Transcription

Take a moment and walk over to the front of the tipi and face the door. If you look up, you can see the smoke flaps on each side that are used to control the direction of the smoke that would come from a campfire in the middle of the lodge. On each flap you will notice a series of circles. These represent stars and reference important Blackfeet stories.

On each side of the door of the tipi, outside the yellow ochre, you can see black and red triangle designs. These represent the peaks of the Rocky Mountains, which in northwest Montana, are our homelands.

You’ll notice white circles along the bottom of the tipi. These are called “dusty stars” and represent puffballs that are sprung up overnight on the prairie. The puffballs could also represent fallen stars.