Piegan Indians and horses, by Edward S. Curtis, 1910.
The Piegan Indians, or Pikuni band of the Blackfeet, are Algonquian-speaking people of the Great Plains. The Peigan were the largest of three Blackfeet bands that made up the Blackfeet Confederacy. The others were the Siksika and Kainai.
They were first thought to have lived West of the Great Lakes, but later moved westward. However, according to oral history, the Blackfeet creation story is set near Glacier National Park in Montana. The people practiced some agriculture and were partly nomadic. However, as they moved to the Plains, they became great bison hunters and traveled more frequently. They were known for their beautiful craftwork designs in tepees, clothing, weapons, riding equipment, and war bonnets.
Around 1700, they became enemies of the Shoshone, Flathead, and Kootenai and pushed the latter two tribes West of the Rocky Mountains.
The Piegan’s first contact with the white man was with fur trader James Gaddy and the Hudson’s Bay Company explorer David Thompson during the Winter of 1787-1788. As white settlers pushed westward, the Piegan were the southernmost tribe of the Blackfeet, roaming the Rocky Mountains on the south side of the Marias River in Montana and along both banks of the Missouri River.
Medicine Pipe-Piegan, Edward S. Curtis, 1910.
During these years, the Blackfeet people suffered declines from infectious disease epidemics to which they had no natural immunity. In 1837, a smallpox epidemic on the Plains killed 6,000 Blackfeet and thousands from other tribes.
Fort Belknap and the Blackfeet Reservation were established in Montana in 1855, and three years later, the Piegan in the United States were estimated to number about 3,700. By 1861, their numbers had dropped to just about 2,500.
On January 23, 1870, the U.S. Cavalry attacked a friendly Piegan village, and 173 Indians were killed. Almost all of them were women, children, and elderly men. The attack is known as the Marias Massacre.
The Blackfeet also suffered from starvation because disruptions in food supplies and war disrupted their food supply. When the last buffalo hunt failed in 1882, that year became known as the starvation year. About a fourth of the tribe suffered starvation in 1883 and 1884 when the rations were short, and a fourth of the Piegan Tribe starved to death at Fort Shaw and Fort Belknap.
Today, the Blackfeet live in both the United States and Canada. Many tribal members live with the Blackfeet Nation in northwestern Montana, with tribal headquarters in Browning. More than 105,000 people identify as Blackfeet.
Piegan Woman by Edward S. Curtis, 1910.
©Kathy Alexander/Legends of America, updated November 2026.
Also See:
Native Americans – First Owners of America
Native American Photo Galleries
See Sources.