21/08/2025
History Haven
Long before Glacier National Park became a protected landscape, the land around Upper St. Mary’s Lake was alive with the pulse of Blackfoot life. In the late 19th century, their villages stood in harmony with the towering peaks, vast skies, and clear waters of what is now northwestern Montana. For the Blackfoot, this wasn’t wilderness—it was home, sacred ground passed down through generations. The rhythms of their lives were intertwined with the land, their every step part of a deep and enduring connection to the earth.
The Niitsitapi, or Blackfoot people, knew every trail, every plant, every hidden spring in this vast, untamed land. They followed the buffalo, honored the spirits that danced in the wind, and gathered near St. Mary’s Lake for ceremonies, hunting, and trade. Their lodges, made from buffalo hides stretched across tipi poles, dotted the plains near the lake’s shore—each one a shelter, a story, and a heartbeat of a thriving culture. This was a place of deep spiritual significance, where the mountains were more than mere scenery; they were kin, guardians of an ancient way of life.
As the 1800s drew to a close, the winds of change began to blow stronger. With the arrival of settlers, railroads, and the eventual creation of Glacier National Park in 1910, the Blackfoot were displaced from the land their ancestors had called sacred. Today, the tipi rings still found near the lake are more than just remnants—they are echoes of a time when families fished the streams, children ran barefoot through wildflower meadows, and the land was an inseparable part of the Blackfoot identity. This photograph, taken in the late 1800s, is a reminder that before the fences, the signs, and the postcards, this land was home—rich, rooted, and deeply real.
