Blackfoot Ways of Knowing: The Worldview of the Siksikaitsitapi

By Betty Bastien
Edited by Jurgen Kremer
With Language Consulatation by Duane Mistaken Chief

$34.95 sc
Available Now
ISBN 1-55238-109-9
255 pp.
6" x 9"

Indigenous Studies

About the Book

Blackfoot Ways of Knowing: The Worldview of the Siksikaitsitapi is a journey into the heart and soul of Blackfoot culture. In sharing her personal story of “coming home” to reclaim her identity within that culture, Betty Bastien offers us a gateway into traditional Blackfoot ways of understanding and experiencing the world. As a scholar and researcher, Bastien is also able to place Blackfoot tradition within the context of knowledge building among indigenous peoples generally, and within an historical context of precarious survival amid colonial displacement and cultural genocide. In mapping her own process of coming to know, Bastien stresses the recovery of the Blackfoot language and of the Blackfoot notions of reciprocal responsibilities and interdependence.
Essential in this process is re-establishing connection with community, family, and ancestors. The cultural identity of the Siksikaitsitapi is formed through relationships radiating outward from the individual through community and kinship groups, to cultural symbols and ceremonies such as sacred dance and transfer bundles, and ultimately to an organic universe infused with consciousness.
For the Siksikaitsitapi, knowledge is experiential, participatory, and ultimately sacred, rather than objective and inert. Rekindling traditional ways of knowing is essential if First Nations people in Canada are to heal and rebuild their communities and cultures. By sharing what she has learned, Betty Bastien hopes to ensure that the next generation of First Nations people will enjoy a future of hope and peace.

About the Author

Betty Bastien, PhD, is with the Access Division of the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Calgary. Her experience includes teaching and curriculum design at Red Crow Community College, in the Native studies department at the University of Lethbridge, and at the University of Calgary.

Jurgen W. Kremer, PhD, who contributes an afterword to the book, is an executive editor of ReVision-Journal of Consciousness and Transformation. Recently he has written about ethnoautobiography, dissociation, healing and cosmology, and violence against indigenous peoples.

Duane Mistaken Chief provides language consultation and is a senior instructor and lecturer in Blackfoot language and Blackfoot ways of life at Red Crow Community College on the Blood Reserve.

Orders

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