Plants And The Blackfoot

Review of the literature on the relationship between Blackfoot peoples and plants.

"A series of illustrated books to help preserve the culture and heritage of the four divisions that make up the Blackfoot Confederacy in the United States and Canada"--Cover.

The flora of the Rocky Mountains is spectacular, displaying its changing aspects throughout the growing season. As the snow cover melts back up the mountain slopes, the wildflowers spread their carpet through the forests, across the subalpine meadows and into the alpine regions. Kananaskis Country was established primarily for nature conservation and recreation. It contains three provincial parks with facilities for swimming, fishing, camping, hiking, and the general enjoyment of nature. The southernmost park, Peter Lougheed Provincial Park, includes several lakes and a large section of mountain wilderness with snow-covered peaks and glaciers. It is a "multi-use recreation area," offering the visitor a choice of hiking and interpretive trails. Sprawling across Alberta's prairies and foothills to the heights of the Rockies, Kananaskis Country is home to a particularly rich diversity of plant life. Plants of Kananaskis Country in the Rocky Mountains of Alberta describes in detail 423 of the most significant, identifiable or characteristic species of this region and refers to many other species. Beryl Hallworth and C.C. Chinnappa also provide an authoritative overview of this region, including information on its climate, geology, and vegetation zones and important notes on the history of human use of these plants.

Describes approximately 100 species of plants and their uses in religion and ceremony, folklore, as birth control, medicine, horse medicine, diet, and for crafts.

Now in paperback. In this book, the compilers have brought together more than 1,800 references to literature relating to the Blackfoot. About one third of the citations are annotated, and an author index and a general index simplify the utilization of this valuable resource tool.

How do we understand the boundaries of individual creatures? What are the systems of interdependency that bind all living creatures together? Plants were among the the first to colonize the planet. They created the soil and the atmosphere that made life possible for animals. They are some of the largest and oldest life forms on Earth. In spite of their primacy, Western cultures have traditionally regarded plants as the lowest life forms, lacking mobility, sensation, and communication. But recent research argues that plants move and respond to their environment, communicate with each other, and form partnerships with other species. Art, poetry, and essays by cultural anthropologists, experimental plant biologists, philosophers, botanists and foresters expose the complex interactions of the vibrant living world around us and give us a lens through which we can explore our intertwined histories.

In 2010, five magnificent Blackfoot shirts, now owned by the University of Oxford’s Pitt Rivers Museum, were brought to Alberta to be exhibited at the Glenbow Museum, in Calgary, and the Galt Museum, in Lethbridge. The shirts had not returned to Blackfoot territory since 1841, when officers of the Hudson’s Bay Company acquired them. The shirts were later transported to England, where they had remained ever since. Exhibiting the shirts at the museums was, however, only one part of the project undertaken by Laura Peers and Alison Brown. Prior to the installation of the exhibits, groups of Blackfoot people—hundreds altogether—participated in special “handling sessions,” in which they were able to touch the shirts and examine them up close. The shirts, some painted with mineral pigments and adorned with porcupine quillwork, others decorated with locks of human and horse hair, took the breath away of those who saw, smelled, and touched them. Long-dormant memories were awakened, and many of the participants described a powerful sense of connection and familiarity with the shirts, which still house the spirit of the ancestors who wore them. In the pages of this beautifully illustrated volume is the story of an effort to build a bridge between museums and source communities, in hopes of establishing stronger, more sustaining relationships between the two and spurring change in prevailing museum policies. Negotiating the tension between a museum’s institutional protocol and Blackfoot cultural protocol was challenging, but the experience described both by the authors and by Blackfoot contributors to the volume was transformative. Museums seek to preserve objects for posterity. This volume demonstrates that the emotional and spiritual power of objects does not vanish with the death of those who created them. For Blackfoot people today, these shirts are a living presence, one that evokes a sense of continuity and inspires pride in Blackfoot cultural heritage.