The Blackfoot Indians Culture and Historical Heritage

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Table of Contents

Four Elements of Blackfoot Culture
Health beliefs and practices
Family Patterns
Communication Style
Death and Dying Practices
Conclusion
References

In the 21st century, the old religious practices and traditions of the Blackfoot nation remain alive. It consists of four tribes: Siksika/the Blackfoot, Kainai/Blood, Peigan/Pikuni, and North Pikuni (“Blackfoot,” n.d.). The Blackfoot Indians are characterized by rich cultural and historical heritage. Their honored traditions assume that no one is born evil, and honesty and truth are the basis of living a worthy life. All the people are worthy of respect regardless of their rank and age. A good sense of humor is a crucial part of their lives.

Four Elements of Blackfoot Culture

It is one of the ten largest tribes in America. The Reservation of the Blackfoot Indians is the place of residence to over 17 thousand members of the given nation and spans 1,5 million acres (“Home,” n.d.). The reservation was established in 1855 and is currently situated in Montana. The reservation has around 180 water bodies and 520 miles of streams, including eight lakes (“Our lands,” n.d.). Additionally, it has significant natural resources such as gas and oil reserves, forestlands, numerous species of wildlife and fish.

Health beliefs and practices

Throughout their whole history, Blackfoot Indians assumed that plants play a key role in their identity definition. They hold a central position as spiritual power symbols, adornments, ornaments, and medicine. The traditional Blackfoot medicine intimately connects with the natural areas and wildlife zones, especially those bearing religious significance. For thriving traditional communities, the plants use is a mix of herbal medicines practice, cultural identity, and shamanic healing (Jaqcuet, et al., 2017). The knowledge of such plants is a part of sacred nature and is ceremonially passed only to the selected healers. Both plant harvesting and medicines preparation are followed by specific rituals, including prayers, songs, self-purification, and medicinal bundles use.

Family Patterns

Historically, women bared responsibility for the home, including cleaning, cooking, building the house, dragging the heavy posts in case the tribe moved, and other activities. In fact, they were the full-fledged owners of their houses (“Blackfoot Indian,” n.d.). In turn, men were the families defenders and the so-called big game hunters. The vast majority of Blackfoot warriors and chiefs were male. Nevertheless, both men and women took and still take an active part in artwork, storytelling, music, and traditional medicine. Specific families might obtain a leadership status in the tribe. It should be earned through generosity, good character, and wisdom.

Communication Style

Currently, most Blackfoot people speak English, although at least half of them also speak their native language. It is musical and rather complicated due to the presence of verbs with various parts (Howe, 2019, p. 99). Most English speakers find the original Blackfoot words very long and difficult to pronounce. Blackfoot people are able to create extremely precise speech, hence, the speakers should make specific choices in each utterance. They tend to speak the language that allows such a high degree of specificity that it is obligatory to feel the boundaries between what is likely to be known and what is known for sure. The Blackfoot speakers are entrusted with the responsibility to be careful. The power of utterance is profoundly rooted in speech customs and culture. For them, speech is not just a part of etiquette, protocol, or psychology (Howe, 2019, p. 98). Typical Blackfoot storytellers are likely to exaggerate, making a speech more impactful and dramatic (Howe, 2019, p. 98). Nevertheless, this style remains an essential truth-telling element for them.

Death and Dying Practices

Although there are specific common features in death issues existing among all the Native Americans, any individual, clan, family, and tribe might develop their behaviors and values related to death. The Blackfoot culture exposed children to grief and death processes through attending funerals and rituals. Therefore, death as an event is nothing special or rare to them from an early age. The Blackfoot tradition insists that ‘‘sickness and death came to Earth only after Creator Sun saw that human needed to learn compassion” (Colclough, 2016). A ceremonial process of grieving might have specific peculiarities in different tribes. In contrast with the Western culture, Native Americans suppose death and grieving to be an important and profound communal event, as it directly relates to the Creator (the God) (Colclough, 2016). Different ceremonies include “an immediate after-death event, funeral/burial (same day to 4-6 days), Potlatch, giveaway, the Feast of the Dead, and so on” Colclough, 2016). These traditions typically involve 50-1000 people depending on the respect for the deceased. Oratory, dances, and songs support and entertain mourners, changing their mode.

Conclusion

Although there was a campaign against the Native American tribes during the 19th century, the Blackfoot remains a sustainable tribe. It succeeded in preserving the respect to its history and a keen sense of honored traditions. Numerous representatives of the Blackfoot Indian tribe hold conferences and seminars teaching younger tribe members to appreciate their history and beliefs and instilling a sense of pride in them. These seminars, classes, and conferences are open to non-Indians willing to study the culture and history of the Blackfoot Indians.

References

Blackfoot. (n.d.). New World Encyclopedia. 2020, Web.

Blackfoot Indian fact sheet. (n.d.). Bigorrin. 2020, Web.

Colclough, Y. (2016). Native American death taboo: Implications for health care providers. American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, 34(6).

Home. (n.d.). Blackfeet Nation. 2020, Web.

Howe, N. (2019). Retelling Trickster in Naapi’s Language. University Press of Colorado.

Jaqcuet, A. et al. (2017). Pikuni-Blackfeet traditional medicine: Neuroprotective activities of medicinal plants used to treat Parkinson’s disease-related symptoms. J Ethnopharmacol. 206, 393–407.

Our lands. (n.d.). Blackfeet Nation. 2020, Web.

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