practice to boil the meat, but when out on a hunting expedi- 

 tion, without any cooking utensils, they would put the flesh on spits 

 before a large fire and roast it. It used to be a common practice to make 



