November 20, 1885.] 



SCIENCE. 



457 



Canada has cut the confederacy in two. Most 

 of the Piegans, with the few surviving Atsinas, 

 reside on the American side, where a large reser- 

 vation has been set apart for them, along the head 

 waters of the Missouri River. The residue of the 

 Piegans, with the Siksika, Kena, and Sarcee 

 bands, dwell on reserves laid off for them near 

 the southern boundary of the Canadian north- 

 west territories, adjacent to the Rocky Moun- 

 tains. Thus the lands occupied by these tribes, 

 though much diminished in extent, are in the 

 same region which they held fifty years ago, 

 when their confederacy was the dominant power 

 among all the Indians west of the Mississippi. At 

 that period their numbers were reckoned at thirty 

 thousand souls. Various causes, but more espe- 

 cially the ravages of the small-pox, have greatly 

 reduced them. The population of the four Cana- 

 dian reserves is computed at about 6,500, divided 

 as foUows : Blackfeet (Siksika), 2,400 ; Bloods 

 (Kena), 2,800; Piegans (Piekane), 800; Sarcees, 

 500. On the American reservation there are 

 stated to be about 2,300, mostly Piegans, with some 

 Sarcees. This would bring up the total number 

 of Indians in these tribes to nearly 9,000 souls. 



The country inhabited by the Blackfeet was the 

 favorite resort of the buffalo. The vast herds 

 which roamed the plains, or found shelter during 

 the winter in the woody recesses of the moun- 

 tains, furnished the tribes not merely with food, 

 but with the skins which made their tents and 

 their clothing. The complete extermination of 

 these animals, which has taken place during the 

 last five years, has made an entire change in the 

 mode of life of these Indians. From a race of 

 wandering hunters, they have become a com- 

 munity of farmers, and, as the official reports 

 show, have displayed a remarkable aptitude for 

 the arts of civilized Hfe. Under the direction of 

 superintendents and farm instructors appointed 

 by the Canadian government, they have erected 

 comfortable log-houses, weU furnished with cook- 

 ing-stoves, table-ware, and other household appli- 

 ances, and have raised large quantities of potatoes, 

 barley, oats, turnips, and other esculents. They 

 have shown themselves always orderly and pru- 

 dent in their dealings with the government and 

 the white settlers. 



The Blackfoot language was formerly supposed 

 to be entirely different from any of the languages 

 sx)oken by the surrounding tribes. This was the 

 re^jort of the first explorers. Further investiga- 

 tions have shown that this opinion was not well 

 founded. The language proves to be Algonkin in 

 its grammar, but to be in a large part of its 

 vocabulary widely different from other Algonkin 

 tongues. It is evidently a mixed language, of the 



kind which results from the conquest of one tribe 

 or nation by another speaking a different tongue. 

 What is known of the history of the Blackfeet 

 shows how this conquest and intermixture may 

 have taken place. The Blackfoot tribes formerly 

 inhabited the Red River country, from which, as 

 there is good reason to believe, they were driven 

 westward by the Crees, who formerly dwelt in 

 Labrador and about Hudson Bay, but who now 

 occupy the ancient homes of the Blackfeet along 

 the Red River and the Saskatchewan. The 

 Blackfeet, when they retreated to their final 

 refuge in the valleys and plains along the eastern 

 slope of the Rocky Mountains, had in their turn 

 to overcome and absorb the population which they 

 found there. The traditions of the people, and 

 other circumstances, seem to show that the tribe 

 thus conquered — and whose language probably 

 furnished the foreign portion of the Blackfoot 

 vocabulary — had come from the west or Oregon 

 side of the mountains. 



In further confirmation of this view, it is shown 

 that the Blackfeet have not only a mixed language, 

 but also a mixed religion. While their legendary 

 cosmogony and their principal deities are purely 

 Algonkin, their chief religious ceremony, the 

 famous sun-dance, to which they are fanaticaEy 

 devoted, — the most extraordinary trial of faith and 

 of endurance known among the western Indians, 

 — is clearly of exotic origin. It is whoUy un- 

 known to the other Algonkin tribes, except to a 

 few Crees, who have apparently learned it from 

 the Blackfeet. It also prevails among the Dakotas, 

 but chiefly in the western bands nearest to the 

 mountains and to the Blackfeet. 



The form of government among the Blackfoot 

 tribes, as among the Algonkin tribes in general, 

 is very simple. Each tribe has a head chief, and 

 each of the bands composing a tribe has its subor- 

 dinate chief ; but the authority of these chiefs is 

 little more than nominal. Their prerogatives are 

 chiefly those of directing the movements of a 

 camp, of presiding in council, and of representing 

 the tribe or band in conferences with other com- 

 munities. The term ' confederacy,' apphed to 

 the union of the Blackfoot tribes, is somewhat 

 misleading. They have no proper inter-tribal 

 league, like that of the Iroquois nations. There 

 is simply a good understanding among them, 

 arising partly from the bond of kinship, and 

 partly from a sense of mutual dependence. Even 

 the three proper Blackfoot tribes can hardly be 

 said to have a general name for their whole com- 

 munity, though they sometimes speak of them- 

 selves as Sawketakix, or ' men of the plains,' and 

 occasionaUy as Netsepoye, or 'people who speak 

 one language.' 



