Blackfoot

Black·foot

B0298600 (blăk′fo͝ot′)n. pl. Blackfoot or Black·feet (-fēt′) 1. A member of a Native American confederacy located on the northern Great Plains, composed of the Blackfoot, Blood, and Piegan tribes. Traditional Blackfoot life was based on nomadic buffalo hunting.2. A member of the northernmost tribe of the Blackfoot confederacy, inhabiting central Alberta.3. The Algonquian language of the Blackfoot, Blood, and Piegan.4. See Sihasapa.

[Translation of Blackfoot siksiká (perhaps from the blackening of their moccasins, either from painting them or from walking near prairie fires) : sik, black + ika, foot.]

Black′foot′ adj.

Blackfoot

(ˈblækˌfʊt) npl -feet or -foot1. (Peoples) a member of a group of Native American peoples formerly living in the northwestern Plains2. (Languages) any of the languages of these peoples, belonging to the Algonquian family[C19: translation of Blackfoot Siksika]

Black•foot

(ˈblækˌfʊt)

n., pl. -feet, (esp. collectively) -foot. 1. a member of a Plains Indian people resident on the upper drainages of the Saskatchewan and Missouri rivers in the mid-19th century: later on reserves in N Montana and Alberta. 2. the Algonquian language of the Blackfeet.

Thesaurus

Noun	1.	Blackfoot - a member of a warlike group of Algonquians living in the northwestern plainsAlgonquian, Algonquin - a member of any of the North American Indian groups speaking an Algonquian language and originally living in the subarctic regions of eastern Canada; many Algonquian tribes migrated south into the woodlands from the Mississippi River to the Atlantic coastBuffalo Indian, Plains Indian - a member of one of the tribes of American Indians who lived a nomadic life following the buffalo in the Great Plains of North America
	2.	Blackfoot - any of the Algonquian languages spoken by the BlackfootAlgonquian language, Algonquin, Algonquian - family of North American Indian languages spoken from Labrador to South Carolina and west to the Great Plains

Translations

Blackfoot

Blackfoot,

Native North Americans of the Algonquian branch of the Algonquian-Wakashan linguistic stock (see Native American languagesNative American languages,
languages of the native peoples of the Western Hemisphere and their descendants. A number of the Native American languages that were spoken at the time of the European arrival in the New World in the late 15th cent.
..... Click the link for more information. ). They occupied in the early 19th cent. a large range of territory around the Upper Missouri (above the Yellowstone) and North Saskatchewan rivers W to the Rockies. Their name derives from the fact that they dyed their moccasins black. There were three main tribes—the Siksika, or Blackfoot proper; the Piegan; and the Kainah, or Blood. Although they did not form a unified political entity, they were united in defending their lands and in warfare. The Atsina (related to the Arapaho) and the Athapascan-speaking Sarsi were allied with the Blackfoot group. The Blackfoot were unremittingly hostile toward neighboring tribes and usually toward white men; intrusions upon Blackfoot lands were efficiently repelled. Prior to the mid-18th cent. they had moved into the N Great Plains area, acquired horses from southern tribes, and developed a nomadic Plains culture, largely dependent on the buffalo. Their only cultivated crop was tobacco, grown for ceremonial purposes. With the early coming of the white man, the Blackfoot gained wealth from the sale of beaver pelts, but the killing off of the buffalo and the near exhaustion of fur stocks brought them to near starvation. Presently the Blackfoot are mainly ranchers and farmers living on reservations in Montana and Alberta. They continue to a small degree the rich ceremonialism that earlier marked their religion; important rituals include the sun dance and the vision quest. In 1990 there were 38,000 Blackfoot in the United States and over 11,000 in Canada.

Bibliography

See J. C. Ewers, The Blackfeet: Raiders on the Northwestern Plains (1958, repr. 1967); H. A. Dempsey, Crowfoot, Chief of the Blackfeet (1972); M. McFee, Modern Blackfeet (1972); B. Nettl, Blackfoot Musical Thought (1989).

Blackfoot

Black·foot

Blackfoot

Black•foot

Blackfoot

Blackfoot,

Bibliography

Blackfoot

Words related to Blackfoot

noun a member of a warlike group of Algonquians living in the northwestern plains

Related Words

noun any of the Algonquian languages spoken by the Blackfoot

Related Words