Blackfoot Crossing:
Traditional River Ford for Siksika Nation & Place
for signing of Treaty #7
Listen
It's commonly believed the Blackfoot Indians got their name because
their moccasins were blackened by the ashes of prairie fires. According
to Parks Canada archaeologist Gwyn Langeman, Blackfoot Crossing remain2s
an important landmark in the heart of the Blackfoot, or Siksika, reserve
in southern Alberta:
"The Bow River was one of the principle barriers to cross in
that Blackfoot territory ranging between the Missouri and the Red Deer
and the North Saskatchewan Rivers, and Blackfoot crossing was a place
where there was a good ford, a good gravely ridge under water, which is
what the Blackfoot name for it means, and I'm not even going to try and
pronounce it, but it means ridge under water. And it was a place you
could cross with horses or on foot with relative ease. Which was not
always possible on the tricky Bow River. So it was a place that had long
been used as a meeting place. And there are good places for camping.
There's lots of wood and water and vantage and good plants there and
it's very important to the Blackfoot."
Blackfoot Crossing lies about 85 km east southeast of Calgary, not
far from the Cluny Fortified Earth Lodge. It was here in September of
1877 that Blackfoot, Blood, Peigan, Sarcee and Stoney Indians gathered
to meet with representatives of the Canadian government.
"Treaty 7 was signed there, 1877, and the location was chosen by
Crowfoot and the Siksika rather than at Fort Macleod where Europeans
wanted to do the ceremony, on their territory, but the Siksika said no,
let's do it in the heart of our territory. So the treaty was signed
there, and it was later chosen to be the centre of their reserve, and so
much of the early political structures and education structures grew up
around the crossing itself. It's where the first missions and schools
were, and government agents, and it's also a site where there was a
whiskey post before the treaty was signed so it was a scene of some
misery as well at the time, which I think is one of the reasons that
feeds into why they were willing to sign the treaty and welcome the
Mounties in the first place."
At the urging of the Siksika nation, Blackfoot Crossing was
designated a national historic site in 1992.
On the Heritage Trail,
I'm Cheryl Croucher
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