Parting Thoughts XXXII: Cultural Endurance: Ancient Blackfoot Clothing at a Modern Social Dance, 1944

Abstract

This essay, a collaboration between a Euro-Canadian academic and an Indigenous (Blackfoot) educator, opens a window into the cultural persistence of the Blackfoot people through a photograph of leisure practices from 1944. This image, found in the Alberta provincial archives, shows a social dance held on the Blackfoot Reserve (now the Siksika Nation) during an era when Canada’s Department of Indian Affairs and their Christian missionary affiliates attempted to eradicate the cultural traditions of Indigenous peoples. In the prairies, they focused on eliminating the Sundance and related physical cultural practices. At first glance, this photograph might seem to be an unusual way to understand Blackfoot cultural resilience as it shows a social (recreational) dance, not a sacred occasion. Yet this image offers an entry point to examine not only how the Blackfoot resisted cultural repression, but also sheds light on the depth of Blackfoot history and the expansiveness of Blackfoot epistemologies.