This course addresses Indigenous knowledge as a fundamental component of Indigenous education. In doing so, it also prepares the student to address and understand Indigenous pedagogy and knowledges for and about Indigenous peoples.
Required Readings |
Supplementary Readings |
Blackfoot Digital Library. The most relevant resources pertinent to this study unit are the audio, video, print and photographic records made publicly available through the Blackfoot Digital Library. Almost all assets in this library would be helpful to educators attempting to familiarize themselves with Blackfoot knowledge, literature, history, experience, etc. Most of the materials in this library are Blackfoot authored. |
Bastien, B. (2004). Blackfoot ways of knowing: The worldview of the Siksikaitsitapi Calgary: University of Calgary Press. |
Crowshoe, R., & Manneschmidt, S.(2002). Akak'stiman: A Blackfoot framework for decision-making and mediation processes (2nd ed.). Calgary: University of Calgary Press. |
Glenbow Museum.
These digitized notes from anthropologist Claude Schaeffer (made accessible online through the Glenbow Institute Archives) contain many excellent testimonies by Blackfoot Elders of the early 1900s. Particularly relevant are their contributions toward the record of Blackfoot ecological knowledge and the Beaver Bundle in Schaeffer’s Series. |
Glenbow Museum. The Glenbow Institute runs a website designed by Blackfoot Elders to communicate information about Niitsitapiisini, our (Blackfoot) way of life. |
Grinnell, G.B. (2001). Blackfoot lodge tales. Scituate, MA: Digital Scanning. (Original work published 1892, New York: Scribners). |
Kainai Studies Online Campus
Information about the Kainai Studies Program at Red Crow College is available through this website. Language learners will find the phraseology application on this site particularly helpful. The media downloads section contains a digital lecture about the Blackfoot influence on psychologist Abraham Maslow. |
Ladner, K.L. (2000). When Buffalo speaks: Creating an alternative understanding of traditional Blackfoot
governance (Doctoral dissertation, Carleton University, Canada).
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Little Bear, L., & Heavy Head, R. (2004). A conceptual anatomy of the Blackfoot word. ReVision. 26(3), 31–38.
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Maslow, A., & Honigmann, J.J. (1970) . Synergy: Some notes of Ruth Benedict. American Anthropologist, New Series. 72(2), 320–333. |
Niitsitapiisinni: Stories and Spaces This interactive website, made possible through the Galileo Project, focuses on the relationship between Blackfoot people and plants. It was developed by elementary school children and their Elders on the Blood Reserve. |
Noble, B. (2007). Justice, transaction, translation: Blackfoot tipi transfers and WIPO's search for the facts of traditional knowledge exchange. American Anthropologist. 109(2), 338–49.
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Required Readings |
Supplementary Readings |
Battiste, M. (2005). Indigenous knowledge – Foundations for First Nations. WINHEC Journal. (accessed Dec 2011). |
Required Readings |