The Old North Trail: Life, Legends & Religion of the Blackfeet Indians

An intriguing mixture of stories, legends and descriptions of religious rituals, all woven into the author’s own personal account of his life with the Blackfeet. Walter McClintock tells of being inducted into the tribe, participating in family ceremonies, and living with his adoptive family. Other times McClintock takes a serious anthropological approach as he describes the social customs of the tribe, including many of their songs. He catalogs the names, uses and preparations of various herbs and medicinal plants. In 1886 Walter McClintock went to northwestern Montana as a member of a U.S. Forest Service expedition. He was adopted as a son by Chief Mad Dog, the high priest of the Sun Dance, and spent the next four years living on the Blackfeet Reservation. The book was originally published in 1910 and is a record of his experiences among the Blackfeet. Introduction by William E. Farr, Associate Director for the Humanities and Culture Center of the Rocky Mountain West at the University of Montana and author of The Reservation Blackfeet , 1885-1945.

539 pages