When an indigenous People are overrun by another demographic and in particular when their ecology is seriously changed whether by killed all the bison or by introducing modernity and forced re-education, their problem is identity — what to keep, what to abandon, what is hopelessly lost, what can be created anew, what has come despite opposition.

To define Blackfeet, the current use is provenance (who were your social ancestors, which is difficult in a culture that includes aunts and uncles as parental); location (though half of the enrolled members live off the rez); legal membership in the part of the tribe defined as a corporation (which splits families); affinity (interacting enough to be “adopted”); language (many levels); appearance (not just skin); material culture (clothes, house); skills (living off the land, handling technology); legal (grants and supports stipulate differently) and more.