A Historical Timeline Early 1700's Blackfeet probably living in valley of the Northern Saskatchewan River near the Eagle Hills in Canada. Hunt buffalo on foot with bows and arrows.

1730 Blackfeet attacked by Shoshoni who are on horseback. First time the Blackfeet have seen horses which they call "elk dogs."

1730-50 Blackfeet probably acquired their first horses in peaceful trade with their neighbors, the Flathead, Kutenai, and Nez Perce.

1780 Hudson Bay Compnay builds Buckingham House on the Sasketchewan River in Canada, reaching Blackfeet country. Blackfeet obtain guns through trade.

1781 Small pox epidemic sweeps through Blackfeet country, killing hundreds.

1780-1805 Blackfeet almost exterminate the Shoshoni in battles over hunting territory

1787 Blackfeet warriors journey south toward Sante Fe. Encounter Spanish miners and steal their horses.

1806 Meriweather Lewis (of Lewis and Clark) encounters Blackfeet (Piegan) at the junction of Two Medicine River and Badger Creek. Lewis kills one Piegan who was trying to steal a gun.

1809 Trader Alexander Henry compiles a census of the Blackfeet, finding a total of 5,200 people among the Piegan, Blackfeet, and Blood tribes.

1824 The Bureau of Indian Affairs established within the United States War Department.

1831 First peaceful trade between the Americans and Blackfeet by Kenneth McKenzie.

1831 Blackfeet horse raiders recorded at Arkansas River in southern Colorado.

1833 Prince Maxmillian, a German scientist-exploreer, and Karl Bodner, a Swiss artist, spend a month with the Blackfeet at Fort McKenzie. Maxmillian becomes the first white observer to describe the Blackfeet men's societies; Bodner paints portraits of Blackfeet leaders.

1837 Second smallpox pidemic kills nearly 6,000 Blackfeet, two-thirds of the total population.

1844 Blackfeet kill a trader. Traders retaliate

1846 Father DeSmet conducts the first Catholic Mass among the Blackfeet, mainly children are baptized.

1849 War party of 800 Blackfeet attack Assiniboine horse raiders and kill 52.

1855 "Lame Bull's Treaty is signed. As first such peace traty between the Blackfeet and the US Government it defines the boundaries of "The Blackfeet Nation."

1860 White settlers begin to enter Blackfeet country.

1863 Annuity payments from the US Government to the Blackfeet do not arrive. Blackfeet send letter of protest to Washington.

1865 Fighting breaks out between the Blackfeet and white settlers.

1869 Malcolm Clark killed by Piegan warriors in retailiation for the killing of Mountain Chief's brother.

1870 Massacre on the Marias River. U.S. Soldiers mistakenly attack the camp of Heavy Runner, a friendly chief, while looking for the murderers of Clark. Over 200 killed, 140 women and children captured. Blackfeet never face the U.S. Army in battle again.

1872 First school for Blackfeet children opened at Teton River Agency.

1874 By act of Congress, the Blackfeet reservation boundary moved northward to Birch Creek-Marias River line. The Blackfeet are neither consulted nor renumerated.

1875 Agent John Wood urges the Blackfeet to organize. Little Plume elected as head chief, Generous Women and White Calf as subordinate chiefs. New tribal code written.

1876 Custer and his troops annihilated at Little Big Horn. No Blackfeet involved.

1878 Prairie fires destroy grasslands west of Canada's Cypress Hills, driving the great buffalo herds south into Montan, never to return north again.

1882 Blackfeet winter buffalo hunt in Montana is successful. No hint that the buffalo would disappear.

1883-84 Starvation Winter. Buffalo herds suddenly disappear. 600 Blackfeet starve during the winter and spring. The Blackfeet become sedentary people, dependent on government rations.

1889 First group of Blackfeet admitted to Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania.

1892 Boarding school for the Blackfeet opens at Willow Creek, west of present-day Browning.

1893 Completion for the Great Northern Transcontinental Railroad through Blackfeet country.

1896 Blackfeet sell the land that is to become Glacier National Park for the sum of $1,500,00 to be paid at $150,000 per year for ten years.

1903 White Calf, last head chief of the Piegan Blackfeet, dies while on a visit to Washington D.C.

1910 U.S. Census reports that 2,268 Indians are living on the Blackfeet reservation, about the same number that lived there in 1885.

1907-12 U.S. policy to treat the Indian reservation as property of the entire tribe is reversed in favor of a policy of allotment. Blackfeet reservation land is divided among individual Indians, each recieving 320 acres, held in trust by the government.

1920 Blackfeet cattle herds wiped out by a severe winter. Starvation follows.

1924 American Indians become citizens of the United States.

1934 Congress passes the Indian Reorganization Act. Blackfeet Tribal Council formed.

1941 Museum of the Plains Indian opens to the public in Browning.

1968 U.S. President, Lyndon B. Johnson's message, "The Forgotten American" advocates Indian tribal self-determination and rejection of the Federal policy of terminination.

1972 Pencil factory begins business on the Blackfeet reservation.

1978 Earl Old Person made the chief of the Blackfeet Nation.

1978 Indian Child Welfare Act passed by Congress, granting tribal governments authority in child custody cases.

1979 All Montana public school teachers on or near Indian reservations required to have a background in Native American Studies.