Blackfoot Ways of Knowing: The Worldview of the Siksikaitsitapi

by Betty Bastien, Duane Mistaken Chief (Assistant), Jurgen W. Kremer (Editor)

Blackfoot Ways of Knowing is a journey into the heart and soul of Blackfoot culture. As a scholar and researcher, Betty Bastien places Blackfoot tradition within a historical context of precarious survival amid colonial displacement and cultural genocide. In sharing her personal story of reclaimed identity, Bastien offers a gateway into traditional Blackfoot ways of understanding and experiencing the world. For the Siksikaitsitapi, knowledge is experiential, participatory, and ultimately sacred. Bastien maps her own process of coming to know, stressing the recovery of the Blackfoot language and Blackfoot notions of reciprocal responsibilities and interdependence. Rekindling traditional ways of knowing is essential for Indigenous peoples in Canada to heal and rebuild their communities and cultures. By sharing what she has learned, Betty Bastien hopes to ensure that the next generation of Indigenous people will enjoy a future of hope and peace.

Genres: Nonfiction, Indigenous

255 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Lise Mayne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would highly recommend this book to anyone trying to understand the process of decolonization and the need to respect the Indigenous peoples way of knowing. I read it from cover to cover. It is a doctoral thesis, so it is very dense and I can't say I understood it all, but the introduction and conclusion make the principles quite clear. This was produced long before the Truth and Reconciliation process, and serves as a beacon for that work. I find the information on the Blackfoot ways of knowing very compatible with yogic and other traditions: the belief in the oneness of all things, the importance of relationships, the power of prayer and the need to approach life with a "good heart." Bastien's work is seminal in fostering a deep appreciation of the fact of cultural genocide deliberately inflicted on the First Nations people, and why it is so difficult but crucial to retrieve and develop their traditional ways of understanding the world, in order to thrive in the future.

[Conan Van Der Crom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not an easy read. Dense, filled with terms from the Blackfoot language (as it should be), and complex, the book is nonetheless a highly significant description of traditional religion and epistemology within the Blackfoot culture written by a member of this cultural community. Many books of Native American and/or First Nations religions are little more than condescending presentations of "mythology" with little to no cultural context. Ms. Bastien's work is the opposite, and manages to present a worldview that is radically different than the mainstream Western one with dignity and complexity.