This post is part of an educational campaign by Blackfoot Confederacy Tribal Council—separating fiction from fact, correcting misinformation, and protecting Blackfoot and First Nations’ rights.

Fiction and Fact in Niitsitapi Territory

Final Statement of the Blackfoot Confederacy Educational Campaign

FICTION: The Metis Nation of Alberta can claim a Metis Homeland inside Niitsitapi Territory by negotiating directly with Canada and Alberta, treating this land as if it is neutral provincial property open for new political identities. Their maps and agreements imply that thousands of years of Blackfoot sovereignty can be replaced by modern recognition, as if our presence is just another story beside theirs.

FACT: Niitsitapi Territory is the sovereign land of the Blackfoot Confederacy whose law, identity, and creation rise directly out of this place since time beyond memory. Our sovereignty predates Canada and was never surrendered under Blackfoot Treaty 7, and no agreement between the MNA and the Crown can override the original authority of the Blackfoot people on our land.

Land acknowledgements have become a place where these truths are either honored or erased. When acknowledgements mix all Indigenous peoples together without specificity, they create a convenient fog that allows the Metis Nation of Alberta to position Niitsitapi Territory as part of their homeland, rather than the ancient and continuing territory of the Blackfoot Confederacy. They rely on general language and Crown recognition to present themselves as equal title holders, while ignoring the first nation of this land entirely. This is why their agreements with Canada and Alberta repeat the same fiction, offering land, rights, and jurisdiction inside our territory without ever speaking to the Blackfoot Confederacy that has lived here since time unmeasured.

The fact remains that Niitsitapi Territory is Blackfoot land. We are not newcomers or later arrivals who shaped an identity here. We are this land speaking. Our creation stories, our ceremonies, our teachings, and our laws come from this soil, from these rivers, from these plains, and from these hills. Blackfoot Treaty 7 affirmed our sovereignty, it did not remove it. Canada cannot give away what Canada never owned, and the Metis Nation of Alberta cannot claim authority in a place where Blackfoot law has stood since the beginning of our existence. No map, no agreement, and no government recognition can replace the truth of origin.

A true land acknowledgement must begin with the Blackfoot Confederacy, because this is Blackfoot land and always has been. It cannot place later arrivals above the first people of this place, and it cannot describe Niitsitapi Territory as a shared Metis homeland. Any acknowledgement that does this is incorrect. The MNA cannot build a homeland on top of ours, and they cannot sidestep the Blackfoot Confederacy to negotiate rights with the Crown. To First Nations facing the same struggle across these lands, we stand with you. To Metis citizens who reject the overreach of the MNA, we see your honesty. Our land, our law, and our sovereignty are not negotiable, not erasable, and not subject to agreements that ignore the original people of this place.