The Right to Possess Memory: Winter Counts of the Blackfoot, 1830–1937

Abstract

This article analyzes four Siksika (Blackfoot) winter counts covering the period 1830–1937, created in the early twentieth century. In common with those of other Plains First Nations, Blackfoot winter counts are chronological yearly records of salient events. Among the Blackfoot this was predominantly an oral genre and, less frequently, one that employed pictographs drawn on tanned bison hides as mnemonic devices. The article focuses on the continued relevance of a genre steeped in the oral tradition. It argues that despite having access to writing and familiarity with Western historical genres, Siksika historians/keepers of winter counts revitalized the indigenous genre in order to remember their past on their own terms.