Blackfoot+Tribe


 * Blackfoot Tribe- Daniel, Wesley, Stephen, Matthew, Jordan **

__ **media type="youtube" key="57ejmcc1JkA" height="315" width="420" align="right"Introduction** __ This page is about the Blackfoot tribe way of living including their homes, transportation, food, weapons, enviroment, tools, games and other interesting facts. We hope you like it.
 * Table of Contents **
 * Subject || Name ||
 * Introduction || All ||
 * The Flag || Jordan ||
 * Homes and the big rock legend || Daniel ||
 * Transportation || Stephen ||
 * Clothing || Stephen ||
 * Weapons and Tools || Jordan ||
 * Toys and Games || Jordan ||
 * Ceremonies || Jordan ||
 * Chief Crowfoot || Jordan ||
 * Language || Jordan ||
 * Food || Wesley ||
 * Animals || Wesley ||
 * Plants || Wesley ||
 * Buffalo || Wesley ||
 * How They Eat || Wesley ||
 * Special Dishes || Wesley ||
 * Environment || Matthew ||
 * Fun Facts || All ||
 * Bibliography || All ||

The Blackfoot flag has a base colour of blue and has black and white designs on it. On the left side of the flag is a ceremonial stick with 29 eagle feathers connected to it. On the other side are 32 more eagle feathers that form a circle. In the circle is a map of the Blackfoot reservation with an Indian war headdress on it. Above the headdress are the words "Blackfoot Nation". The circle represents the cycle of life and the feathers represent energy and power. The arrangement of the feathers on the ceremonial staff represent a buffalo's ribs.
 * The Flag **

= **Homes** =

The Blackfoot tribe was a tribe that used a teepee. The teepee was made out of thick but light sticks that made the structure. The tribe would put Buffalo hide over the top of the sticks for insulation. In summer they stitched together pieces of cloth and draped it over the top in layers. The teepees had a hole in the top called a smokehole. The smokehole was designed for the purpose of letting smoke drift out when a fire was going on inside the teepee. The smokehole was located at the top of the teepee. When the tribe wanted to move locations it was easy. The women would take down the teepee and carry it on their shoulders while the men watched out for animals and carried the tools. The women would start by taking down the hide that insulated the teepee, then they would unlash the teepee's sticks and take them down. This all happened in about 20 minutes. It was a very easy house to move around and set up. Inside the teepee animal hide covered the floor. There were also tools like hammers and tomahawks, along with personal belongings like jewellrey and clothes inside the teepee. A teepee ranged from about 12 feet tall to 24 feet tall. The designs on their teepees were painted to honor the animal spirits. They believed the spirits would protect their families. There were seven different traditional designs; the black buffalo design, the big rock design, the buffalo head design, the crow design, the snake design, the winter design and the yellow buffalo design. There is often a legend for each design. The teepees were very useful for the blackfoot tribe because they were portable as it explained before. The tribe was always moving around. They were moving because they were hunters and they went wherever the animals went. They obviously needed food. The way they entered the teepee was with a small thin hole on the front. This hole was sometimes covered with a cloth that you could lift to get in.The cloth was stitched on. Everything about the blackfoot teepee is amazing and the blackfoot are very clever natives. Here is a legend on the big rock design.  Napi is the supernatural trickster of the Blackfoot. In this particular story everybody knew Napi had cheated someone out of the nice buffalo robe he was wearing as he trekked northward with his pal Coyote. Napi had played tricks on so many other creatures the Sun and the Wind thought that they would play a trick on him. The Sun shone very brightly making Napi hotter and sweatier and the robe heavier. When the robe got too heavy to wear Napi asked Coyote what he should do with it. “Why don’t you give it to the [|Big Rock]?” said Coyote. So that is what they agreed to do. They went over to the Rock, praised the Rock, and Napi made a gift of the robe to the Big Rock. No sooner had Napi and Coyote headed off again when the Wind started blowing very cold air. Napi began to think he should have kept his robe. He tells Coyote to run back and take the robe from the Rock. Coyote doesn’t want to have anything to do with taking back the robe. So Napi goes back and tells the Rock that he has come for the robe. To which the Rock replies, “You gave the robe to me.” Napi responds, “What are you going to do? You have always been here and are going to stay here. I am going to be on my way.” Napi takes the robe and heads off again with Coyote reluctantly by his side. All of a sudden Coyote hears some noise and looks back and sees the Rock rolling after them. Coyote and Napi become quite startled at what is going on and the two of them start to run. Napi and Coyote run past all the animals which Napi had played tricks on. Napi asks the animals to help him. The animals are quite amused to see Napi finally getting a taste of his own medicine and will not help. Coyote realizes the Rock is only chasing Napi and so he runs away from Napi. Napi runs along prairies, coulees and rivers, staying just ahead of the rolling Rock. Napi is getting very tired. Some swallows finally decided to help him. The swallows swoop down and start pecking off pieces of the Rock. Some stories even say they use their droppings to break the Rock apart.The swallows see Napi is getting too tired to run much longer. They swoop down on the Rock one more time and stop the Rock by breaking it in two. Napi was safe. The Rock still sits on the spot near Okotoks, Alberta where it broke in two.
 * The big rock legend**.

Read more at Suite101: [|The Legend of Napi and the Rock: Napi on the Run From the Big Rock of Okotoks | Suite101.com] [|http://laurie-hodges-humble.suite101.com/the-legend-of-napi-and-the-rock-a36329#ixzz1uxVZknSq]

Transportation

Did the Blackfoot people paddle in canoes to get across rivers or lakes? Well the answer is NO because they weren’t coastal people. But if they had to cross rivers or lakes they would make [|rafts] to cross. Rafts were made out of logs or strong sticks in the form of a big wooden mat. [|Horses] weren’t in North America until colonists brought them over from Europe. Instead they used [|dog pulling travois] (a kind of drag sled ) to help them move belongings from place to place. dog travois were made out of sticks tied together in the form of a triangle with no bottom. But once horses were available they quickly adopted to them and the people became more migratory. Sometimes they would use [|toboggans] made out of wood to get around. But mostly they would just walk place to place.



clothing

====Most of the Blackfoot tribe's clothes were made from material that was easy to get like deer skin and antelope hide. Lots of women in the tribe wore deer skin dresses with frigens. Most women in the tribe would make the clothes sometimes with colorful beads, porcupine quils and feathers. Most women will wear colorful bracelets and earrings made from seashells. Rarely they would use precious metals to make necklaces, bracelets, and earings. Some beads were worn in their hair. ====

women's clothing
====Women would wear a principal garment which was a dress that fell down to the ankles. It was held up by straps that hung on the shoulders. In cold weather they whore sleeves and leggings. The dress was decorated with porcuipine quills, pictures of animals and plants, and cut fringes. They would wear elk and and deer teeth bracelets and neklaces. Rarley they would use precious metals to make bracelets and necklaces.====


 * mens clothing**

= WEAPONS AND TOOLS =

Usually, the kinds of tools you would use mattered mostly on the area you lived in because you would need certain tools to gather and hunt certain things that were near you.The Blackfoot tribe settled in the northern plains, especially Alberta,Canada and that's why they mostly hunted buffalo, because buffaloes are what mostly lived there.

Below are some weapons and tools (with descriptions and pictures) that the Blackfoot Indians used:

were one of the most used weapons of the Blackfoot tribe because the resources they had available were good for making bows and it was also safer to strike from a distance, especially since they hunted dangerous creatures. They were often made using snake skins, porcupine quills and a selection of different woods and barks. To the right is a Lego example of a Blackfoot Indian hunting with a longbow and a horse.
 * Long bows and arrows**

are a type of ax that the Blackfoot people, and many other Indian tribes used. Tomahawks were often thrown at enemies but they were also used for close combat, rituals and some could be used to smoke tobacco! The shaft was traditionally made from ash, maple or hickory tree wood and was no more than 6cm long. A tomahawk head was originally made stone, especially polished soapstone and sometimes it had designs carved into it.
 * Tomahawks**

were extremely long and they were even thrown sometimes so the Blackfoot people could attack while keeping a distance from their enemies and to help prevent animals to run off. These spears had extremely long wooden shafts that ranged up to about 20ft long! The deadly spear tips were made of metals including flint and copper. Spears were also great for killing fish because they could reach deep into the water and the tip could easily pierce through a fishes body.
 * Spears**

that the Blackfoot Indians used include wooden clubs, wooden lances, an assortment of different kinds of knives and later they traded with Europeans to get guns. They also used armor and shields made of buffalo hide to protect themselves from threats. To the right is a Lego example of two Blackfoot Indians, a horse and weapons.
 * Other Weapons**

The Blackfoot native american tribe used animals to aid them. They sometimes used hunting dogs to track down then attack their foes. Blackfoot people also often used horse to transport themselves and trade items or weapons and food. Horses would also be used for war and hunting.
 * Animals**

Since they would need water to survive, the Blackfoot people would build villages near a source of water but they would also take advantage of it by fishing in it as well. Fishing hooks were made using metals and poles were made with graphite or some types of plants. Paddles and fishing boats were mostly made of types of woods. As bait they might use worms or somethings that the fish would eat. The Blackfoot tribe probably made most of their fishing tools designed specifically for salmon which was the main type of fish they caught. To the right is a Lego example of two Blackfoot Indians fishing.
 * Fishing**

include berry crushers, skin scrapers, spoons, hammers and many more great creations of the very intelligent Blackfoot people. They also had different carving tools so they could engrave designs on rocks or wood. Animal bones were also used as tools, decorations and material.
 * Other Tools**

[[image:mrneely/P5090139.JPG width="240" height="180"]][[image:mrneely/images.jpg width="258" height="193"]][[image:mrneely/blackfoot_bow.jpg width="381" height="108" align="right"]]
Lego Blackfoot weapons and tools. Tomahawks knives and other Blackfoot tools. Blackfoot bow and arrows.

As you can see, weapons and tools were very important to the Blackfoot tribe.

Some of our toys and games were based off of theirs. Usually the Blackfoot's toys and games were meant to both entertain and teach the tribes children at the same time. Below are some examples of toy and games of the Blackfoot children with pictures as well.
 * Toys And Games **

were meant for girls to learn how to take care of someone smaller than them and to be a good mother. They had to make them little clothes and beads as jewelery then dress them. Blackfoot girls would also have to make sure they didn't get wrecked and if they did the girls would have to mend them. The toy dolls were made using tanned hides and buckskins. To the right is a picture of a Blackfoot girl holding a doll with a blue dress.
 * Dolls**

were given to boys so they could practice shooting targets to train for becoming a good hunter. Sometimes boys would also go hunting with their fathers and shoot real animals. Most Blackfoot boys thought it was fun to shoot arrows so sometimes they would get in trouble for shooting at thing they shouldn't be. The bows children would normally use were short-bows but Blackfoot adults used longbows to hunt.
 * Bows and Arrows**

In this three Blackfoot game you must try to throw a pole through a netted hoop which is rolled by one of the players and made from plants that have been formed into a circle. The net was made of hide lacings and the poles were usually just long, pointed sticks that were similar to spears. One way to win this game was to get all of the poles. To obtain a pole, you must get yours in and the other player must not. Another way to win was to get the most poles in hoop with a certain amount of throws.
 * Netted hoop and pole game**

is a Blackfoot first nations tribe game in which a stone would be rolled along the ground while players would throw spears somewhere on the ground where they thought the stone would stop rolling. The winner was the player whose spear was closest to where the Chunkey stone actually stopped rolling. To the right is a picture of a Chunkey stone.
 * Chunkey[[image:mrneely/Chunkey.jpg width="127" height="128" align="right"]]**

were very important to the Blackfoot tribe because they were used religious reasons and Blackfoot people believed in many spiritual things.
 * Ceremonies **

When the time comes for a Blackfoot boy to turn into a man, he must begin his vision quest to search for a spirit that will shield the him from dangers in his life as a man. To begin his journey, he would enter a sweat lodge where stones were heated up and then water was poured on them to create steam which would engulf the boy. Next, the Blackfoot child went into freezing pool of water and then ventured into the forest for a few days while seeking a vision. Finally, Blackfoot tribe members would bring the boy back to the village where he shared his vision with a shaman and then the tribe would begin a ceremony.
 * Vision Quests**

was a special festival that would be meant as a prayer to the spirits and it would last several days. When the Blackfoot tribe prepared for this ceremony, which took four days long, they would fast and set up their tipis in a circular formation. In the center of the circle was a chopped down tree that was held in place by ropes. Blackfoot people would dance around the tree and pierce their chest as a sacrifice to the spirits from one sunset to the next.
 * The Sun Dance**

was born in 1830 in Alberta an he became one of the most famous Blackfoot Indians because of his peacemaking skills. Crowfoot was born into the Kainai (Blood) tribe but when his father was killed by the Crows he moved into the Siksika (Blackfoot) tribe with his mother at only five years old. His name came from when he fought very bravely in a battle against the Crows when he was in his teens. His original name from childhood was Kyi-i-staah which means Bear Ghost in the Blackfoot language. Crowfoot was not born into the tribe or a family of chiefs but the braveness and leadership skills he showed made him become a very well respected man. He became a chief in 1865 when he was 35 and he led a tribe with over 20 lodges. As his years as a chief went by he made many friends that he could trade and in 1872 he became one of the two head chiefs of the Blackfoot tribe the other being Natosapi (Old Sun). One year later in a Cree invasion, Crowfoot's son was lost so he adopted a Cree who had similar traits to Crowfoot's son. Today, adopted Cree is known as the famous Chief Poundmaker. Years later, Crowfoot met another famous Native called the Sitting Bull who wanted to trade with be at peace with his tribe. Crowfoot also became very respected by the Europeans and he made many treaty's with them. Later, Crowfoot became ill and many terrible things started happening. Soon after in Spring 1890 the great Chief Crowfoot died and it brought depression to many people. Out of Crowfoot's many children, only a blind boy and three girls survived past his death. His adopted son Chief Poundmaker had been sent to jail and then died earlier. As I have shown you, Chief Crowfoot has made a large impact in our history.
 * Chief Crowfoot **

"What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset".-Crowfoot

Blackfoot is an Algonquian language spoken by the Blackfoot tribe. Old Blackfoot, which is also called High Blackfoot, was the original version but is still spoken by a few Blackfoot elders today. New Blackfoot, which is also called Modern Blackfoot, is the newer version of the Blackfoot language and it is spoken by most younger members of the tribe. Blackfoot is a very complicated language but there are a few simple words like "Oki" which means "Hello" in English. Here are some more words to give you an idea what the Blackfoot language is like: American || niitsiapi || The Blackfoot First Nations tribe also used Plains Indian sign language when communicating with other tribes.
 * Language **
 * English || Blackfoot || English || Blackfoot || English || Blackfoot || English || Blackfoot ||
 * Man || ninaa || Yellow || ootah koi na tsi || Saturday || ii na ka to yiks tsi ko || Eight || na ni so ||
 * Woman || aakii || Green || sas ksi moi koi na tsi || One || ni tooks ka || Nine || phik so ||
 * Fall || oo ko wa || Sunday || na to yiks tsi ko || Two || na too ka || Ten || ki poo ||
 * Winter || is to yi wa || Monday || is si ka to yiks tsi ko || Three || nio ooks ka || Buffalo || iinii ||
 * Spring || mo to wa || Tuesday || oomh tsis to ki si ka to yiks tsi ko || Four || ni soo woo || dog || imitaa ||
 * Summer || nip o wa || Wednesday || oomh tiusks ka si ka to yiks tsi ko || Five || ni si to || Water || aohkii ||
 * Red || amoh ksi na tsi || Thursday || ii ka tas tsi no pi || Six || noyi || Sun || ki'somma ||
 * Blue || oots koi na tsi || Friday || ta tsi kis tsi no pi || Seven || iih ki tsi ka || Native

The Blackfoot tribe mostly ate these 4 foods: meat, plants, special dishes. Since they lived in Alberta and in some of the American plains there was lots of game and plants around. The most important animal was the plains buffalo they had many uses for it, the facts are in the buffalo paragraph.
 * Food **

Animals
The animals available where buffalo, deer, mountain sheep, antelope, elk, wolves, coyotes, salmon and duck. They were very successful hunters and they used 2 main tactics to kill game. For larger animals(deer, elk), they used bushes for cover and when they were close enough they would shoot the animal with arrows and it would normally die on sight.The second method was to use a snare trap which they would use to catch smaller animals (wolves,coyotes). The ways they cooked meat was boiled, smoked, roasted or dried. The men hunted the animals. Interesting words:[|snaretrap]

Plants
The Blackfoot tribe had a lot of plants available. They include pumpkin, sweet seed, squash, beans, wild rice and corn. There were also some special plants like cranberries, blueberries, Saskatoon berries and pinon nut. But there was a special way they grew 3 of these plants. It was called the 3 sisters and it worked like this: The beans used the corn as a structure to grow upwards, while the squash supported the corn and blocked the sun from the ground to provent weeds from growing. The leaves that fell from the squash acted like mulch. Most of the first nations people had the three sisters. The Blackfoot tribe had a fourth sister which was the rocky mountain bee plant which attracted bee`s. When they came they pollinated the squash and beans.The woman harvested, picked and planted. Interesting words:[|three sisters]

Buffalo
The buffalo was a very important part of the Blackfoot tribe lives, it provided them food, shelter and clothing. The Blackfoot tribe used every part of the buffalo. Theses are some of the things they used from the buffalo. Hide was used for clothing, shelter and cover for lances. Bones where used for tooles and needles.Bladder was used as a water contanier. Brain was used for tanning hides.Those are some of the many uses for the buffalo.They killed large groups of buffalo by chasing them of a cliff, this was called a buffalo jump. Interestingwords:[|buffalo jump]

Special dishes
The Blackfooot tribe eat some special dishes like duck stew and pemmican. Pemmican was made to give them a balanced diet since they did not have cereals or bread.The woman made pemmican by grounding peices of meat into small peices, when they finished they mixed peices of fat and berries to give it flavour. Interesting words:[|Pemmican]

How they eat
The Blackfoot tribe Used spoons and forks to eat, look at the weapons page to find out what they used to kill animals.

The Blackfoot/Blackfeet lived mostly in Northern Montana, Southern Canada, Western North Dakota, Rocky Mouintains, Alberta and saskatchawan. Blackfoot territory was a large area and they controlled it alot. Home lands usually consisted of rolling plains forest for prey to live in grass lands was a good place to find food and the water came from rivers and streams. Hills, glaciers and narrow cliffs were usually around as well.
 * Enviorment **

The weather was usually warm and almost no rain fell. They didn't stay around that much because there food moved around alot (bison). Plants were usually able to make medicine and mend clothing.

- Blackfoot people were named after the dark coloured moccasins they wore
 * Fun Facts **

http://www.cr.nps.gov http://www.projects.cbe.ab.ca http://www.wikipedia.ca http://www.wikianswers.ca http://www.bigorrin.org http://www.native-net.org http://www.ehow.com http://www.firstpeoplesofcanada.com [|http://www.thesixthestate.blogspot.com] [] [] [] [|http://schoolworkhelper.net/2011/05/the-blackfoot-indians-history-culture-societ] http://youtube.com
 * Bibliography **

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[] Thank You For Reading Our Wiki Page About The Blackfoot Tribe. We Hope You Learned Lots Of New Facts About Them. If You have Any Questions, Please Ask One Of Us.-Jordan, Wesley, Daniel, Stephen, Matthew(Blackfoot Tribe)