Rethinking Civilization: The Forgotten Wisdom of the Blackfoot
The Blackfoot Indigenous people, found in Canada and in the United States, are remarkable for their traditional way of seeing the world. The Blackfoot traditional worldview is marked by extremely high levels of cooperation, almost invisible social inequality, a strong belief in restorative justice, and elevated levels of life satisfaction, as attested by community members. These are all sought-after values in the world today.
Who are the Blackfoot people?
The traditional territory of the Blackfoot People, also known as the Niitsitapi, spans across southern Alberta, Canada, and into Montana in the United States. They are considered one of the most prominent and powerful Indigenous peoples in the Great Plains region. European contact and colonization brought significant challenges, including the decline of the buffalo herds, disease, and forced assimilation. The consequences of all that continue to manifest today in the forms of cultural disruption, intergenerational trauma, severe economic hardship, loss of language, and systemic inequality.
Blackfoot Indigenous Worldview
In the 1930s, Abraham Maslow encountered the Blackfoot people and was shocked to discover that, due to their unique worldviews, between 80 and 90 percent of Blackfoot community members had extremely high levels of self-esteem. Among Abraham Maslow’s own American population, the number of people who could be said to possess such levels of self-esteem was pegged at between 5 and 10 percent. After decades of colonialism, the Blackfoot people are now in the process of reclaiming and rebuilding their culture and recentering their Indigenous worldviews.
Among the Blackfoot Indigenous people, those who were respected as wealthy were those who gave away the most of what they owned to others. In the Blackfoot community, wealth was not calculated by accumulated possessions but by generosity. To be considered wealthy and important in society was to be known as someone who had given away much and held on to very little. The highly esteemed in society were those who, during the annual Giveaway rituals, regaled community members with stories of how they had come by possessions in the past year and then shared all those possessions gladly among those who needed them. Among the Blackfoot people, Abraham Maslow’s theory of the universality of social hierarchies maintained by dominance could not apply.
The Blackfoot emphasized strong relations among nuclear and extended families and community members. There was no word or concept of poverty except in relation to people without families or strong community relationships—which was inconceivable. The Blackfoot equally connected strongly with the land as a central and centralizing space where life is hatched, sustained, and retired.
The concept of restorative justice is central to the Blackfoot’s conception of justice and their Indigenous judicial system. Rather than isolating individuals for wrongdoing, it seeks to restore harmony by involving all affected parties in a process of truth telling, responsibility, and reparation. The Blackfoot restorative justice system emphasizes healing over punishment, grounded in principles of relational accountability and community balance.
As the world faces rising inequality, environmental crisis, and social fragmentation, the wisdom of the Blackfoot people offers tremendous insight. Their way of life challenges dominant ideas about wealth, justice, and human fulfillment. In a time when many are searching for new ways to live with purpose, to connect deeply with others, and to care for the earth, the Blackfoot worldview stands as a powerful reminder that another way has always been possible and still is.