Aboriginal Youth Identity Series - Culture and its Meaning

One of the best known of the northern tribes, the Blackfoot were the first nation to meet the fur traders. Also known as the 'Siksika', this nation has lived on the Plains for a very long time.

Known in their own language as Kai-nau or 'Many Chiefs'. The Blood people are members of the Blackfoot Confederacy and live on one of the biggest reserves in Canada located in Southern Alberta. They followed the buffalo, hunting them by foot and, after 1700, on horseback. Horses became an integral component of their way of life, broadening their territory, increasing their wealth and inspiring aggression. Prior to 1860 and the infiltration of the whiskey-traders, the tribe began to lose its cohesion. Alcohol degenerated the tribe to the level of poverty. The decline of the buffalo combined with alcoholism, disease and persistent warring led them to the 1877 Treaty talks with the federal government at Blackfoot Crossing on the Bow River.

Means of cooking by which a round hole was scooped in the earth, and into which a piece of rawhide was sunk. The hole was then filled with water, and meat placed within. A fire was lit nearby and a number of stones made red hot. When the stones were hot enough they were either dropped or held in the boiling water.

A steep embankment, over which hunters would drive buffalo. This, along with the Buffalo Pound, were methods employed in the "factory" approach to hunting.