Editing Blackfoot Confederacy (section)

=== Enemies and warrior culture ===
[[File:CM Russell When Blackfoot And Sioux Meet.jpeg|thumb| ''When Blackfoot and Sioux Meet'' by western artist [[Charles Marion Russell]].]]
[[File:The Death of Omoxesisixany or Big Snake.jpg|thumb|''The Death of Omoxesisixany or Big Snake'' by [[Paul Kane]], depicting a battle between a Blackfoot and Plains Cree warrior on horseback.]]
Blackfoot war parties would ride hundreds of miles on raids. A boy on his first war party was given a silly or derogatory name. But after he had stolen his first horse or killed an enemy, he was given a name to honor him. Warriors would strive to perform various acts of bravery called [[counting coup]], in order to move up in social rank. The coups in order of importance were: taking a gun from a living enemy and or touching him directly; capturing lances, and bows; scalping an enemy; killing an enemy; freeing a tied horse from in front of an enemy lodge; leading a war party; scouting for a war party; stealing headdresses, shields, pipes (sacred ceremonial pipes); and driving a herd of stolen horses back to camp.<ref>{{cite book|last=Hungrywolf|first=Adolf|title=The Blackfoot Papers|year=2006|publisher=The Good Medicine Cultural Foundation|location=Skookumchuck, British Columbia|isbn=0-920698-80-8|page=233|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sGtsbTEtcRIC&pg=PA233|access-date=6 March 2013}}</ref>
[[File:Blackfeet Burning Crow Buffalo Range.jpg|right|thumb|''Blackfeet Burning Crow Buffalo Range'' by [[Charles Marion Russell]].]]
The Niitsitapi were enemies of the [[Crow Nation|Crow]], [[Cheyenne]] (''kiihtsipimiitapi'' – ″Pinto People″), and [[Sioux]] (Dakota, Lakota, and Nakota) (called ''pinaapisinaa'' – "East Cree") on the Great Plains; and the [[Shoshone]], [[Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation|Flathead]], [[Pend d'Oreilles (tribe)|Kalispel]], [[Ktunaxa|Kootenai]] (called ''kotonáá'wa'') and [[Nez Perce people|Nez Perce]] (called ''komonóítapiikoan'') in the mountain country to their west and southwest. Their most mighty and most dangerous enemy, however, were the political/military/trading alliance of the [[Iron Confederacy]] or ''Nehiyaw-Pwat'' (in [[Plains Cree language|Plains Cree]]: ''Nehiyaw'' – 'Cree' and ''Pwat'' or ''Pwat-sak'' – 'Sioux, i.e. Assiniboine') – named after the dominating [[Cree|Plains Cree]] (called ''Asinaa'') and [[Assiniboine people|Assiniboine]] (called ''Niitsísinaa'' – "Original Cree"). These included the [[Nakoda (Stoney)|Stoney]] (called ''Saahsáísso'kitaki'' or ''Sahsi-sokitaki'' – ″Sarcee trying to cut″),<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.angelfire.com/ar/waakomimm/lang13.html |title=Names for Peoples/Tribes |publisher=Angelfire.com |access-date=16 December 2013}}</ref> [[Saulteaux]] (or [[Plains Ojibwe]]), and [[Métis people (Canada)|Métis]] to the north, east and southeast.

With the expansion of the ''Nehiyaw-Pwat'' to the north, west and southwest, they integrated larger groups of [[Iroquois]], [[Chipewyan]], [[Danezaa people|Danezaa]] (''Dunneza'' – 'The real (prototypical) people'),<ref>the Cree called them ''Amiskiwiyiniw'' or ''Amisk Wiyiniwak'' and the [[Dakelh]] ''Tsat'en'', ''Tsattine'' or ''Tza Tinne'' –  both mean 'Beaver People', so they were formerly often referred in English as ''Beaver''</ref> Ktunaxa, Flathead, and later [[Gros Ventre people|Gros Ventre]] (called ''atsíína'' – "Gut People" or "like a Cree"), in their local groups. Loosely allied with the ''Nehiyaw-Pwat'', but politically independent, were neighboring tribes like the [[Ktunaxa]], [[Secwepemc]] and in particular the arch enemy of the Blackfoot, the Crow, or Indian trading partners like the Nez Perce and Flathead.<ref>Joachim Fromhold: ''The Western Cree (Pakisimotan Wi Iniwak)''</ref>

The Shoshone acquired horses much sooner than the Blackfoot and soon occupied much of present-day Alberta, most of Montana, and parts of Wyoming, and raided the Blackfoot frequently.  Once the Piegan gained access to horses of their own and guns, obtained from the HBC via the Cree and Assiniboine, the situation changed.  By 1787 David Thompson reports that the Blackfoot had completely conquered most of Shoshone territory, and frequently captured Shoshone women and children and forcibly assimilated them into Blackfoot society, further increasing their advantages over the Shoshone.  Thompson reports that Blackfoot territory in 1787 was from the North Saskatchewan River in the north to the Missouri River in the South, and from Rocky Mountains in the west out to a distance of {{convert|300|mi}} to the east.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://segonku.unl.edu/~ahodge/aftermath.html |author=A. Hodge |title=Beyond Borderlands: Discussion: Aftermath |publisher=University of Nebraska Lincoln |access-date=16 December 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131101124041/http://segonku.unl.edu/~ahodge/aftermath.html |archive-date=1 November 2013 }}</ref>

Between 1790 and 1850, the ''Nehiyaw-Pwat'' were at the height of their power; they could successfully defend their territories against the Sioux (Lakota, Nakota and Dakota) and the Niitsitapi Confederacy. During the so-called Buffalo Wars (about 1850 – 1870), they penetrated further and further into the territory from the Niitsitapi Confederacy in search for the buffalo, so that the Piegan were forced to give way in the region of the Missouri River (in Cree: ''Pikano Sipi'' – "Muddy River", "Muddy, turbid River"), the Kainai withdrew to the [[Bow River]] and [[Belly River]]; only the Siksika could hold their tribal lands along the [[Red Deer River]]. Around 1870, the alliance between the Blackfoot and the Gros Ventre broke, and the latter began to look to their former enemies, the Southern Assiniboine (or Plains Assiniboine), for protection.