Blackfoot Indian Culture.

Rawhide cases and parfleches contain many ceremonial objects. Near the end of the gestation period, women discard their bracelets and most of their metal ornaments. They dress in old clothes. During labor, the woman holds to a pole of the tipi; an attendant grasps her around the waist. Birth marks are regarded as evidences of re-birth. Menstrual customs require a woman to not come near the sick and to keep away from places where medicines are at work. Children are taught to respect all the taboos of the medicine bundles owned by the family and those of their relations and guests. When an individual is taken ill, the family sends for a medicine man, promising him a horse. If a person dies in a house, the structure is either abandoned or torn down. The medicine woman is the central figure in a ceremony. An account of an evening ceremony in a medicine woman's tipi is related. Photos. Illustrations. Footnotes.