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Peh-to-pe-kiss, Eagle's Ribs, a Piegan Chief, 1832

At this period in their history, the Blackfeets' only weapons were long bows and arrows, long lances tipped with flint points, large, round, thick rawhide shields and hand clubs with stone heads all designed for the hunt or known to them in their earlier woodlands homeland, when they took up like on the plains, they had to learn new methods of hunting these animals.

For the most part, small group hunting methods were practiced, and one of the most popular was the communal effort known as the pishkin, or buffalo drive, in which herds of buffalo were stampeded into lanes of stone piles which guided them over banks or steep cliffs. Driven into pounds, or falling over cliffs and being crippled, the animals were then readily dispatched by bow and arrow. A "spiritual leader or medicine man", using a powerful medicine, aided the hunters' efforts in luring the bison to the fall.

Blackfeet Medicine Man

Siksika woman

By the early 1700s, a great variety of trade materials had reached the Blackfeet, through Cree and Chippewa Indian fur traders, who, traveling the east-west rivers in small boats, traded furs and buffalo hides to white traders of the Hudson Bay Company far to the northeast. Through this trade, the western Indian, such as the Blackfeet, soon realized the superiority fo the white man's metal tools, utensils and weapons. As the fur trade extended its reach into the far west, first through Indian middlemen and then through trading forts, it found the western tribes eager to trade for wares that made life easier. woven trade fabrics were lighter, cooler, washable and more brightly colored than buffalo hides. Glass beads used to decorate their garments and other objects were more colorful and durable than vegetal-dyed porcupine quills and iron cooking pots offered far better methods than cooking in rawhide paunches with hot rocks. And there were metal arrowheads, heavy lance heads, knives and brightly polished tomahawks for which replaced stone implements and weapons.

Blackfoot, 1920

Iron Shirt war chief

   Most importantly, the white man's guns offered a formidable new defense against tribal enemies. During this same period, in addition to these rich treasures of the fur trade, the Plains Indians obtained horses for the first time. Introduced into the American southwest by Spanish settlers, horses were widely traded among the western tribes. As new means of hunting and making warfare, the horse and the gun revolutionized Plains Indian culture.

   An increase in trade materials, coupled with the introduction of the horse and gun, brought a technological revolution to the Blackfeet and the wealth and free time it provided allowed them to develop and create resplendent costumes, to carve ornate pipe bowls and stems, and even to decorate household items with lavish designs. There was also time for family and elders to train their youth to the honor, glory and prestige of war, to hold u before them the deeds of great warriors through painted robes depicting their exploits, and feathered headdresses worn only by the bravest.

Siksika village

   At the end of the 17th century, most Blackfeet were in what is now the Province Saskatchewan. Blackfeet typically traveled across the Northern Plains in bands 20-30 people, which seemed to be most effective number for hunting buffalo. However, the tribes would come together for various ceremonies and rituals like the sun dance or medicine lodge ceremony and to trade, separating again for the winter. Each band was led by a Blackfeet Chief. It is debated though, who introduced horses to the Blackfeet. Some believe that the Blackfeet first got them from Shoshones to the South. But most historians believe their first horses came from the Shoshoni to the south. But most historians believe their first horses came from the west through encounters with Kootenai, Flathead and Nez Perce. Soon after the Blackfeet acquired horses, they also obtained guns by trading beaver pelts and buffalo hides with French fur traders.

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