Blackfoot Confederacy Keepers of the Rocky Mountains Item Type text; Electronic Dissertation Authors Spoonhunter, Tarissa L. Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 26/09/2021 07:16:58 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/323418 Blackfoot Confederacy Keepers of the Rocky Mountains by Tarissa L. Spoonhunter __________________________ Copyright © Tarissa Spoonhunter 2014 A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the GRADUATE INTERDISCIPLINARY PROGRAM IN AMERICAN INDIAN STUDIES In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 2014 Blackfoot Confederacy Keepers of the Rocky Mountains Spoonhunter2 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA GRADUATE COLLEGE As members of the Dissertation Committee, we certify that we have read the dissertation prepared by Tarissa Spoonhunter, titled Blackfoot Confederacy Keepers of the Rocky Mountains and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Benedict Colombi Date: May 5, 2014 Eileen Luna-Firebaugh Date: May 5, 2014 Manley Begay Date: May 5, 2015 Final approval and acceptance of this dissertation is contingent upon the candidate’s submission of the final copies of the dissertation to the Graduate College. I hereby certify that I have read this dissertation prepared under my direction and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement. Dissertation Director: Benedict Colombi Date: May 5, 2014 Blackfoot Confederacy Keepers of the Rocky Mountains Spoonhunter3 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that an accurate acknowledgement of the source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the copyright holder. SIGNED: Tarissa L. Spoonhunter Nato Ksikstaki Aki Blackfoot Confederacy Keepers of the Rocky Mountains Spoonhunter4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND DEDICATION Oki Nisitapii! Nitaniko Nato Ksikstaki Aki—My name is Holy Beaver Woman of the Amaskapi Pikuni (S. PIEGAN). I was raised on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation on Big Badger on the foothills of the Mistakis (mountains). My family hunt, gather plants and timber, graze cattle, fast, and seek knowledge from the area known today as Glacier National Park and Badger Two Medicine. I am the daughter of Dances all Night(Arapaho) and Many Bundle Holder(Pikuni) with children of my own Long Time Bear, Bluebird Woman, Sings from Afar, and Red Paint Woman. My family are members of the Brave Dog Society, Heart Butte Society, Cowboy Society, Racehorse society, the Horns, the Beaver People, and the Thunder Medicine Pipe of the Siksikaitsitapi (Blackfoot Confederacy). I express my appreciation to the Blackfoot tribal leaders—Siksika, Kainiawa, Abotsa Pikuni, and Amaskapi Pikuni; Blackfeet Tribal Department Directors—water, forestry, land, legal, oil and gas, Chief Mountain Hotshots, and fish and game; Piegan Institute; Blackfeet Community College—Blackfeet Studies, Natural Resources, and Blackfeet History Departments as well as the greenhouse caretakers; Bureau of Indian Affairs— natural resources; Badger Two Medicine Committee; Lewis and Clark Forest Officials; Coalition to Save the Rocky Mountain Front; University of Montana--Dr. Gregory Campbell and Tom Foor; and our sacred bundle keepers—Beaver Bundle caretakers, Thunder Medicine Pipe keepers, the Horns, Brave Dogs, the Natoas, and the Motoki—for the guidance and protection in sharing knowledge to tell the Blackfoot relationship with the Rocky Mountains. I am grateful to my Tatsey and Bullshoe Family of the Amaskapi Pikuni for the “Transfer of Knowledge” to assist throughout the research and presentations of this dissertation. I have only scratched the surface of the collective history that ties us to the mountains through origin stories, survival through subsistence, renewal, and well being as a people among the great beings of our traditional territory—Rocky Mountains. I dedicate this research and it’s findings to the future generations of the Siksikaitsitapi to continue the protection of the landscape for our people as well as our continued utilization of the natural and cultural resources of the Rocky Mountains. I also dedicate this to my mother—Many Bundle Holder—who has been key in the revitalization of ceremonies throughout the Blackfoot Confederacy in the United States and Canada also asserting our rights to camp in Glacier National Park. Lastly, I dedicate this to my family, kinfolk, and the bundle caretakers who maintain and practice the Blackfoot way of life in the Great Rocky Mountains. Hunya! Blackfoot Confederacy Keepers of the Rocky Mountains Spoonhunter5 TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1: Blackfoot Confederacy Keepers of the Rocky Mountains Abstract 7 Statement of Research Purpose 9 Literature Review 10 Statement of the Problem 20 Research Design 21 Research Significance 25 Chapter 2: Nitsitapii Keepers of the Rocky Mountains 27 Creation Time for the Blackfoot 32 Beaver Medicine 38 Other Bundles 34 Transfer of Knowledge 43 Importance of Animals to the Nitsitapii 46 Traditional Ecological Knowledge 47 Blackfoot Cultural Resources in the Mistakis 56 Blackfoot Names related to Other-than-humans 60 Animals Speak Again 62 Keepers of the Rocky Mountains 68 Chapter 3: Blackfoot Share their Mountain Territory 70 History of the Blackfoot before Treaties 70 US Treaties 72 Judicial rules of Construction 87 Reserved Rights Doctrine 88 Treaty Period for the Blackfoot 95 Treaty 7 of Canada 100 Agreements between the Blackfeet and the US 101 Proceedings of the Agreement of 1895-6 103 Chapter 4: Blackfoot Mountain Territory Managed by the US 111 Do the Blackfeet have any rights in the “ceded strip” (i.e. traditional territory) today? 114 Blackfoot Mountain Territory in the hands of the US 116 Legislation impacting the “ceded strip” 117 Denial of Blackfeet Reserved Rights 123 Legislation that supports 1895 Reserved Rights 128 Blackfoot fight for Rights 132 Chapter 5: Traditional Territory and Intellectual Property Rights 143 Tribal view of the land Tribal “organic” relationship v. “mechanistic Materialistic” 146 Four Levels of sacredness associated with Blackfoot Indian Territory 149 Blackfoot Confederacy Keepers of the Rocky Mountains Spoonhunter6 Blackfoot Consultation in the Ceded Strip 152 GNP 152 BTM 156 TCP v. Landscape 161 TCP limitations 161 Landscape Initiative 168 Barriers recognizing Blackfoot Ethnographic Landscape 171 Co-management for Treaty Rights? 173 Chapter 6: Blackfoot Protecting the Mistakis 180 Validity of 1895 Agreement 182 Problems facing the Blackfeet in Recognition of Reserved Rights 184 Water Rights 176 Traditional Nitsitapii v. Assimilation 189 Recognition of Rights 191 Statement of Treaty Issues 199 Conclusion: Transfer of Knowledge to re-establish US Kin Relations 202 Research Findings 208 Recommendations 204 Works Cited 214 Bibliography 229 Blackfoot Confederacy Keepers of the Rocky Mountains Spoonhunter7 Blackfoot Confederacy Keepers of the Rocky Mountains Abstract: The Blackfoot Confederacy--Siksikaitsitapi, which includes the Siksika Nation (Blackfoot), North Piegan (Abatso Pikuni), Kainai (Bloods), and the South Piegan (Amaskapi Pikuni/Blackfeet), have an intimate relationship with the mountains dating from Creation Time to the present day. According to a Blackfoot Creation account, Napi (Old Man) told his people: Here I will mark you off a piece of ground. Napi’s boundary began at a pine in the summit of the Rockies west of Edmonton, Alberta then traveled south taking in country to the east, which included the Porcupine Hills, Cypress Hills, and the Little Rocky Mountains. At the Yellowstone River’s confluence with the Missouri, the territory curved west until it reached a peak in Beaverhead Valley, then returned north to its starting point. Napi told the Blackfeet that this land was theirs (Keller and Turek 44). For many years, the Blackfoot Confederacy controlled this area mapped out by Napi, as well as many of the main routes traversing the mountains, including the Old North Trail. Even though Napi laid out the lands, there remains controversy over who has the rights to the land. The Blackfoot Confederacy must assert their rights and protect the mountains for future generations with current resource exploitation and preservation and preservation laws established by federal land management agencies. Today, the Blackfoot Confederacy continues to utilize cultural and natural resources in the Rocky Mountains stretching from Edmonton, Alberta, to the Yellowstone National Park. The Blackfoot have been granted many natural gifts, not only for subsistence but also for traditional ecological knowledge and cultural practices. They have interacted with the landscape, spiritual realms, wildlife, plants, water beings, and other cultural and natural resources of the Rocky Mountains, considered the “Backbone of the World” (Video