September 11th, 2015
Facts about the Blackfoot Indians
The Niitsitapi, also known as the Blackfoot Indians, reside in the Great Plains of Montana and the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. Only one of the Niitsitapi tribes are called Blackfoot or Siksika. The name is said to have come from the color of the peoples’ moccasins, made of leather. They had typically dyed or painted the soles of their moccasins black. One legendary story claimed that the Siksika walked through ashes of prairie fires, which in turn colored the bottoms of their moccasins black.
Cycling Stats
Start Point: Snowslip, Montana, United States of America
Destination: Wild Camp near Browning, Montana, United States of America
69.7 km trip, 4:13 time, 56.5 km/h maximum speed, 16.5 km/h average speed
What happened…
Andrew writes: There wasn’t a lot of “get up and go” for us this morning. The forecast had called for the Northern Lights (aurora borealis) to be visible in our area, so Amanda had set an alarm clock for 1am, 2am, 3am and 4am. There were no lights seen, except for the bright shining stars in the clear sky above. It was still really beautiful. So when we did finally manage to crawl out of the tent, we headed inside to the Snowslip Inn right away for bacon, eggs and hash browns.
We started climbing again, upon our departure from Snowslip, and it was about 10km to the top of the pass. There is a really beautiful memorial to Theodore Roosevelt at the top, as well as a National Forest Campground, for those who want to revel in the beauty a little bit longer than we did. The downhill after Marias (mar-I-ass) Pass was spectacular. Not only the scenery, but just the gentle, winding descent. Suddenly the mountains around us faded away and before us lay wide open prairies.
We coasted down the final hill into East Glacier, but we didn’t stop, assuming every business in town to be charging tourist prices, like they had in West Glacier. Instead we rode a bit further down the road to Browning. Browning was very much like the East Vancouver. People everywhere appeared to be under the affects of drugs or alcohol, and quite a few tried to coax money out of us. I stopped at the IGA to re-stock our food, and when I came out, there were two people chanting some sort of healing/blessing to Amanda. I laughed, but it’s not really funny. It was obvious from the little time we had spent in Browning that the citizens need to be uplifted somehow. I think that because it is on an American Indian Reservation, that for far too long, the people have been trodden on by the government, and there definitely wasn’t any sign of industry within the town itself. In fact, we were happy to see this dark spot on the prairies disappear in our rear-view mirror.
We had setup a Warmshowers stay in Choteau, about 75 miles from Browning, but it wasn’t set to start for another couple of days. Therefore, when we came to the banks of the Two Medicine River, we setup camp. It turns out that we were camping on the site of an old school house, built 100 years ago. We got a little nervous when just after dinner, a minivan pulled up with a family in it, and we thought we were going to get in trouble. Instead, they headed to the river where there was a nice swimming hole. Whew! We remained unmolested for the entire evening, that is, until a herd of horses crossed the river and setup camp themselves for the night, not too far away.
Amanda writes:
We left the mountains and headed back into Prairie country. As Andrew mentioned Browning seemed like a town that has residents that have fallen on harder times. The crew of people that were blessing me with chants and hymns also invited me to an indigenous gathering where I could learn more about their tribe and have my stomach and chest pierced. While it would have been great cultural experience, as the security guard ushered them away I was able to graciously decline the invitation.
The wild camp spot we chose was the first of its kind in the USA for us. Truth be told it was private property and we did have to cross a fence to get to it. By the end of the night we were all okay and as comfortable as we could be and we are certainly broadening our horizons on the wild camp front.