Original Inhabitants
North America's original inhabitants, known in Canada today as First Nations, are thought to have lived in and around Southern Alberta for at least 12,000 years.
"Blackfoot" is the European name for the First Nations people who inhabited (and still inhabit) what is now the Calgary region. The Blackfoot are a confederacy of groups (or "nations") sharing a common language, each with a distinct dialect: the Siksika (Blackfoot) the Kainah (Blood), and the Northern Peigan (sometimes spelled Piegan or Piikuni). A fourth group, the Southern Peigan, resides in what is now Montana.
Traditionally the Blackfoot were nomads who ranged from the North Saskatchewan River, throughout Southern Alberta, and as far south as Yellowstone River in Montana.
Before the arrival of Europeans, the Blackfoot relied on the buffalo for food, shelter and clothing, hunting these swift-footed giants either by stealth or by herding them over cliffs at points like Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump. Virtually every part of the buffalo was put to use. Meat was consumed or preserved for the winter months, bones were rendered into tools, and hides became clothes or coverings for the iconic tipis that served as homes for people of the plains.
Oral histories and surviving artwork, such as the ancient petroglyphs and pictographs at Writing On Stone Provincial Park, reveal a warrior culture that frequently clashed with neighbouring tribes. The breadth of their territory suggests the Blackfoot were skilled in the art or warfare.
The name "Blackfoot" derives from the traditional colour of their moccasins, whether dyed a dark hue or blackened by the ashes of prairie fires common in the region.
European Contact
Though European settlers didn't arrive here in significant numbers until the 19th century, their influence was felt earlier with the introduction of the horse, which the Blackfoot obtained through trade or conquest of neighbouring First Nations.
The horse allowed hunters to overtake buffalo for the first time and this, along with the arrival of the rifle, yielded dramatically increased kills. By the middle of the 19th century the new abundance of buffalo fur attracted the attention of European and white American traders, who sought this fashionable commodity for their home markets. By the end of the century the Blackfoot had established a lucrative trade arrangement – a time of plenty that proved to be their undoing. Overhunting, and slaughter by American settlers hungry for land, reduced the buffalo stock to near extinction.
Meanwhile, hostilities between First Nations and white settlers and traders – particularly those from south of the 49th parallel – continued to escalate. The conflict came to a head in the 1870 Marias Massacre in which the United States Army slaughtered a peaceable band of Peigan camped beside the Marias River in Montana.
By this time a combination of famine, war and disease – smallpox, measles and influenza likely spread intentionally by malicious settlers and traders – had devastated the First Nations population. In the years following the Marias Massacre, with their population cut nearly in half in just 50 years, the Blackfoot had little choice but to negotiate treaties with the United States and the Dominion of Canada.
Treaty 7
The Dominion of Canada, eager to secure land for the Canadian Pacific Railway, sought lasting settlements with First Nations in the West. Persuaded that such agreements represented the best hope for lasting peace and survival of their people, Southern Alberta's chiefs – notably Chief Crowfoot of the Siksika (Blackfoot) Nation – signed Treaty 7 in 1877. Under the terms of the treaty, First Nations ceded their traditional hunting territory in exchange for designated reserves and annual payments from the Queen and/or continued hunting and trapping rights in the annexed territories.
Treaty 7 succeeded in securing the survival of Southern Alberta's First Nations, but at great cost. Adapting a traditional nomadic way of life to a sedentary agrarian existence was a difficult transition and the area following the new treaty was time of struggle and hardship for the Blackfoot.
Residential Schools
In an attempt to educate and Christianize aboriginal youth, the Dominion of Canada established residential schools starting in the mid 19th century. The schools, which persisted until the end of the 20th century, punished students for practicing traditional customs, language and religion and instead sought to assimilate them to Canadian-European culture. Today the schools are notorious for having subjected students to physical and sexual abuse which, coupled with issues of addiction and poverty, had a devastating effect on generations of aboriginals. Since the last residential school closed in 1996, the Government of Canada has made an official apology and offered financial compensation to tens of thousands of abuse survivors.
Calgary First Nations Today
Today First Nations is the fastest growing demographic of Calgarians, in part due to migration from nearby reserves, and in part due to young population with a high fertility rate. The total Blackfoot population numbers 16,000 in Canada and 15,000 in the US. Métis and aboriginals from other nearby nations including the Stoney and Tsuu T'ina (Sarcee) also have significant numbers in and around Calgary.
Although the residential schools were, tragically, largely successful in eradicating First Nations languages, a community of several thousand Blackfoot speakers survives. A new generation of Blackfoot, interested in reconnecting with traditional customs and culture, has taken up the language in an effort to revitalize it.
First Nations around Calgary still practice traditional rituals and festivals – some of which are open to public attendance.