Sweet Grass Hills

The Sweet Grass Hills are sacred to five tribal nations: Blackfeet, Gros Ventre, Assiniboine, Chippewa-Cree, and Confederated Salish and Kootenai. According to Blackfeet tradition, the Sun Dance was first revealed through vision at these hills. The creator Napi fashioned the hills from rocks left over from forming the Rocky Mountains.

The origin stories of the Sweet Grass Hills weave together creation, revelation, and the hero tradition. According to Blackfeet legend, the creator Napi fashioned the hills in the dim past from rocks left over after forming the Rocky Mountains. Napi liked his work so well that the Sweet Grass Hills became his favored resting place.

The most significant origin involves the Sun Dance. An ancient vision quest atop these buttes led to the discovery of the Okan—the Sun Dance ceremony that would become central to Blackfeet spiritual life. The sweat lodge ceremony similarly roots in revelations received at the Sweet Grass Hills. These are not merely sacred sites but origin places, where fundamental spiritual practices first entered the world.

The hills were also once named for the hero Katoyis, who according to tradition slew a wind-sucker monster atop one of the buttes. This story links the hills to the protection of the people, a place where threats are defeated and safety secured.