Blackfoot, siksika

Blackfoot name: Siksika, means black foot and refers to the dark colored moccasins the people wore.
Blackfoot tribes:  Northern Peigan or Piikáni, South Peigan or Blackfeet,  Kainai or Bloods , Siksika or Blackfoot.
Blackfoot religion: dominated by the Sun or the Creator (Nah-too-si; Superpowered or Holiness) is believed to have created the earth and everything in the universe. Nah-too-si is sometimes personified by the mystical Napi, or Old Man. Communication occurs with the supernatural world through visions of guardian spirits.
Blackfoot music: Ceremonies include the Sun Dance, Buffalo dance and Grass dance.  Singing predominates and was accompanied only by percussion. (Nettl, 1989) The songs contact the spirit powers.
Blackfoot history: At Blackfeet nation
Blackfoot traditional home: tipi
Blackfoot way of life: At Blackfeet nation
Blackfoot History Timeline

The Blackfeet Family at Home
SOURCE: Laut, Agnes C. "The Indian's Idea of Fine Art." The Outing Magazine. 1905

SOURCE: Humfreville, J. Lee. Twenty Years Among Our Savage Indians.  Hartford Publishing Company, 1897.

The World: Its Cities and People. London: Cassell & Company, Limited, ca 1880

Mounted Blackfeet Traveling Through the Snow



Blackfoot Indians: An Indian Medicine Man

 SOURCE: Donaldson, Thomas. "The George Catlin Indian Gallery in the U.S. National Museum." The Smithsonian Report - Part II. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1886.

More interesting photos and information can be found at the Blackfoot Digital Library, " a venue for sharing our families and our communities stories, past and present. Most certainly it is intended to be an educational resource for all those now living in kitawahsinnoon."

Apache

Group of Apaches at the Time of Their Surrender,

 Geronimo and Naiche 3rd and 4th from the right.

Source: Humfreville, J. Lee. Twenty Years Among Our Savage Indians. Hartford Publishing, 1897.

Treating for Peace with General Crook

Source: Kelsey D. M. History of Our Wild West and Stories of Pioneer Life.  Thomas & Thomas, 1902

SOURCE: Smithsonian Institution Research Information System.

Data Source:  National Anthropological Archives

Apache: Surrender of the Chiricahuas and their Captives

from Kelsey D. M. History of Our Wild West and Stories of Pioneer Life.



Photo of Black Elk, his wife and daughter
	circa 1890-1910

Photo of Black Elk, his wife and daughter

circa 1890-1910



The first peace, which is the most important,
is that which comes within the souls of people
when they realize their relationship, their oneness,
with the universe and all its powers,
and when they realize that at the center of the universe
dwells the Great Spirit,
and that this center is really everywhere,
it is within each of us. 

Black Elk - Oglala Sioux 

Healing

Shamans and Medicine Men secure the help of the spirit world, including the Great Spirit for the benefit of the community, curing diseases and performing important ceremonies.

A Diné man, full-length, in ceremonial dress including mask and body paint

1904 photo by Edward S. Curtis

Principal female shaman of the Hupa

Description by Edward S. Curtis: Many Hupa shamans were women, and among their neighbors, the Yurok and the Karok, as well as among the more distant Wiyot on the coast, male shamans were rare. Hupa shamans acquired the power to cure disease by dreaming and dancing. They were credited with the ability to inflict mysterious sickness by sorcery, and only they could relieve the victim of such magic.

Hastobiga - Navaho medicine-man

taken by Edward S. Curtis, 1904

Ceremonial bathing taken 1915 by Edward S. Curtis

Description by Edward S. Curtis: The subject of this plate is a female shaman of the Clayoquot tribe. The ceremonial washing of shamans is much like that of whalers and other hunters, consisting mainly of sitting or standing in water and rubbing the body with hemlock sprigs in order to remove all earthly taint, which would offend the supernatural powers.



Navaho sand painting - Alhkidokihi

Alhkidokihi - Navaho sand painting from 1907

from Edward S. Curtis's The North American Indian: Photographic Images

Description by Edward S. Curtis: One of the four elaborate dry-paintings or sand altars employed in the rites of the Mountain Chant, a Navaho medicine ceremony of nine days' duration.

The Medicine Man (or Hatałii) lets the sand fall from his fingers creating a pattern upon the ground or on a buckskin. He chants, asking the Holy People to come into the painting and help heal the patient. The healing creations are treated with great respect during the spiritual ceremony when up to 30 different sand paintings may be created. The paintings are erased after the Holy People absorb the illness.

The paintings are often symmetrical with over 600 different traditional designs created by the Navajo.
The sand is coloured using natural materials such as yellow ochre, red sandstone, charcoal, and crushed gypsum, corn meal, pollen and roots and bark. Read more...

Photo taken in 1916 by H.A. Brooks

titled The Best Indians I have glorified in pictures

thought to be taken in California

Amazing collection of photographs of Native Americans

Self-Portrait of Edward S. Curtis (1868-1952).

Taken in 1889.

Edward S. Curtis made an incredible contribution to American history.

He took over 40,000 photographic images from over 80 Native American tribes.

He recorded Indian language and music on over 10,000 wax cylinder recordings. 

He recorded foods, housing, clothing, recreation, ceremonies and other customs.

See Edward S. Curtis's The North American Indian: Photographic Images 

These thousands of images were published between 1907 and 1930.

Here are some examples:



Navajo medicine man - Nesjaja Hatali

 Description by Edward S. Curtis: A well-known Navaho medicine-man. While in the Cañon de Chelly the writer witnessed a very interesting four days' ceremony given by the Wind Doctor. Nesjaja Hatali was also assistant medicine-man in two nine days' ceremonies studied - one in Cañon del Muerto and the other in this portfolio (No. 39) is reproduced from one made and used by this priest-doctor in the Mountain Chant



Geronimo - Apache (1905)

Description by Edward S. Curtis: This portrait of the historical old Apache was made in March, 1905. According to Geronimo's calculation he was at the time seventy-six years of age, thus making the year of his birth 1829

Princess Angeline 1899

10 Indian Chiefs

Group portrait of Lakota chiefs, 1891.

John C. H. Grabill Collection, Library of Congress.

Indian chiefs who counciled with General  Miles and settled the Indian War: 1. Standing Bull, 2. Bear Who Looks Back Running [Stands and Looks Back], 3. Has the Big White Horse, 4. White Tail, 5. Liver [Living] Bear, 6. Little Thunder, 7. Bull Dog, 8. High Hawk, 9. Lame, 10. Eagle Pipe

This photo was probably taken on or near Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
Look behind the five standing and you can see a  tipi in background.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:
Indian Wars is the name used to describe a series of conflicts between American settlers or the federal government and the native peoples of North America.  Native people had lived in this land for many thousands of years. Europeans who arrived in America were trying to get more land, pushing the native people west.
Policies and beliefs used to justify the Indian Wars:
The Manifest Destiny, said that the United States would to expand from coast to coast in America, and the policy of Indian removal, meant native peoples were removed from the areas where Europeans were settling, either by force or by treaties.   United States Congress passed the Indian Removal Act in 1830, which authorized the President Andrew Jackson to conduct treaties to exchange Native American land east of the Mississippi River for lands west of the river . As many as 100,000 Native Americans relocated to the West as a result of this Indian Removal policy. Relocation was supposed to be voluntary and many Native Americans but in practice, great pressure was put on Native American leaders to sign removal treaties.

Little

 

"Little," the instigator of Indian Revolt at Pine Ridge, 1890.

Little, Oglala band leader,
three-quarter length studio portrait, seated,
 wearing a turkey feather headdress and holding various weapons.
John C. H. Grabill Collection, Library of Congress

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Red Cloud Maȟpíya Lúta - his early life

Red Cloud  (1822 – 1909)

Red Cloud  was Chief of the Oglala Lakota Sioux from 1868 to 1909.

He was born near the Platte River, Nebraska. His mother was called, Walks As She Thinks and was an Oglala Lakota and his father Chief Lone Man was a Brulé Lakota.  When his parents died in around 1825 he went to live with his maternal uncle, Old Chief Smoke (1774–1864). At a young age, he fought against neighboring Pawnee and Crow, gaining much war experience.
BOOKS:
Autobiography of Red Cloud : war leader of the Oglalas / edited by R. Eli Paul
Chief Red Cloud, 1822-1909 / by Judy Monroe