This exhibit was designed to travel and is available on loan to schools, libraries, community groups, and smaller rural museums/galleries around southern Alberta. To learn more, read the full exhibit details.
co-curated by Ninna Piiksii (Mike Bruised Head), Itsinohtss piyaki (Rebecca Many Grey Horses), and Akaiksims’staki (Bobbie Fox)
Since time immemorial the people of the Blackfoot Nations have called southern Alberta home. Their traditional territory stretches north to the North Saskatchewan River, south to the Yellowstone River, west to the Rocky Mountains, and east to the Cypress Hills. They travelled throughout their land guided by the seasons, taking only what was needed from the land and its animals but never to excess and with nothing left to waste. The Nitsitapii have a spiritual connection to the land and through this connection are stewards of this earth.
Many sites located throughout this territory have meaning which can be categorized as Spirit-created, Nature-created, or Human-created. Spirit-created sites are places created and touched by Napi. Napi is the name of the Creator for the Nitsitapii. Nature-created sites are places or geographic features that came into being through natural geologic forces. Human-created sites are places that were created by the Nitsitapi through the alteration of the natural landscape. We are focusing on ten such sites.
Land Acknowledgement of Nitstapiisksahkoo
The City of Lethbridge and the Galt Museum & Archives are proud to acknowledge that Sikoohkotoki (Lethbridge) is located in the heart of Siksikaisitapi, which is the traditional territory of the Blackfoot People from Kainai, Piikani, Siksika and Amskapi Pikuna.
Engaging with Blackfoot and other Indigenous Peoples who live, study, work and play in our community in respectful and meaningful ways, is an opportunity to hear new and diverse perspectives, and importantly, to understand historical and contemporary barriers and opportunities. Some of the stories shared by Indigenous Peoples may at times be challenging or difficult to hear. But they are important nonetheless.
Acknowledging territory and seeking Nitsitapii perspectives is an opportunity to come together in shared understanding, which is the framework upon which we build a stronger community together.
Please Note:
The sites discussed in this exhibit are from a Blackfoot perspective. They are considered sacred and spiritual places by the Nitsitapii from time immemorial. Many are currently used by the Blackfoot Nations for spiritual and ceremonial purposes. We ask that if you visit these places, please be considerate and respectful of the cultural importance of these places. If you see cairns of stones or gifts left from a ceremony or prayer, please leave the area untouched. An acceptable practice is offering tobacco at these sites which is proper protocol.
Omahksikimii / Omahkiit'taa / Ponoká'sísaahtaa (North Saskatchewan River)
This north geographical marker shows the vastness of Blackfoot territory. Pre-horse days, Blackfoot tipi and ceremonial rings existed north of the North Saskatchewan River.
There’s a story about a band of Blackfoot people camped at the headwaters of the North Saskatchewan River. They went hunting northwest into the mountains and never came back. The ancestors say they possibly died from sickness, the elements, or joined other tribes, into the Yukon Territory, Istoiistitaapiikwaks (Northern People). Nitsitapii travelling in the Yukon heard language like their own. They exchanged tobacco, smoked the pipe and became allies.
An old picture shows a piercing Sundance or an Ookáán ceremony near present day Strathcona/ Edmonton area. This place was covered with trees but now it’s covered with pavement and buildings. There are tipi rings along both sides of the North Saskatchewan River. All part of traditional Blackfoot territory.
— Ninna Piiksii
Omahkiit'taa, which is named the North Saskatchewan River in English. The Nitsitapii ancestors have passed down the land-use knowledge of the boundaries of the Blackfoot territory. Omahkiit'taa is part of the northern boundary that was a part of our seasonal rounds and there are accounts that our people spent winters there as well as spring and summer. The area was also an important hunting location for the Nitsitapii. This knowledge was shared in the winter counts. Oral histories also share the Nitsitapii utilized resources from that northern region.
Fur traders were trading with the Siksikaitsitapi around Rocky Mountain House in the late 1800s. The NWMP during their expansion west, recorded the Blackfoot in the Omahkiit'taa area.
— Itsinohtss piyaki
To hear the story of this site in Blackfoot, please listen.
These stories are transferred from generation to generation since time immemorial. You are listening to a shorter version of a much larger story. If you would like to expand your knowledge of this site, please see a Blackfoot Elder.
Iikimikoii / Ikihmikoii (Cypress Hills)
From time immemorial, Cypress Hills has been a camping area for Blackfoot people, Siksikaitsitapi, and all the different bands camping there seasonally at one time or another. We had a very good diet of deer, moose, antelope, iinii (bison), and many lodgepole pines. The lodgepole pines were used for buffalo hide tipis. There was also an abundance of medicines and vegetation. It is why the Blackfoot converged in the area for thousands of years.
There are tipi rings, ceremonial rings, burial sites, vision quest sites, rock cairns and buffalo jumps. There is a lot of history in the area, and it was supposed to be part of the Blackfoot Reserves. We got pushed away from the area after 1877. One of the bands was the Fish Eater band who camped at Cypress Hills, where they could see the Sweet Pine Hills and Milk River then travel to the Missouri River. The bison were abundant in the Cypress Hills, making it a prized hunting area in Blackfoot Territory.
— Ninna Piiksii
Cypress Hills, in the southwestern area of Nitsitapii territory, is used and protected by the Blackfoot people. Before and during contact they used Cypress Hills for elk and buffalo hunts. The women would harvest medicinal plants and gather berries. In the Springtime, they would replenish their lodge poles from the pines that grow there.
A Nitsitapii Elder described how all the Confederacy bands and clans came together to have an Ookáán in the area in the late 1800s. Another story tells of having an Akóka’tssin in the medicine coulee area. These were historical accounts of how the Blackfoot people ceremoniously used Cypress Hills.
Iikimikoii/Ikihmikoii was an important historical and sacred spot where the Nitsitapii went to do their vision quests and their ceremonies. It is still considered a very sacred place.
— Itsinohtss piyaki
To hear the story of this site in Blackfoot, please listen.
These stories are transferred from generation to generation since time immemorial. You are listening to a shorter version of a much larger story. If you would like to expand your knowledge of this site, please see a Blackfoot Elder.
Omahksspatsiko / Spatsi kahkoyii (Great Sand Hills)
Oki. I will tell the brief story of how I heard the Elders talk about the Great Sandhills that are east of Saamis, Medicine Hat. They say that is where we pass on our journey to the next world, that we go through the Sandhills, Spatsi kahkoyii.
Today we are allowed to visit the Sandhills, but in the early reservation period of 1884, we were not allowed to leave the reserve without a permit. That disconnected our visiting this area. The stories tell it is a very powerful place and only a few people were able to complete fasting and their vision quest vows.
The Elders say, unless they really had to go through the middle of the Sand Hills, they would go around it out of respect.
— Ninna Piiksii
The Sandhills were believed to be the place of spirits. Our ancestors believed that spirits went to the Sandhills. It is a sacred place. A Blackfoot ancestor shared a story that the ghost medicine pipe bundle originated from the Sandhills. This story tells of how a husband was able to get his wife back who had died, on the condition that they return with the pipe. They were given the medicine pipe bundle with instructions on how to live with it. The husband successfully took ownership of the pipe which was given by spirits. The Ghost Medicine Pipe continued to be passed down to different medicine bundle keepers.
The ancestors and Elders discourage us from talking about the Sandhills as it is part of our spiritual journey. It is out of that respect for this place that we seldom share knowledge of the Sandhills.
— Itsinohtss piyaki
To hear the story of this site in Blackfoot, please listen.
These stories are transferred from generation to generation since time immemorial. You are listening to a shorter version of a much larger story. If you would like to expand your knowledge of this site, please see a Blackfoot Elder.
Miistákistsi (Mountains)
I will tell the origin of the mountains from a Blackfoot/Blackfeet perspective. The mountains are the backbone of this entire landscape as our creator stories told, which started with the seven stars as they were being chased by mother moon. As their mother was catching up to them, one of the seven stars, a son, threw a stone behind him and the mountains grew.
Mountain trails have been located indicating the hunting and trade routes. On the ceremonial side, the beaver bundles come from the sacred waters close to the mountains.
The mountains have a very spiritual connection to the Siksikaitsitapi who gave names to the mountains, rivers, and lakes. The colonial impact created the erasure of these very old Blackfoot names. Today there is archaeological evidence that some of the vision quest sites are older than 10,000 years. We go to pray, offering tobacco and other sacred items. Mountains have their own spirit, stories, and songs.
— Ninna Piiksii
The Miistákistsi are an integral part of the Blackfoot territory. From the headwaters of the North Saskatchewan River to the South Yellowstone River in Montana, the mountains provided resources and the landscape for the survival of Nitsitapii.
Today, the remains of ceremonial sites, vision quest sites, tipi lodge rings, and petroglyphs remain there. It was also a hunting area. It provided many game animals. The tribe would gather there during the Spring, Summer and Fall to gather plant medicines and other edible plants such as the ókonokistsi, the Saskatoon. The women would replenish their lodge poles. They also had certain sites to pick and harvest the ochre.
There are strategic lookout points within the Miistákistsi which our ancestors used to protect the territory. Iitassiimoo (Where We Ambushed the Enemy), also known as Hell’s Gate, is one such site near Missoula, Montana.
— Itsinohtss piyaki
To hear the story of this site in Blackfoot, please listen.
These stories are transferred from generation to generation since time immemorial. You are listening to a shorter version of a much larger story. If you would like to expand your knowledge of this site, please see a Blackfoot Elder.
Otahkoisistah / Otahkoi-tah-tayi / Otahkoíítahtaa (Yellowstone River, MT)
Yellowstone River marks the southerly border of the Siksikaitsitapi, Blackfoot territory. My grandmother, Iisiimoo (First Ambush Woman), recalls going to the Yellowstone River on one of the last Buffalo hunting expeditions with her clan when she was a young girl. This was in the late 1800s, as the last remaining buffalo herds were fast disappearing. They were successful. While there, they also gathered ochre, as this was where they would gather this specific ochre. The stories of my grandmother were recorded by my sister, Ruby, as she spent a lot of time during her childhood with her grandmother, Iisiimoo.
— Itsinohtss piyaki
One of the names for Yellowstone Park came from the geysers and the Siksikaitsitapi called it Asakosti/Asiisti, like the smoke coming from many lodges. The river was also called Ashy River by the Blackfeet. That's where we got Ashwood for our bows. There was a specific place in that area where they made bows. They would see their strength and shoot their arrows over the cliff to see how far they could shoot them. There is a story of a skirmish there where the Blackfeet fought off some enemy.
— Aisinaipoii
Oral histories among Cheyenne and Sioux said the Blackfeet were so powerful they didn't have to show up to the Laramie Treaty negotiations in 1851. The Sioux, Cheyenne, and other tribes said all of Yellowstone was Blackfoot territory up the Yellowstone River to where it meets the Missouri River. The Bighorn Medicine Wheel, south of the Yellowstone River, is also Blackfoot. We are connected to the land. We are one with the animals and their songs.
The purpose of the 1855 Lame Bull Treaty was for white people to gain passage. At the same time, it created a common hunting ground, which was in the heart of our country.
— Iniipootah
To hear the story of this site in Blackfoot, please listen.
These stories are transferred from generation to generation since time immemorial. You are listening to a shorter version of a much larger story. If you would like to expand your knowledge of this site, please see a Blackfoot Elder.
Sisikaistitapi Pis’kun (Ulm Buffalo Jump a.k.a. First Peoples Buffalo Jump, MT)
I will talk about a buffalo jump that is located just southwest of the present city of Great Falls. We as Blackfeet/Blackfoot speakers, call it Ohtakoo, the name of Great Falls. It was named after the little American village. It is a Blackfeet/Blackfoot, Sisikaistitapi Pis’kun (buffalo jump).
The Blackfeet/Blackfoot were the people who used it from time immemorial. It has been on our traditional territory, and only lately has been given names outside of the Blackfoot language.
Our grandfathers, especially the Elders from Amskapi Piikani, talk about the buffalo jump. I am from the Fish Eater Band, Mamioyiiksi, who were one of the many bands camped at the buffalo jump all the way to Yellowstone River. The iinii would gather each Fall by the Missouri River.
The Blackfeet/Blackfoot travelled through this territory before any other tribal groups and European races settled in the territory. This buffalo jump served its purpose with the buffalo runners leading the hunt on foot and using the natural terrain to have the buffalo jump and harvesting them at the bottom.
Today this site is protected. It still has the spirit of the old people. There is still a Blackfeet spirit presence there. Every time the Blackfeet go there, we pray and offer tobacco. We make offerings because those are our ancestors of the past. All these buffalo jump sites have Blackfeet spirits from our ancestors to prove we have been here for a long time.
If people visit these sites, they should learn to offer tobacco or berries when visiting these Nitsitapii Landscapes.
— Ninna Piiksii
To hear the story of this site in Blackfoot, please listen.
These stories are transferred from generation to generation since time immemorial. You are listening to a shorter version of a much larger story. If you would like to expand your knowledge of this site, please see a Blackfoot Elder.
Otahkoii'iitahtaa (Judith River, MT)
The Judith River is in the southern part of Blackfoot territory. This place is near Fort Benton, the fur trading hub for the Nitsitapii. An ancestor, Piinaakoyim (Seen From Afar), a prominent Fish Eater Clan leader, attended the Lame Bull Treaty in 1855 held at the Judith River.
Many Siksikaitsitapi camps left their marks there as it was an area commonly used for hunting. My grandmother, Iisiimoo (First Ambush Woman), remembers when she was a young girl in the late 1800s travelling to the Judith Basin on a buffalo hunt. She recalls seeing the buffalo roam as far as the eye could see. She was grateful she was able to witness the time when buffalo were still plentiful.
— Itsinohtss piyaki
On the Judith River is where the Siksikaitsitapi came together with other tribes who entered into an agreement called the Lame Bull Treaty of 1855. During that time, they had a ceremonial pipe smoke, which in our way of life made a treaty or iinistsi. Prior to this treaty, we had an earlier treaty of 1851, where the Blackfeet may not have been represented. This treaty dealt with some of our territory. The Indian Ring, or the treaty council known as the Indian Ring, at that time, wanted safe passage through Montana. They invited the tribes over from the west side and created a common hunting ground in the heart of Blackfoot country. So, the treaty was put together on the mouth of the Yellow [Judith] River, where it drops into the Missouri, Big River. We ended up with a bunch of rations that we had no use for. The treaty was said to be for 99 years.
— Iniipootah
To hear the story of this site in Blackfoot, please listen.
These stories are transferred from generation to generation since time immemorial. You are listening to a shorter version of a much larger story. If you would like to expand your knowledge of this site, please see a Blackfoot Elder.
Niisoitaapiiks (Four Persons a.k.a. Choteau, MT)
Oki. I'm going to briefly tell the story about Choteau, Montana, which is south of the present boundaries of the Blackfeet Reservation. There are several stories, one being about my father as a child when raised among Blackfeet relatives giving him the name Four Persons. The Amskapi Piikani Elders blessed him with the name Niisoitaapii, which means Four Persons deriving from a story of four spirits in that area.
Other stories are about four Jesuit priests buried there, with four crosses marking where they are buried. Nevertheless, Choteau’s Blackfeet name is Niisoitaapii.
The area was a camping ground with the Blackfeet bands from time immemorial. Later it became the first Blackfeet agency until the boundaries of the Blackfeet Reservation were pushed north to where the boundaries are today. The Blackfeet lost a lot of land.
It's a combination of different stories from other Elders from Amskapi Piikani, and most recently stories from John Murray (Iniipootah), and Jesse DeRosier (Aisinaipoii). Choteau is a place of very deep history. Southwest of the town of Choteau, in the foothills, towards the mountains, there are a lot of tipi rings, petroglyphs, and buffalo jumps. This supports the Blackfeet were here first in the Choteau area.
The area is also significant as one of their Blackfeet leaders, Ómahksíkimi (Big Lake), is buried there. There are possibly a lot more burial sites of Blackfeet people.
— Ninna Piiksii
To hear the story of this site in Blackfoot, please listen.
These stories are transferred from generation to generation since time immemorial. You are listening to a shorter version of a much larger story. If you would like to expand your knowledge of this site, please see a Blackfoot Elder.
Iittssiimoo (Where We Ambushed the Enemy a.k.a. Hellgate, MT)
I've heard stories of Hellgate and one of the reasons they called it that. In the book of Hudson’s Bay journals, they talk about a time when Hudson Bay broke their treaty and Siksikaitsitapi closed every pass from the northern Saskatchewan River down to the Yellowstone River. They wouldn't allow any trappers, traders, or even other tribes to enter through Iittssiimoo. At that time, it became known as the Hellgate area. When people travelled through the area, they said that whenever they would find enemy there, the Blackfoot had killed them off and put their bodies there. People regarded that place to be Siksikaitsitapi territory and they wouldn't come through because that was known as entering the Gates of Hell as described by early trappers and Salish. They knew it was a death sentence to come through there because of the broken treaties and how we didn't allow people in at that time. That is the story I've heard of why they called it that name.
—Aisinaipoii
The Salish migrated in from the coast before the Hellgate Treaty. They were originally located further southwest. After the treaty, the Salish moved to their present location closer to Blackfeet territory and the Hellgate area which is now near Missoula, Montana. The Hellgate Treaty moved them into that area in the late 1800s. They were further south in the Bitterroot, the furthest migration from the coast. An Indian Agent reported that 75 families moved from the west side to come across the mountains through Hellgate and hunted buffalo on the east side up the mountains. The 75 families headed out to the east with all their gear and a few weeks later only 9 came back. They had met the Blackfeet on the east side.
— Iniipootah
To hear the story of this site in Blackfoot, please listen.
These stories are transferred from generation to generation since time immemorial. You are listening to a shorter version of a much larger story. If you would like to expand your knowledge of this site, please see a Blackfoot Elder.
Kinaksisahtai (Little River)/Poyiitahltai (Opaque River)/ Onnikiitahtaa (Milk River)
This is the story of Milk River. Milk River comes out of the Miistákistsi, the mountains, what is known as Glacier Park, and comes into Canada.
Historically the Blackfoot/Blackfeet bands camped along this river constantly. There are ancient petroglyphs in Writing-on-Stone and through the valley surrounding the park. There are vision quest sites along the Milk River. The valley was used for guiding horses when the Blackfoot captured horses from the Assiniboine, Crows, and the Sioux. Prior to the reservation period, people think everything was chased to the present reserve.
The water has always been a living source, and that's why the Blackfoot/Blackfeet camped and travelled along the river. There are a lot of ceremonial rings and petroglyphs.
There are many medicines along the riverbanks. There were the saokiawakaasi (antelope), moose and elk in the river area and to the Kátoyissiksi, the Sweet Pine Hills.
Imagine when there was no colonial impact, how magnificent this river must have been. A picturesque river with the Petroglyphs and rock cairns.
— Ninna Piiksii
The Milk River Ridge is an important marker within the landscape of Nitsitapii territory. Our ancestors mention it as a crossroads site and meeting place when travelling between the southern and northern territories. Today the remains of many tipi rings, buffalo jumps, petroglyphs and other ceremonial sites still exist there.
Many oral stories are passed down through generations about the Milk River area. When Seen From Afar (Piinaakoyim) was returning to the confluence of the Old Man and St. Mary's River to search for his daughter Otterwoman, he spoke of camping at Milk River Ridge knowing he was at a midway point. From there it was not too much further to the confluence area.
Onnikiitahtaa was an important part of the landscape of the seasonal rounds of the Nitsitapii.
— Itsinohtss piyaki
To hear the story of this site in Blackfoot, please listen.
These stories are transferred from generation to generation since time immemorial. You are listening to a shorter version of a much larger story. If you would like to expand your knowledge of this site, please see a Blackfoot Elder.
Nitsikiniiyi’takihpinaan (Thank you)
We gratefully acknowledge the Elders of the past and present for their wisdom and transfer of knowledge that we refer to today.
A sincere thank you to Kyla Black (Gathering Dust Photography), Shannon Brassard (Mapgirl Photography), Michaela Ivancova, Mary Weasel Fat (Red Crow College), Aisinaipoii (Jesse DesRosier), Iniipootah (John Murray), the Montana Historical Society, Marj Boylan (Great Sand Hills Museum & Interpretive Centre), Mark Fitch (University of Montana, Mansfield Library), Sally Thompson (University of Montana), Landon Phillips, Montana Office of Tourism and Business Development, Great Falls History Museum and Souta Calling Last ( Indigenous Vision) for allowing their work to be used in this exhibit.