Piegan of the Blackfoot Tribe

The Piegan Indians are one of the three major Blackfeet tribes -- the Blood, the Blackeet, and the Piegan. Ancestral Homeland: Southern Alberta near Calgary; and near Browning, Montana

Population of the Piegan Tribe in 1800 was about 3,000. In 1996, it was approcimately 18,000.

History
During the 1700's there was inter-tribal conflicts with the Shoshone, Flathead and Kootenai, with the Piegan driving the Flathead and Kootenai west of the Rocky Mountains.

The Hudson Bay Company and its French traders were early non- Indian contacts during the mid1700 to 1780. The company established the Cumberland and Buckingham trading houses.

The tribe was plagued with smallpox epidemics in 1780, 1837, 1869 and 1870 which depopulated the tribe each time.

On January 22, 1870 the Piegan village was attacted ty the U.S. Cavalry and 174 were killed.

Fort Belknap and Blackfeet Resrvaton were established........

About a fourth of the tribe suffered starvation in 1883 and 1884 when the rations were short, and died at Fort Shaw and Fort Belknap.

Brief Timeline

 * 1700: tribal enemies were the Shoshone or Snake
 * The Piegan forced the Flathead and Kootenai west of the Rockies
 * 1750: French traders came in contact with the tribe, traders at Cumberland House, in 1774 traders from Buckingham House of the Hudson's Bay Company in 1780
 * 1780-81: Smallpox epidemic
 * 1821: Fort Benton constructed
 * 1837 and 1869-1870: Smallpox epidemics
 * 1851: Treaty of Fort Laramie
 * 1855: Treaty with the Blackfeet Nation - Lame Bull's Treaty
 * 1870: January 22, Piegan village attacked 174 killed by U.S. Cavalry
 * 1873: July 5, Blackfeet Reservation established and divided in thirds- Fort Belknap Reservation, Blackfeet Reservation and________
 * 1883-1884:  about a fourth of the Piegan Tribe starved to death at Fort Shaw and Fort Belknap when

Reservations
Blackfeet Reservation

Fort Belknap reservation

Additional References to the History of the Tribe

 * Frederick Webb Hodge, in his Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, gave a more complete history of the Piegan tribe, with estimations of the population of the tribe at various time periods.

Treaty

 * 1855 Treaty with the Blackfeet

Important Web Sites

 * Piegan Blackfeet Tribe Wikipedia