One of the most necessary articles to the men is the tobacco-pipe; those made by themselves are not so handsome as those of the Sioux, which they highly prize, and readily obtain by barter. The true Blackfoot pipes are made of the talc, of which I have already spoken, or of a blackish stone, which is found in the Rocky Mountains. Their shape is shown in the annexed woodcuts;[96] { 252} it is often in the form of a ball, or a pear, and rests upon a cubical foot. The tube is made of wood, broad, flat, or round, and sometimes carved in imitation of a serpent. The handsomest are the large medicine pipes, the _calumets_ of the French.[97] They are adorned with the red heads of the woodpecker, bills, and a large fan made of feathers, and are used in all the solemn treaties and festivals of the North American tribes, more or less ornamented, but, on the whole, always in the same manner. When the Blackfeet smoke, they put a piece of dried earth, or a round mass made of the filaments and pods of certain water plants, on the ground, to rest the pipe on. Their tobacco consists of the small, roundish, dried leaves of the sakakomi plant (_Arbutus uva ursi_). When you visit an Indian in his tent, the pipe is immediately taken up, and passes round in the company, each person handing it to his left-hand neighbour. The master of the tent often blows the smoke towards the sun and the earth; every one takes some puffs and hands it on; the last man sends the pipe back again, but gives it to the person sitting opposite to him, in another row, and it circulates as before. The Blackfeet, like most of the tribes of the Upper Missouri, sow the seeds of the _Nicotiana quadrivalvis_, having first burnt the place where they intend it to grow: it is only on solemn occasions that they smoke this tobacco.
The food and clothing of these people are chiefly derived from the herds of buffaloes, which they pursue, and for which they make, in the winter season, large parks, into which they are driven. The antelopes and the mountain sheep, especially the latter, furnish them with leather for their finer articles of dress; but the skins of the buffalo cow are indispensable for their large robes, tents, and for barter with the Whites. They feed on almost every kind of animal except the grizzly bear; the black bear is not found in their prairies, and they have an aversion to amphibious animals. The Blood Indians hunt wolves for the sake of their skins, which they sell. All these Indians are very expert in the use of the bow, and this weapon is dangerous in their hands; with the gun, on the contrary, they are said to be indifferent marksmen, their pieces being by no means good. From the vegetable kingdom they obtain many roots; the pomme blanche, or white turnip, is very common in their prairies. The women and children dig them up with a particular kind of wooden instrument, and bring them in strings to the Whites for sale.