127 
Families seldom wandered individually, in historic times at least, but 
scoured the country in small jiroups or in larger bands. The band 
was a stable body governed by an informal council of its leading 
men, one of whom acted as chief. All the bands of a tribe amal- 
gamated for several weeks or months during the summer, and either 
selected a head chief, or tacitly acknowledged the authority of some 
band chief who possessed outstanding influence. At this season 
they adopted a military arrangement in their camps, pitching their 
conical tents in a circle, band by band, with the council tent or tent 
of the head-chief in the centre. ^ The tribe was thus a definite 
political unit sharply separated off from neighbouring peoples. There 
w'ere three tribes in the Blackfoot nation, the Blackfoot proper, the 
Blood, and the Piegan, all very closely alike in language and in 
customs, and all united by common interests and a feeling of kinship; 
yet each of the three tribes retained its political independence 
unimpaired. The Sarcee differed from them in language only, being 
the fourth member of the Blackfoot confederacy that struggled for 
the control of the prairies against the confederacy of the Assiniboine 
and Cree. Clearly the plains’ tribes had reached a higher level 
politically than the tribes of eastern and northern Canada. Never- 
theless, they suffered from the same inherent weakness — the indefin- 
ite and uncertain authority of their chiefs. Father de Smet makes 
some pertinent comments on this subject : 
“ Each nation is divided into different bands or tribes, and each 
tribe counts several villages.- Every village has its chief, to whom 
they submit in proportion to the respect or terror which his personal 
qualities inspire. The power of a chief is sometimes merely nominal; 
sometimes, also, his authority is absolute, and his name, as well as 
his influence, extends beyond the limits of his own village, so that 
the whole tribe to which he belongs acknowledge him as their head. 
This was the case among the Assiniboines in the time of Tchatka. 
Courage, address, and an enterprising spirit may elevate every 
1 Except during the celebration of Ihe sun-dance festival, when the head -chiefs of the Blackfoot 
and Sarcee tribes drew their tents bark in favour of the Avoman whose vow initiated the festiA'al. It 
is worth noting that Hendrj 's narrative of his journeys in 1754-1755 contains no reference to a camp 
circle, although he met large bodies of the Blackfoot. “Came to 200 tents of Archithinue Natives, 
pitched in two rows, and an opening in the niidflie; where we were conducted to the Ijcader’s tent; 
which was at one end. large enough to contain fifty pensons.” " York Factory to the Blackfeet Country, 
the Journal of Anthony Hendry, 1754-55,” edited by L. ,1. Burpee; Proc. and Trans. Roy. Sac. Canada, 
third series, x'ol. i, section ii, p. 337 (Toronto, 1907). This suggests that the camp circle may not 
have become fuily established until some years after the introduction of horses. 
2 i.e. bands. 
