Commentary
When an early Blackfoot or Plains Cree tribe faced a problem of food supply or contagion such as smallpox in their territory, councils met to discuss it. Typically a group of senior men—war chiefs, shamans, hunters, and the like—talked, in turn, and considered the various aspects of the problem. The input of many experienced voices was heard. These were so-called primitive societies, yet this is how at least some of them worked.
