Akak'stiman

A Blackfoot Framework for Decision-Making and Mediation Processes

By Reg Crowshoe & Sybille Manneschmidt
Categories: Indigenous Studies, Health, Social Work & Psychology, Health & Medicine, Social Sciences, Sociology
Publisher: University of Calgary Press
Paperback : 9781552380444, 104 pages, March 2002
Ebook (PDF) : 9781552382776, 104 pages, March 2002
View Table of Contents

Table of contents

 

Introduction
Summary
Acknowledgements

1. Introduction
Background Information
Methodology

2. History of the Peigan People
Prehistoric Times
Dog Days
Horse Days
Early Contact
Treaty Days
The Early Twentieth Century
Population
Starvation
Epidemics

3. Social Structures
Family and Extended Family
Bands
Tribe
Societies
Leadership
Roles of Men and Women

4. Peigan/Blackfoot Concepts of Sacred Bundles and their Functions
The Natoas (Sun Dance Bundle)
The Beaver Bundle
The Thunder Medicine Pipe Bundle
Societies?? Bundles
Individual or Personal Bundles

5. Transfer Rites

6. The Blackfoot Circle Structure Processes

7. Healing, Health Services, and Health Providers
Traditional Blackfoot Medical Care
Western Medical Services
Canadian Government Health Bureaucracy

8. The Blackfoot Circle Structure Model and its Application Health Administration

9. An Application Mediation Process in Child Protection and Business

10. Conclusion

Appendices
A. Creation Store
B. First Contact Between White Men and Blackfoot
C. Legend of Star Boy (Later, Poia, Scarface)
D. The Elk-Woman
E. Origin of the Long Time Pipe
F. Origin of the Medicine Pipe
G. Loss and Capture of the Thunder Pipe
H. Transfer History of the Small Thunder Medicine Pipe
I. Interview: Bull Horn Doctor

Notes
Bibliography

Description

Today, two health structures exist on the Peigan reserve. One is based on Blackfoot culture, and the other is based on western European theories of health and healing. Although both methods are used on the reserve, the government only acknowledges the western approach. This book describes Blackfoot healing traditions, their spiritual foundations, and their historical development in great detail. Akak’stiman shows how Blackfoot healing methods can be integrated with western approaches on the Peigan reserve. Oral evidence from interviews with elders and historical documents bring varying approaches to this timely topic. This book is an important document in the neglected field of First Nations procedures and philosophies.