Monday, November 8, 2010

Mission Among the Blackfeet by Howard L. Harrod (University of Oklahoma Press, 1971)

This book is a bit dated, it's nearly 40 years old, but the history it contains is a good illustration of the transition of the Blackfeet from their traditional culture to the Western ideal and the vicissitudes in between.

The Blackfeet lived on the Great Plains according to their ways in the area known now as Montana, more or less. For a long time, the buffalo were their main source of food. In the mid to late 1800's, that way of life drastically changed when the buffalo disappeared. On top of this came the wave of Americanism through military (ie. a short campaign against an aggressive Chief, although THAT chief and his people weren't attacked, it was another group - it seems that any Indian would do as an enemy for those particular soldiers).

What this book looks at primarily is the establishment of Christian Missions amongst the Blackfeet. This involved Methodists, Jesuits and Roman Catholics. Overall, there were many failed experiments from the 1860's to the 1960's in converting Blackfeet people from savagery to "civilization". The experiments failed for (at least) a couple of reasons: 1) the Christians were too few in number to effect any real change at the outset of their mission work 2) the Blackfeet sometimes saw little difference between their way of serving the Great Spirit and the superstitions of the Christians.

Overtime, as the Blackfeet lost their way of life, and as a replacement for day-to-day living (in the absence of the buffalo hunt) would only come many, many decades later, the ill social effects of poverty increased. On top of that, segregation between Christian sects as well as segregation between Indian and non-Indian congregations in that area did nothing to fix the rift between Indians who suffered from White encroachment and Whites who generally profited from the demise of Indians.