tribal confederation · North America and Oceania

Blackfoot Confederacy

1700 CE – 1877 CE (approx.)

The alliance of the Siksika, Kainai and Piikani, horse-mounted bison hunters who dominated the north-western Plains from the Saskatchewan River to the Missouri.

Origins

The Niitsitapi, Algonquian-speaking peoples of the plains and parklands at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, had long hunted bison on foot. In the early 18th century they acquired horses from the south and guns from Cree middlemen trading with the Hudson's Bay Company, and the Siksika, Kainai and Piikani emerged as an allied military power.

Rule and society

Each nation was divided into bands led by chiefs chosen for skill in war and generosity, and men's societies policed the summer camps and the communal hunt. Bison provided nearly everything: food, tipis, clothing and tools. The confederacy traded furs at Hudson's Bay Company and North West Company posts but kept American trappers out of its lands for decades. Smallpox epidemics in 1781, 1837 and 1869 killed many.

Decline and legacy

The Blackfoot had signed the Lame Bull Treaty with the United States in 1855; weakened by the Marias Massacre of 1870 and the near extinction of the bison, they signed Treaty 7 with Canada in 1877, negotiated by Crowfoot. Today they live on the Siksika, Kainai and Piikani reserves in Alberta and the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana.

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Cite this page
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Blackfoot Confederacy. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/blackfoot-confederacy
MLA
“Blackfoot Confederacy.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/blackfoot-confederacy. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Blackfoot Confederacy.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/blackfoot-confederacy.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Blackfoot Confederacy’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/blackfoot-confederacy (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻