Synopses & Reviews
The Blackfeet were the strongest military power on the northwestern plains in the historic buffalo days. For half a century up to 1805, they were almost constantly at war with the Shoshonis and came very close to exterminating that tribe. They aggressively asserted themselves against the Flatheads and the Kutenais, shoving them westward across the Rockies. They got on fairly well with English and Canadian traders during the heyday of the fur trade on the Saskatchewan River, but on the upper Missouri they took an early dislike to Americans, whom they called "Big Knives." American fur traders, such as Manuel Lisa, Pierre Menard, and Andrew Henry, were literally chased out of Montana by the Blackfeet.
Review
"A fascinating and absorbing account of the great Indian nation which once was the most powerful fighting force on America's Western plains." Denver Post
Review
"Written by a man who has lived with the Indians and studied their culture. Anyone...interested in the history of American Indians will want this authentic and highly interesting volume." Dallas Times Herald
Synopsis
The Blackfeet were the strongest military power on the northwestern plains throughout the eighteenth century. But the near extinction of buffalo in the late nineteenth century brought dire poverty to the tribe, forcing them to rely in part on the U.S. government for sustenance. In this history of the Blackfeet, historian John C. Ewers relied on his own experience living among the Blackfeet as well as archival research to tell of not only the events that have so drastically affected the Blackfeet way of life, but also the ways the Blackfeet have responded, adapting and preserving their culture in the face of a changing landscape.
Synopsis
Includes bibliographical references (p. 329-336) and index.
About the Author
John C. Ewers, the first curator of the Museum of the Plains Indian on the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana, serves as Ethnologist Emeritus in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. He is the author of The Blackfeet: Raiders on the Northwestern Plains and Indian Life on the Upper Missouri and the editor of Edwin Thompson Denig's Five Indian Tribes of the Upper Missouri, all published by the University of Oklahoma Press.