MultiTree:

Name: Blackfoot Type: Language Alternate Names: Pikanii; Blackfeet; Siksika; Siksika Cluster Spoken in: USA, Canada Number of speakers: 4,500 in Canada (2001 census), decreasing. Few monolinguals. Population total all countries: 4,600. Ethnic population: 15,000 (Ethnologue) Number of speakers: 3200 (UNESCO) Number of speakers: 5100 (World Oral Literature Project) Code: bla Code Standard: ISO 639-3 Documentation: SIL Families: Algic (Algonquian-Wiyot-Yurok, Algonquian-Ritwan) Parent Subgroup: Blackfoot (blft) Brief Description: "Blackfoot is an Algonquian language of the northern High Plains, spoken principally on the Blackfoot, Peigan, and Blood Reserves in southern Alberta, and on the Blackfeet Reservation in northwestern Montana. There are three shallowly differentiated dialects, representing old tribal subdivisions: Siksika, spoken primarily on the Blackfoot Reserve; Kainaa, or Blood, spoken on the Blood Reserve; and Peigan (spelled 'Peigan' in Canada), spoken on the Peigan Reserve in Alberta and the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana. While the number of fluent speakers of Blackfoot has declined in the past generation, there are still several thousand speakers of the language, including hundreds who no longer reside on tribal land. In Canada, 5,605 first-language speakers of Blackfoot were counted in the 1996 census, out of a total combined Band membership of over 15,000. In some locations Blackfoot remains the principal means of communication for older adults. In the United States the 1990 census counted 1,062 first-language speakers in a tribal enrollment of approximately 13,000." Victor Golla, Atlas of the World's Languages 2007 pg. 11

Endangerment Status

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UNESCO Status: Definitely endangered Ethnologue Status: Not listed Sutherland's Red List: Not listed