Blackfoot Cycles
Also known as: Blackfoot Myth Cycles, Blackfoot Myths and Tales, Niitsitapi Myth Cycles
Interlinked Blackfoot (Niitsitapi) narratives centered on Napi the Old Man, sacred bundles, and culture heroes like Scarface and Blood Clot Boy. The cycles explain origins of ceremonies, moral order, and relations between people, animals, and celestial powers.
Description
The Blackfoot cycles comprise a network of sacred and humorous narratives transmitted orally among the Niitsitapi. At their core stands Napi (Old Man), a creator–trickster who fashions the world, sets taboos, and blunders into lessons that shape human conduct. Complementing Napi’s exploits are hero tales such as Scarface’s journey to the Sun—bestowing the Sun Dance—and Blood Clot Boy’s monster-slaying wanderings that cleanse the land. Other episodes recount the beaver medicine’s origin, the power of the Buffalo Stone, star-lore about lost children, and etiologies of animals, places, and rituals. These tales guided ceremonial life (bundles, pipes, dances), embedded ecological knowledge of the Plains, and marked ethical boundaries through memorable reversals and trials.
Historiography
Blackfoot narratives circulated in diverse local variants; early comprehensive English renderings were published by George Bird Grinnell and by Clark Wissler with David C. Duvall, preserving texts gathered from named Blackfoot informants. Orthographies and names vary (e.g., Poia/Scarface; Kutoyis/Katoyis). Accounts of sacred bundles and the Sun Dance reflect selective disclosure shaped by community protocols and periods of ceremonial suppression and revival. Later scholarship emphasizes performance context, singer/storyteller authority, and the integration of myth with living ceremonial practice.
Date Notes
Narratives circulated long before European contact; major English-language collections recorded by G. B. Grinnell and by C. Wissler with D. C. Duvall in the early 20th century.
Archetypes
Major Characters
- Napi
- Sun
- Moon
- Morning Star
- Feather Woman
- Thunderbird
Myths
- Creation and Ordering of the World
- Old Man Napio Trickster Tales
- Scarface’s Quest to the Sun
- Origin of the Sun Dance
- Sacred Bundles and Buffalo Myths
Facts
- Napi (Old Man) functions both as world-shaper and cautionary trickster, combining creation and satire.
- Scarface’s celestial journey yields the Sun Dance and healing power after his scar is removed by the Sun.
- Blood Clot Boy (Kutoyis) arises from a clot and travels the Plains destroying man-eating beings and tyrants.
- The Beaver Bundle and Medicine Pipe narratives encode ritual authority and seasonal obligations.
- The Buffalo Stone (Iniskim) stories link song, stone, and communal buffalo procurement at jumps.
- Astral tales explain Morning Star’s lineage and a star cluster formed from lost or orphaned children.
- Variants are localized; storytellers adapt details to audience, season, and ceremonial propriety.
- Early English publications fixed certain titles yet acknowledged multiple tellers and versions.
- Sacred-material accounts often omit restricted details in print out of respect for community protocols.
- Sun Dance suppression under colonial policies affected performance context; later revivals reframed practice.