Invisible reality: Storytellers, storytakers and the supernatural world of the Blackfeet

As we conclude Native American Heritage Month, I suggest a great book for your enjoyment. Settle into a comfortable chair and read Rosalyn R. LaPier’s “Invisible Reality”. It is wonderful. LaPier will be presenting this book at Alpine Artisans’ Open Book Club on Saturday, Dec. 4 at 7 p.m.

Through her extensive research, LaPier, a Native American and member of the Blackfeet tribe, provides us an objective and authentic view of the rich history and culture of the Blackfeet. At the same time, she brings that history and culture alive through her family’s personal knowledge of storytellers, storytakers and the supernatural world of the Blackfeet.

Her writing allows you to more fully appreciate the natural world in which the Blackfeet lived and survived through many generations as a “Plains tribe.” I think more importantly, you are provided insights into their “real world,” their supernatural world that enabled the Blackfeet to control the natural world.

At one time the Blackfeet Confederacy’s territory was the size of Montana. It extended from the Rocky Mountain front to nearly the present-day border of North Dakota. It went as far south as Billings and to the north encompassing a large swath of Alberta and Saskatchewan.

LaPier takes us on a journey the many bands of Blackfeet took, pre-reservation, through their territory in a yearly mission of learning and understanding the world that was theirs. They learned by experience and observation “with the help of their supernatural allies.” They learned to understand the seasons, the animals, the plants and the weather. They understood where the buffalo would be at what time of the year. They learned how to use and fully appreciate the natural environment to enable them to live, survive and flourish in this harsh land they called home.

The Blackfeet’s lives in the natural world were inextricably tied to the supernatural world. Their religious heritage has been passed down for centuries through “oral stories.” LaPier tells us these stories.

She explains the Blackfeet’s belief in the supernatural connection to their material world and how and why the stories of this connection were created and passed on. Stories of how and why the power of the supernatural was transferred to the individual upon whom the power was bestowed. How that individual retained the power. But maybe most importantly, how the stories through the generations are retained through mnemonic devices and passed on so as to preserve their heritage, who they are - a part of their culture that could never be stripped from them.

LaPier, as a Native American and Blackfeet member, explains in the preface the efforts she made to assure her writing of this history and culture is authentic and objective. But it is also clear that her heart is in this book. It is a mnemonic. She hopes by our listening to the stories she tells, we learn and hopefully better understand the Blackfeet’s amazing lives.