Enemies
Blackfoot war parties would ride hundreds of miles on raids. A boy on his first war party was given a silly or derogatory name. But after he had stolen his first horse or killed an enemy, he was given a name to honor him.
The Niitsitapi were enemies of the Crow and Sioux (Dakota, Lakota, and Nakota) (called pinaapisinaa - “East Cree”) on the Great Plains; and the Shoshone, Flathead, Kalispel, Kootenai (called kotonáá'wa) and Nez Perce
(called komonóítapiikoan) in the mountain country to their west and southwest. Their most mighty and most dangerous enemy, however, were the political/military/trading alliance of the Iron Confederacy or Nehiyaw-Pwat (in Plains Cree: Nehiyaw - ‘Cree’ and Pwat or Pwat-sak - ‘Sioux, i.e. Assiniboine’) - named after the dominating Plains Cree (called Asinaa) and Assiniboine (called Niitsísinaa - “Original Cree”), including Stoney (called Saahsáísso'kitaki), Saulteaux (or Plains Ojibwe) and Métis to the north, east and southeast. With the expansion of the Nehiyaw-Pwat to the north, west and southwest, they integrated larger groups of Iroquois, Chipewyan, Danezaa (Dunneza - 'The real (prototypical) people'), Kootenai, Flathead, and later Gros Ventre (called atsíína - “Gut People” or “like a Cree”), in their local groups. Loosely allied with the Nehiyaw-Pwat, but politically independent, were neighboring tribes like the Kootenai, Secwepemc and in particular the arch enemy of the Blackfoot, the Crow, or Indian trading partners like the Nez Perce and Flathead.
Between 1790 and 1850 the Nehiyaw-Pwat were at the height of their power - they could successfully defend their territories against the Sioux (Lakota, Nakota and Dakota) and the Niitsitapi Confederacy. During the so-called Buffalo Wars (about 1850 - 1870) they penetrated further and further into the territory from the Niitsitapi Confederacy in search for the buffalo, so that the Piegan were forced to evade in the region of the Missouri River (in Cree: Pikano Sipi - "Muddy River", "Muddy, turbid River"), the Kainai (in Cree: Miko-Ew - "stained with blood", i.e. "the bloodthirsty, cruel", therefore, in English often referred to as Blood) withdraw to the Bow River and Belly River, only the Siksika could hold their tribal lands along the Red Deer River. Around 1870, the alliance between the Blackfoot and the Gros Ventre broke, and the latter had to look at their former enemies, the Southern Assiniboine (or Plains Assiniboine), for protection.
Famous quotes containing the word enemies:
“People can be lovers and enemies at the same time, you know. We were.... A man and woman draw apart from that long embrace, and see what they have done to each other.... In age we lose everything; even the power to love.”
—Willa Cather (1873–1947)
“A candidate once called his opponent “a willful, obstinate, unsavory, obnoxious, pusillanimous, pestilential, pernicious, and perversable liar” without pausing for breath, and even his enemies removed their hats.”
—Federal Writers’ Project Of The Wor, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“Sadat was a great and good man, and ... his most bitter and dangerous enemies were people who were obsessed with hatred for his peaceful goals.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)