Editing Blackfoot Confederacy (section)

=== Early history ===
[[File:Blackfoot tipis.jpg|thumb|Blackfoot [[teepee]]s, [[Glacier National Park (U.S.)|Glacier National Park]], 1933]]

The Niitsitapi, also known as the Blackfoot or Blackfeet Indians, reside in the Great Plains of Montana and the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan.{{Citation needed|date=November 2022}} Originally, only one of the Niitsitapi tribes was 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.{{Citation needed|date=November 2022}}

[[File:Kainai travois.jpg|thumb|Kainai (Blood) women with travois.]]
Due to language and cultural patterns, [[anthropologists]] believe the Niitsitapi did not originate in the Great Plains of the Midwest North America, but migrated from the upper Northeastern part of the country. They coalesced as a group while living in the forests of what is now the Northeastern United States. They were mostly located around the modern-day border between Canada and the state of Maine. By 1200, the Niitsitapi were moving in search of more land.{{Citation needed|date=January 2012}} They moved west and settled for a while north of the [[Great Lakes]] in present-day Canada, but had to compete for resources with existing tribes. They left the Great Lakes area and kept moving west.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Grinnel|first=George Bird|title=Early Blackfoot History|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/i227087|access-date=2020-07-30|journal=American Anthropologist |year=1892|volume=5|issue=2|pages=153–164|publisher=American Anthropological Association, Wiley|jstor=658663}}</ref>

When they moved, they usually packed their belongings on an A-shaped sled called a ''[[travois]].'' The travois was designed for transport over dry land.<ref>Gibson, ''The Blackfeet People of the Dark Moccasins'', 1</ref> The Blackfoot had relied on dogs to pull the ''travois''; they did not acquire horses until the 18th century. From the Great Lakes area, they continued to move west and eventually settled in the Great Plains.

The Plains had covered approximately {{convert|780000|sqmi|km2}} with the [[Saskatchewan River]] to the north, the [[Rio Grande]] to the south, the [[Mississippi River]] to the east, and the [[Rocky Mountains]] to the west.<ref name="taylor9">Taylor, 9.</ref>  Adopting the use of the horse, the Niitsitapi established themselves as one of the most powerful Indian tribes on the Plains in the late 18th century, earning themselves the name "The Lords of the Plains."<ref>{{cite journal |first=Alex |last=Johnston |s2cid=19795696 |title=Blackfoot Indian Utilization of the Flora of the Northwestern Great Plains |journal= Economic Botany |volume=24| issue =  3 |date=Jul–Sep 1970|pages= 301–324 |doi=10.1007/bf02860666 |jstor=4253161|doi-access=free }}</ref> Niitsitapi stories trace their residence and possession of their plains territory to "time immemorial."