Contact with the Europeans
The unrecorded first contact between the black foot and Europeans was probably between French courier de bios and/or Spanish explorers.
The first recorded contact with the northern Blackfoot in Canada was when Alexander Henday a trader with the Hudson Bay Company (HBC) went on trade mission in 1754 to attempt to gain a trade agreement with the black foot he was un successful due to the distance and the fact that they would have to travel through Cree territory which they were usually at war with. Instead they traded with the Assiniboine who traded with the HBC and the North West Company.
The first recorded contact with the southern Blackfoot in the U.S.A was with famous explorer Meriwether Lewis’s party tried to convince them to join in treaty because there enemies already had and would get guns. That freighted them and they tried raid the party they were defeated and 2 braves were killed. When the chiefs heard this they become hostile to whites.
As forts and settlements moved closer to the Blackfoot territory conflict between the black foot and the white settlers began. The trappers would stray into Blackfoot territory to poach; they would be driven off or killed. This gave the Blackfoot a fierce reputation and the whites started to fear them. In the late and early 18th and 19th the North American beaver was almost extinct so trappers stopped trespassing in Blackfoot land this caused the Blackfoot to be less hostile to Europeans.
In the 1860s the repeater rifle was invented which allowed people to shoot without reloading; this lead to near extinction of the buffalo the Blackfoot food source. Without food the Blackfoot became either reliant on the government or turn to raiding settlers in both cases they would often starve. Small pox and TB also like most other native populations decimated the Blackfoot.
As forts and settlements moved closer to the Blackfoot territory conflict between the black foot and the white settlers began. The trappers would stray into Blackfoot territory to poach; they would be driven off or killed. This gave the Blackfoot a fierce reputation and the whites started to fear them. In the late and early 18th and 19th the North American beaver was almost extinct so trappers stopped trespassing in Blackfoot land this caused the Blackfoot to be less hostile to Europeans.
In the 1860s the repeater rifle was invented which allowed people to shoot without reloading; this lead to near extinction of the buffalo the Blackfoot food source. Without food the Blackfoot became either reliant on the government or turn to raiding settlers in both cases they would often starve. Small pox and TB also like most other native populations decimated the Blackfoot.
The same year the Blackfoot in Canada peacefully signed a treaty with the Canadian government. The biggest reason they did is the good will that the North West Mounted Police had created. The N.W.M.P would peacefully settle arguments between natives and Caucasians and were just. The police also ended the whiskey trade where traders from Montana would come up to Alberta to trade whiskey that usually moonshine was made from raw alcohol and colored with ink. The whiskey trade caused ramped alcoholism and poisoning in the Blackfoot and nearly drove them to extinction. So when the North West mounted police ended it the chiefs were extremely grateful to them. One of the leaders of the N.W.M.P James McLeod was also friends with and trusted by the chiefs; so when he told them to sign the treaty they did. The Blackfoot did not fully understand the idea of a signing away their territory and autonomy so they agreed to most that the government put forward they got the short end of the stick.
The first recorded contact with the northern Blackfoot in Canada was when Alexander Henday a trader with the Hudson Bay Company (HBC) went on trade mission in 1754 to attempt to gain a trade agreement with the black foot he was un successful due to the distance and the fact that they would have to travel through Cree territory which they were usually at war with. Instead they traded with the Assiniboine who traded with the HBC and the North West Company.
The first recorded contact with the southern Blackfoot in the U.S.A was with famous explorer Meriwether Lewis’s party tried to convince them to join in treaty because there enemies already had and would get guns. That freighted them and they tried raid the party they were defeated and 2 braves were killed. When the chiefs heard this they become hostile to whites.
As forts and settlements moved closer to the Blackfoot territory conflict between the black foot and the white settlers began. The trappers would stray into Blackfoot territory to poach; they would be driven off or killed. This gave the Blackfoot a fierce reputation and the whites started to fear them. In the late and early 18th and 19th the North American beaver was almost extinct so trappers stopped trespassing in Blackfoot land this caused the Blackfoot to be less hostile to Europeans.
In the 1860s the repeater rifle was invented which allowed people to shoot without reloading; this lead to near extinction of the buffalo the Blackfoot food source. Without food the Blackfoot became either reliant on the government or turn to raiding settlers in both cases they would often starve. Small pox and TB also like most other native populations decimated the Blackfoot.
As forts and settlements moved closer to the Blackfoot territory conflict between the black foot and the white settlers began. The trappers would stray into Blackfoot territory to poach; they would be driven off or killed. This gave the Blackfoot a fierce reputation and the whites started to fear them. In the late and early 18th and 19th the North American beaver was almost extinct so trappers stopped trespassing in Blackfoot land this caused the Blackfoot to be less hostile to Europeans.
In the 1860s the repeater rifle was invented which allowed people to shoot without reloading; this lead to near extinction of the buffalo the Blackfoot food source. Without food the Blackfoot became either reliant on the government or turn to raiding settlers in both cases they would often starve. Small pox and TB also like most other native populations decimated the Blackfoot.
The same year the Blackfoot in Canada peacefully signed a treaty with the Canadian government. The biggest reason they did is the good will that the North West Mounted Police had created. The N.W.M.P would peacefully settle arguments between natives and Caucasians and were just. The police also ended the whiskey trade where traders from Montana would come up to Alberta to trade whiskey that usually moonshine was made from raw alcohol and colored with ink. The whiskey trade caused ramped alcoholism and poisoning in the Blackfoot and nearly drove them to extinction. So when the North West mounted police ended it the chiefs were extremely grateful to them. One of the leaders of the N.W.M.P James McLeod was also friends with and trusted by the chiefs; so when he told them to sign the treaty they did. The Blackfoot did not fully understand the idea of a signing away their territory and autonomy so they agreed to most that the government put forward they got the short end of the stick.