Blackfeet Religious Traditions
BLACKFEET RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS. The name Niitsitapiiksi, referring to the Blackfoot Native American people, means "Real People," as in honest, good, true beings. This is the general collective term that encompasses the different divisions of the Blackfoot Confederacy who presently reside on four different reservations, three of which are in Alberta, Canada, and one which is in northwest Montana. The Montana division is called the Southern Piegan or Blackfeet, Aamskaapipiikani, while the Northern Peigan, Aapatohsipiikani and Blood, Kainai and Siksika (the Blackfoot proper) divisions reside in Canada. The entire Confederacy can be referred to with Niitsitapiiksi or Blackfoot, so for simplicity, this chapter uses this designation. The term "Blackfeet" has often been attributed to accounts of stories about the burnt prairies that stained moccasins with soot, but the Blackfoot trace the origin of the name to a sacred story of a man with three sons to whom he gave each a gift. Present population of the entire confederacy has estimates that vary widely, generally falling somewhere between 25,000–50,000 depending on how reservation resident status, enrolled vs. non-enrolled, official census tabulations, etc. are counted.
Niitsitapii (Blackfoot) religion is not so much a "religion" as a way of life, a collection of lessons, most learned from the natural environs, including plants, animals, the weather, the seasons, and the dimensions that involve—or house—the spiritual and the spirits.
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