Contrary to popular mythology, all Indian tribes are not the same. They have different languages, different ceremonies and social customs, and different histories. From time to time, different tribes would come together to form loose confederacies. One of these is the Blackfoot Confederacy on the Northern Plains of what is now the state of Montana and the Canadian province of Alberta.
In the nineteenth century, the Blackfoot Confederacy was primarily made up of three tribes with a similar cultural heritage: (1) Pikuni (also called Piegan or Peigan), (2) Kainah (also called Blood), and (3) Siksika (also called Northern Blackfoot). While these three tribes shared the same language, and many of the same ceremonies, they were politically independent. In the book Prayer to the Great Mystery: The Uncollected Writings and Photography of Edward S. Curtis, photographer Edward Curtis (1868- 1952) is quoted as reporting:
“The Piegan, the Bloods, and the Blackfeet are so closely related that they have been designated collectively as Blackfeet.”
In an article in the Western Historical Quarterly, Theodore Binnema reports on the Blackfoot Confederacy:
“Because the Piegans, Bloods, and Siksikas spoke a common language, acknowledged a common history and ethnicity, and share many common interests, they tended to approach their neighbors similarly, but they were not a political unit.”
In the nineteenth century, the homelands of the Blackfoot Confederacy were arbitrary divided into lands governed by Canada and lands governed by the United States. In 1864, Blackfoot Confederacy lands in the United States were placed in the Territory of Montana. The Organic Act which created the Territory declared that the rights of person and property of the Indian were not to be impaired.
In general, the Americans living in the new territory ignored any potential rights of the aboriginal inhabitants and viewed them as unwanted intruders. One of the first acts of the newly formed Montana Territorial Assembly was to pass a resolution calling for the expropriation of Indian lands.
In 1865, in response to an attack by a Blood war party led by Calf Shirt in which ten woodcutters were killed, the governor attempted to organize a militia to chastise the Indians. However, the Blood had already crossed the border into Canada and the militia was disbanded without seeing any action. Some of those who had volunteered for the militia had done so because they wanted to kill Indians.
In 1866, violent Indian-hater John Morgan, who had led the unsuccessful militia group in an attempt to kill Indians, invited four Blackfoot Indians to his home under the pretense of giving them some whiskey. They were met by a group of his friends who hung three of them and shot the fourth as he was trying to escape. While there was no law enforcement response to the murders or any call for justice, there was Indian retaliation.
A group of Kainai (Blood) raided a horse herd in the Sun River Valley and captured all of the horses and mules from a wagon train headed to Fort Benton.
Chief Bull Head led a group of Northern Blackfoot warriors in an attack on the government farm at Sun River. They killed one employee and burned the buildings. John Morgan and his family took refuge with the Jesuits at Saint Peter’s Mission. In the meantime, the raiders killed his livestock, captured his horses, and then followed his trail to the mission.
At the mission, the Blackfoot warriors slaughtered the cattle herd and killed the young herder. As a result of this attack, the Jesuits gave up on trying to pacify the Blackfoot: they closed the mission and moved back to the Flathead Reservation west of the Rocky Mountains.
As a result of the Indian attacks, an unorganized band of non-Indians (described by some historians as “ruffians” but which may have included some prominent Montanans) attacked a small Blackfoot band near Fort Benton. They killed one Indian. The next day, they attacked another band, killed six Indians and scalped them. They then returned to Fort Benton where they conducted a so-called scalp dance in the street.
The so-called Blackfoot Confederacy “War” of 1864-1865, didn’t really end as conflicts between the tribes and the Americans who invaded their homelands continued throughout much of the century.
More nineteenth-century American Indian histories
Indians 201: The Cayuse Indian War
Indians 201: The Bannock Indian War
Indians 101: The Sioux in Canada
Indians 101: Utah's Walker War
Indians 201: The war against the Yavapai
Indians 101: The Tlingit Rebellion of 1802-1806
Indians 301: The Puget Sound War
Indians 101: The 1874 Red River War in Texas
