<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><HTML><FONT SIZE=2 PTSIZE=10 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" FACE="Arial" LANG="0">News Release August 2006<BR>
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Piegan Institute<BR>
Browning, Montana<BR>
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</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" BACK="#ffffff" style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" SIZE=3 PTSIZE=12 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" FACE="Arial" LANG="0"><B>Innaihtsiiyi (Peace) History Conference<BR>
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In a time when war in the Middle East is profoundly affecting American society, it seems relevant to ask how peace and warfare have affected earlier societies. Innaihtsiiyi (Peace) History Conference will explore the effects of warfare on Blackfeet society in the 18th and 19th centuries. Historians have long described Blackfeet society as especially "war-like." What does is mean? What is true or not true about the description? What role did peace play within Blackfeet society? The Piegan Institute will hold a one-day history conference Innaihtsiiyi (Peace) which will examine differing concepts of peace (and war), Blackfeet relationships with their neighbors, the role of peace negotiators, and the dynamics of history on the Northern Great Plains. The conference is free and open to the public and will be held on Friday, August 18, 2006 at the Nizipuhwahsin School from 10am to 4pm. Presenters will include:<BR>
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<B>Dr. Theodore Binnema</B>, Professor of History, University of Northern British Colombia, and author of <U>Common and Contested Ground: A Human and Environmental History of the Northwest Plains</U>, will examine the significance of peace and warfare in Blackfeet history in the 18th and early 19th century and the role of warfare on Blackfeet society.<BR>
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<B>Narcisse Blood</B>, Kainai Studies Department at Red Crow College, Alberta and <B>Dr. Cynthia Chambers</B> will screen a 30 minute video which attempts to capture Blackfoot stories, especially those about the land, and those that originate from the land, have not adequately conveyed the perspective of Blackfeet elders.<BR>
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<B>Dr. Hugh Dempsey</B>, Chief Curator Emeritus, Glenbow Museum, Calgary, Alberta, and author of <U>The Amazing Death of Calf Shirt and other Blackfoot Stories: Three Hundred Years of Blackfoot History</U>, will examine the motivations for treaties made between the Blackfoot and other tribes, such as the Cree and Kootenai, and why some treaties succeeded and others failed, and their implications.<BR>
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<B>Dr. James Dempsey</B>, Professor of Native Studies, University of Alberta, and author of <U>Warriors of the King</U>, will examine images of peace and war in Blackfoot pictographs. His visual presentation will examine these pictorial representations of history and the unique concepts of war and peace found within them. <BR>
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<B>Nicholas Vrooman</B>, Adjunct Instructor of Native American Studies at the University of Montana will examine the life of Maski Pitonew or Broken Arm, a Cree Indian. Broken Arm's traditional role as a peace negotiator coincided when Native ideas of peace struggled to accommodate external and internal conflict. <BR>
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Piegan Institute is a private not-for-profit organization with programs dedicated to researching, promoting and preserving Blackfeet history and language. This conference is co-sponsored by the O'Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West and the Native American Studies Department at the University of Montana. <BR>
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For more information on the conference or directions to Nizipuhwahsin please call Rosalyn LaPier at 406-338-7740 or rrlapier@pieganinstitute.org.<BR>
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