Description
The Piegan are the largest of three Blackfoot-speaking groups that make up the Blackfoot Confederacy; the Siksika and Kainai are the others. The Piegan dominated much of the northern Great Plains during the nineteenth century. After their homelands were divided by the nations of Canada and the United States of America making boundaries between them, the Piegan people were forced to sign treaties with one of those two countries, settle in reservations on one side or the other of the border, and be enrolled in one of two government-like bodies sanctioned by North American nation-states. The Piegan (also known as the Pikuni, Piikuni, Pikani, and Piikáni) are one of the three original tribes of the Blackfoot Confederacy.
Language
Siksikaí’powahsin (commonly referred to as the Blackfoot language)
Culture
By the early 18th century the Blackfoot were pedestrian buffalo hunters living in the Saskatchewan valley about 400 miles east of the Rocky Mountains. They lived as nomads on the Plains, using wooden travois drawn by dogs to transport their goods, including their painted buffalo-hide tepees, particularly prior to the introduction of the horse in the early 18th century. The Blackfoot followed a seasonal round. Each Blackfoot band was divided into several hunting bands led by one or more chiefs. These bands wintered separately in sheltered river valleys. In the summer they gathered in a great encampment to observe the Sun Dance, the principal tribal religious ceremony.