Blackfeet Indian Reservation - Niitsitapi

Updated: February 2, 2026

The Blackfeet Indian Reservation is in north-central Montana along the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains. Canada borders its lands to the north, and its western boundary touches Glacier National Park. The reservation covers about 1.46 to 1.5 million acres (around 2,370 square miles) of prairie, foothills, and mountain country. The largest community on the reservation is Browning, which is the seat of tribal government and home to Blackfeet Community College. There are many lakes and fishing streams on Blackfeet lands, and tribal permits are required to fish or camp there; the tribe and local businesses operate campgrounds and recreation sites for visitors.

There are more than 16,000 enrolled Blackfeet tribal members, and roughly 7,000 to 10,000 people live on or near the reservation, depending on the year counted. Many Blackfeet families still have deep roots in traditional communities such as Browning, Heart Butte, Starr School, East Glacier, and Babb.

Ranching and dry-land farming remain major uses of the land, with important crops including wheat, barley, and hay, along with cattle and horse herds. In recent years the tribe has also developed other economic activities, such as tourism, energy projects, and tribally owned enterprises, while many members work in schools, health care, and tribal government.

Points of Interest

• Museum of the Plains Indian in Browning, which highlights the history, clothing, and art of many Plains tribes, including the Blackfeet.
• Blackfeet Community College, a tribally controlled college offering degrees and classes in both academic subjects and Blackfeet language and culture.
• Two Medicine (Lewis) Fight Site , where a conflict took place during the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1806, on lands long part of the Blackfeet homeland.
• Chief Mountain and the Two Medicine and Many Glacier areas, sacred places for the Blackfeet along the border of Glacier National Park.

Events

North American Indian Days, usually held in July near Browning, is the largest annual celebration on the Blackfeet Reservation. It brings together Blackfeet people and guests from across North America for several days of powwow dancing, drumming, parades, rodeos, and tipi camps. The Heart Butte Celebration, held each August in the community of Heart Butte, is another important traditional gathering that includes powwow events, honoring ceremonies, and social dances.

History and Culture

The Blackfeet are one of the largest tribes in Montana today and have long been one of the major Plains nations. Their English name is often explained as coming from the dark or "blackened" soles of their moccasins, which may have been stained by prairie fires or dark paint. Long ago, Blackfeet communities lived farther east, near the forests and lakes north of the Great Lakes, but over many generations they moved west onto the northern plains of what are now Montana, Alberta, and Saskatchewan.

After the arrival of Europeans, the Blackfeet obtained horses and firearms and became powerful buffalo hunters and traders. They shifted from a woodland way of life to the nomadic life of the Plains, following huge bison herds across a wide territory and traveling in small bands that could move quickly. These bands, often made up of 20 to 30 or more people, came together for large ceremonies such as the Sun Dance, for major hunts, and for trade.

Before they had horses, Blackfeet hunters sometimes used pishkuns (buffalo jumps), where herds were driven over cliffs so that the people could harvest the animals below. With horses, they became skilled riders and warriors, defending their homelands and trade routes against rival tribes and later against intrusions by American and Canadian settlers and soldiers well into the late nineteenth century.

By the early 1880s, however, the once-massive buffalo herds of the northern plains had been almost wiped out. For the Blackfeet, the "Starvation Winter" of 1883-84 was especially deadly; hundreds of people died when government food rations failed and there was little game left to hunt. At the same time, U.S. policies forced the Blackfeet onto a reservation that grew smaller over time, and officials tried, with limited success, to turn nomadic hunters into small farmers.

In 1895, still facing hunger and pressure from U.S. negotiators, Blackfeet leaders agreed to sell their western mountain lands-about 800,000 acres along the Rocky Mountain Front-to the United States in what became known as the 1895 Agreement. Government officials said they wanted to search the area for minerals, and the land later became a key part of Glacier National Park when Congress created the park in 1910. Many Blackfeet people viewed this as a painful loss, because those mountains were sacred and had been their last refuge, yet they were promised the right to continue hunting, fishing, and gathering on those lands as long as they remained public land.

Today, the Blackfeet Nation continues to assert its treaty rights, protect its culture, and teach its language and traditions to younger generations, even as tribal members work in modern jobs, attend colleges, and welcome visitors to learn respectfully about Blackfeet history and homeland.

For more information on the Blackfeet Reservation, contact:

Blackfeet Nation
PO Box 2809
Browning, Montana 59417
406-338-7406

Blackfeet Nation

VisitMT - Niitsitapi Blackfeet

Updated: February 2, 2026