The Blackfoot Confederacy occupies a central place in the accounts of Woman Chief’s military career, and understanding the Crow-Blackfoot relationship adds depth to the significance of her war record.

The Piegan Blackfoot, the Blood, and the Blackfoot nation proper constituted a powerful alliance that dominated the northwestern plains and much of the territory that would become Montana.

They controlled access to important trading and trapping territories, they were skilled and well-equipped warriors, and they had a relationship with the Hudson’s Bay Company that gave them relatively early access to firearms.

The relationship between the Crow and the Blackfoot was one of sustained enmity.