Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs (SACPA)

The Blackfoot people is made up of four nations. These nations include the Piegan Blackfeet, Siksika, Piikani Nation, and Kainai. The four nations come together to make up what is known as the Blackfoot Confederacy, meaning that they have banded together to help one another. The nations have their own separate governments ruled by a head chief, but regularly come together for religious and social celebrations. 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. 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 early 18th century, they acquired horses and firearms from white traders enabling them to expand their territory at the expense of neighboring tribes. In the mid 19th century, the systematic commercial bison hunting by white hunters nearly ended the bison herds and permanently changed l