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Blackfoot indian

Blackfoot, Niitsítapi, Siksikaitsitapi ᖹᐟᒧᐧᒣᑯ
Blackfoot - Bear Bull.jpg
Bear Bull
Total population
32,000
Regions with significant populations
Canada Canada
(Saskatchewan Saskatchewan, Alberta Alberta, British Columbia British Columbia (part))

United States United States
(Montana Montana, Wyoming Wyoming (part) Idaho Idaho)
Languages
English, Blackfoot
Religion
Traditional beliefs, Sun Dance, Christianity
Related ethnic groups
Algonquian peoples
Black Confederacy
Niitsítapi
Type Confederacy
Membership
North Peigan, South Peigan, Kainai, Siksika
Later: Sarcee, Gros Ventres

The Blackfoot Confederacy, Niitsitapi or Siksikaitsitapi (ᖹᐟᒧᐧᒣᑯ, meaning "the people" or "Blackfoot-speaking real people") is a historic collective name for the four bands that make up the Blackfoot or Blackfeet people: three First Nation band governments in the provinces of Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia, and one federally recognized Native American tribe in Montana, United States. The Siksika ("Blackfoot"), the Kainai or Kainah ("Blood"), and the Northern Piegan or Peigan or Piikani ("Apa’tosee" or "Poor Robes") reside in Canada; the Southern Piegan/Piegan Blackfeet ("Amskapi Piikani" or Pikuni) are located in the United States, where they are also known as the Blackfeet Nation. In modern use, the term is sometimes used only for the three First Nations in Canada.

Historically, the member peoples of the Confederacy were nomadic bison hunters and trout fishermen, who ranged across large areas of the northern Great Plains of western North America, specifically the semi-arid shortgrass prairie ecological region. They followed the bison herds as they migrated between what are now the United States and Canada, as far north as the Bow River. In the first half of the 18th century, they acquired horses and firearms from white traders and their Cree and Assiniboine go-betweens. The Blackfoot used these to expand their territory at the expense of neighboring tribes. By riding horses and using them to transport goods, the Blackfoot and other Plains tribes could extend the range of their buffalo hunts.


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