Blackfoot artifacts in Thunder Chief Gallery at Fort Whoop Up

Shirley Crow Shoe is a volunteer interpreter in the Thunder Chief Gallery at Fort Whoop-Up. She told me metal and cloth were valued and appreciated by the Blackfoot as trade items. Previously, her ancestors had relied on leather.

The original decorative glass beads used in so many native crafts were brought from Italy and incorporated in place of tiny bones, tendons, quills, and dentalium shells.

Artifacts have been added recently from the collection of Leo Day Chief, grandson of Thunder Chief. These include beautifully decorated clothing and parfleches, as well as ceremonial objects and regalia.

Shirley, who also teaches the Blackfoot language, is the niece of Peigan Joe Crown Shoe who participated in a cultural exchange with the Khasahks in Mongolia in 1990. Representatives of the two groups visited one another on home ground and discovered they had much in common. They made a ceremonial gift exchange of a tipi and a yurt (seen below).

Left: Tipi inside the enclosure at Fort Whoop-Up