BLACKFOOT RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS 

The Blackfeet are composed of a group of three Algonkian-speaking tribes: the Pikuni (or Piegan), the Kainah (or Blood), and the Siksika (or Northern Blackfoot). Central to Blackfeet religion is the belief in a sacred force that permeates all things, represented symbolically by the sun whose light sustains all things. The moon, the morning star, and certain animals such as the eagle, the bear, the buffalo, the otter and the beaver were regarded as particularly endowed with sacred power.
Another symbol of sacred power was the medicine bundle. The origin of the sacred bundle was a vision made to a young man by a supernatural spirit instructing him to collect certain things and retain them because of their inherent sacred power. The receipient of the vision would also receive instructions to perform certain sacred rituals.
In addition to bundles possessed by individuals, there were bundles which were owned collectively. Examples of these larger bundles were the Sun Dance bundle, the Beaver bundle and the medicine pipe bundle. The complex rituals associated with these were believed to provide general benefit to the tribe through the provision of food or healing.
Tribal religious life was also characterised by the performance of ceremonies which were often preceded by a purification rituals. Individuals would sit in a sweat lodge sometimes singing songs to sacred beings. The most important tribal ceremony was the Sun Dance. The Sun Dance was performed every summer with the purpose of enabling the renewal of the world. In the course of participating in the ceremony a Sun lodge would be constructed in the middle of which would be a sacred pole whose purpose was to connect the sacred powers of the sky with the earth.

Niitsitapii (Blackfoot) religion is not so much a "religion" as a way of life, a collection of lessons, most learned from the natural environs, including plants, animals, the weather, the seasons, and the dimensions that involve—or house—the spiritual and the spirits.