NEAR BABB - Beneath the shadow of Chief Mountain — Nina Stakoo to the Blackfeet — many people assembled on Sept. 29 and Sept. 30 for the Shield Keepers Gathering, a two-day event dedicated to protecting a sacred site while strengthening Blackfeet knowledge, language, and culture.
Watch to learn more about the Shield Keepers Gathering:
The gathering was organized by Blackfeet Eco Knowledge, a nonprofit that works to bridge traditional Blackfeet teachings with western science, ensuring cultural wisdom is passed on while building solutions for the future.
For generations, Chief Mountain has been one of the most sacred places for the Blackfeet people as a site of prayer, fasting, and healing.
In recent years, however, it has also become a popular hiking destination, with tourists climbing onto fasting beds or handling offerings left in ceremony.
But the gathering was about more than concern; it was about connection.
Blackfeet organizations and community members joined with representatives from other Blackfoot bands across Canada, coming together to share knowledge, renew traditions, and stand united under the holy mountain.
“Chief Mountain is what we call an active mountain. It still has the spirit, it still has the ability to give us knowledge,” explained Tyson Running Wolf, the Blackfeet Eco Knowledge Chief Executive Officer. “That’s why we want to learn from it and protect it.”
The Shield Keepers Gathering included cultural exchanges, storytelling, and discussions about how traditional ecological knowledge can work alongside modern science to protect both land and people.
For Blackfeet Eco Knowledge, the mission is to weave these approaches together, ensuring the health of the ecosystem while revitalizing the culture that has always cared for it.
“As a Shield Keeper, we're kind of basically learners,” explained Darrell Hall, a Blackfeet Eco Knowledge Shield Keeper. “We're learning our culture. We've been involved in it, but we learn more about it so we can learn how to take care of the land, so we take care of what the Creator has given us.”
Organizers acknowledged the mountain’s fragile state, having experienced two major erosions in recent decades, once in 1972 and again in 1992.
They stressed the need for education, both within and beyond the tribe. By teaching others about the spiritual significance of Chief Mountain, they hope to encourage respect, protection, and understanding.
“It's a sacred mountain, and it's given a lot of power out of there, a lot of oral history of the people received their personal power, medicine, prayers, prayers were answered, healings," Hall told MTN. "So that's why we're trying to keep it sacred.”
As the sun set behind Chief Mountain, the Shield Keepers Gathering left participants with a renewed sense of unity. For many, it was a reminder that protecting a sacred mountain is not just about the land, it’s about preserving the language, stories, and ways of life that make the Blackfeet who they are.
