blackfeet
Tidbits
News flash: Indians call themselves Indians. It’s not a big deal. so stop having powwows about how white people cannot say that word.
No More Firewater
I was addicted to alcohol. I’ve been to five treatments. I did meth too. That doesn’t get you anywhere. It takes everything away from you. Your kids, your house… your entire life. It’s a bad drug. It’s taking over Native communities lately.
Falling Apart
The main health issue facing the rez is diabetes. People’s diets here are very bad. Then you have heart disease, a lot of STDs among the youth, and a lot of teen pregnancies.
And Another Thing...
NINETY-NINE percent of the people down in town ON the reservation will sit there and tell you about our spirituality and our culture, but they know nothing about it. They don’t know any more than a white man.
Island Life
When I was young, twenty years ago, families up here were strong. They were very old fashioned and they all worked together to work things out. Families today don’t seem to be the same.
VICE Pictures - Sightseeing on the Rez
That means “I am Pikuni.” Pikuni is another word for Blackfeet.
One World, One Love
All races of people are not the same. They're just not. It's like saying that a man and a woman are the same. I do not think like a woman and a woman does not think like me. That's why they have the man and the woman. We don't think alike.
The History of the World
I drive a supply truck for Glacier National Park. Anything from toilet paper to shotguns for the rangers. Depends on what they want me to move. I have to bring the season passes over to where people buy them, big-time. The park has about a million...
Rez Dawg!
Dogs hold a special place in the Blackfeet culture. They were the beast of burden before the horse was (horses only became an Indian thing after the white Spaniards brought them over). Blackfeet have four periods of history: Creation, Dog Days, Horse...
Medicine Pipe Tradition
The state of the nation of American Indians today is actually a lot like that of a battered woman. Anybody who has lost their identity and been continually told that they were evil practitioners of witchcraft will begin to believe it.
What Happened?
I’m a doctor, but I am currently not practicing. I teach pharmacology at the local community college. I grew up on the reservation, in the towns of Heart Butte and Browning. I ended up studying medicine in kind of a roundabout way.
The VICE Guide to Blackfeet Reservation Bars
There are four bars that you'll want to consider next time you're living on the Blackfeet Indian reservation in northwestern Montana.