Blackfoot - Membership

Membership

Originally the Blackfoot Confederacy, consisted of three peoples ("nation", "tribes", "tribal nations") based on kin relationships and dialect, but all speaking a common language, the Blackfoot language. These were the Piikáni (historically called "Peigan" in English-language sources), the Káínaa (called "Bloods"), and the Siksikáwa ("Blackfeet"). They later allied with the unrelated Tsuu T'ina ("Sarcee") who became merged into the Confederacy and, (for a time) with Atsina ("Gros Ventres"). Each of these peoples were divided in many bands which ranged in size from 10 to 30 lodges, or about 80 to 240 persons, and it was the band, rather than the tribe, which was the basic unit of organization for hunting and defence.

The largest ethnic group in the Confederacy is the Piegan or Pikuni. Their name derives from the Blackfoot term Piikáni. They are dived into the North Peigan (Aapátohsipikáni or simply Piikáni) in Alberta, and the South Peigan or Piegan Blackfeet (Aamsskáápipikani) in Montana.

The modern Kainai Nation is named for the Blackfoot language term Káínaa, meaning "Many Chief people". There were historically also called the Blood from a Plains Cree name for the Kainai: Miko-Ew, meaning "stained with blood" (i.e. "the bloodthirsty, cruel") therefore, the common English name for the tribe is Blood or the Blood tribe.

The Siksika Nation's name derives from Siksikáwa meaning "black foot people". The Siksika also call themselves Sao-kitapiiksi meaning "Plains People".

The Sarcee call themselves the Tsu T’ina meaning "a great number of people", but were called saahsi or sarsi, "the stubborn ones", by the Blackfoot during their early years of conflict. The Sarcee are from an entirely different language family from the other Plains peoples, they are part of the Athabascan or Dene language family, most of whose members are located in Subartic of Northern Canada. The Sarcee are specifically an offshoot of the Beaver (Danezaa) people who migrated south onto the plains sometime in the early eighteenth century. They later joined the Confederacy and essentially merged with the Pikuni.

The Gros Ventre people call themselves the Haaninin ("white clay people") and were called the Fall Indians or Gros Ventres (from French for "fat bellies") in English, and Piik-siik-sii-naa ("snakes") or Atsina ("like a Cree") in Blackfoot. Early scholars thought they were related to the Arapaho Nation, who inhabited the Missouri Plains and moved west to Colorado and Wyoming. They were allied with the Confederacy from circa 1793 to 1861, and enemies of it thereafter.

The Confederacy used to hunt and forage on both sides of the current Canada-USA border. But both governments forced them to end their nomadic traditions and settle on "Indian reserves" (Canadian terminology) or "Indian reservations" (US terminology) during the late nineteenth century. Excluding the Gros Ventre (who no longer counted as members), the South Peigan are the only group that chose to settle in Montana, and the other three Blackfoot-speaking peoples and the Sarcee are located in Alberta. Together, the Blackfoot-speakers call themselves the Niitsítapi (the "Original People").

When the these peoples were forced to end their nomadic traditions because of the demise of the American bison herds and the division of their territory between Canada and the United States, their social structures changed. Tribal nations, which had formerly been mostly ethnic associations, were institutionalized as governments (referred to as "tribes" in the United States and "bands" or "First Nations" in Canada). The Piegan were divided in the North Peigan in Alberta, and the South Peigan in Montana.