Transcript Blackfoot Lecture

Blackfoot Mythology
Betty Peace-Gladstone
Who are the Blackfoot?
Peigan or Pikuni– North and South
oNorth Peigan (Alberta, B.C.)
oBlackfeet (Montana)
Blood or Kainah (Alberta, B.C.)
Blackfoot or Siksika (Alberta, B.C.)
Currently over 25,000 “enrolled”; twice as
many if consider descendents with
strong Blackfoot identity
Blackfoot People Today
Blackfoot People Today
Blackfoot People Today
Blackfoot Chronology
Creation Stories
(source: The Sun Came Down, Percy Bullchild)
Creator Sun makes the earth, makes plants, snake people; they fall from grace;
a female survives and creates offspring
Creator Sun comes down in human form, enjoys earth, creates family; snake man
lures sun’s wife, the fall from grace, the pursuit, they all ascend to the heavens
– earth is empty of people again.
Creator Sun makes mudman and ribwoman (biblical reference?); they populate
the earth but have no teacher or leader.
Creator Sun makes Napi to instruct the people (other versions, Napi is creator,
creates people, lives among them as teacher – see Wissler stories 1-7)
Chief Mountain, Sweetgrass Hills
Napi Stories
• Napi falls from grace; becomes triskster character; teaches
us how to behave( Bullchild and Wissler; small differences- no real
parallels in Christianity, so left untouched? Folklore vs. Theology?)
• Napi and the Rock (Napi and the rolling stone)
• Over 20 Napi stories; most humorous
Trickster Lives!!!
STAR MYTHS
• Kutoyis – “Blood Clot Boy”
– rids the world of many ill
creatures and forces
• The Girl who Married
Morning Star – origins of
the thunder pipe, puffballs
• The Lost Children –
Pleides
• Scarface – origin of the
Blackfoot Okan or Sun Dance
(Wissler; similar to Bullchild)
Ritualistic Origins
• Iniskim Story- Buffalo
Rocks – personal
power
• Tobacco
• Beaver Bundle
• Lodge Designs
The Stories are Still With Us