Chief Mountain and Old North Trail

The best-known account of the Old North Trail came from a Piegan elder. Brings-down-the-Sun, Natosin Nepeë, living north of the border, described it to Walter McClintock, who published it in 1910: a trail running north and south along the Rockies, worn so deep that travois tracks still showed, along which a Blackfoot party had once gone as far as Mexico and come home with the Dancing Pipe. By his day the trail crossed a border, and McClintock records Piegan families refused permits to ride north and visit relatives among the Bloods.

What the plaque says

Chief Mountain and Old North Trail Chief Mountain, NINA-STA-QUAY, has always been known to the Blackfeet people. Identified on maps as King Mountain as early as 1796, this outstanding landmark has long been revered for its supernatural powers. Generations of Blackfeet have used Chief Mountain for fasting and prayer. In 1992, the Blackfeet Tribe, by Tribal Resolution, limited public access into the area. The ancient Old North Trail, well worn by centuries of Indian travois, entered the United States from the north, a few miles west of present day Port of Piegan Customs. It ran along the east slope of the Rocky Mountains from Edmonton, Alberta, to at least as far as Helena, Montana. Perhaps one of the great migration routes of early man, the Trail more recently served the Northwest Plains Indians as the route for war parties and exchanging goods between Canada and the United States. The Museum of the Plains Indian in Browning relates the story of Plains Indian culture including native travel patterns from earliest times to the present.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Museum of the Plains Indian — 13 mi
  A federal museum on the Blackfeet Reservation whose walls were painted by a Blackfeet muralist in its first year.

More markers nearby

• Old Agency 1880-1894 — 4.2 mi
• Camp Disappointment — 9.1 mi
• The Blackfeet Nation — 11 mi
• The 564th Missile Squadron — 15 mi