Blackfoot

• Siksikai'powahsin: Siksika language series kit, Level 1. Vivian Ayoungman & Emma Lee Warrior. (Illustrations by Radford Black Rider. Old Stories as told by Matthew Many Guns, Songs by Robert Sun Walk. Les Éditions Duval, Inc., Edmonton, Alberta, 1993. $295 (Canadian)/$250 (US), plus $5 postage.) --- A course in Blackfoot. The materials are extensive and include four student modules, a book of story texts (Aakaitapitsinniksiists: Siksika Book of Old Stories), a set of black & white flash cards, a teacher's guide, and two audio cassettes. The course is divided into 8 units (9 lessons). --- Order from: Les Éditions Duval, 18228 102 Avenue, Edmonton, Alberta T5S 1S7, Canada (tel: 403/488-1390; fax: 403/482-7213). [July 1993]
  
  
  
• Three tapes of drills for spoken Blackfoot classes are available from the Native American Studies Program, University of Lethbridge, Alberta T1K 3M4, Canada. Tapes I-III are priced at $7, $6, and $5 respectively, plus $1 for shipping and handling of each mailing. These prices include written transcripts. [July 1994]
  
  
  
• Donald G. Frantz & Norma Jean Russell, Blackfoot Dictionary of Stems, Roots, and Affixes. (Univ. of Toronto Press, 1989, 470 pp., $60 CDN). --- Frantz & Russell's Blackfoot Dictionary is the first scholarly dictionary of Blackfoot to appear since Uhlenbeck & van Gulik's An English-Blackfoot Vocabulary (1930), and the result of a quarter of a century of research. "Blackfoot" here includes the dialects of the Blood and Peigan as well as of the Blackfoot/Blackfeet of Alberta and Montana; dialect differences (not great) are noted where relevant. This is, as the title indicates, primarily a dictionary of stems, i.e., occurring forms minus inflectional affixes. As those familiar with Algonquian might expect, many stems, particularly of verbs, are morphologically quite complex, showing one or more layers of derivational affix-ation. However, since all derivational elements (adjuncts, medials, finals) and verb roots are separately entered, most stems are potentially analyzable from the data given. This is not true, however, of the inflected forms that exemplify stem usage; all discussion of inflectional elements and their complex morphophonemics is reserved for Frantz's Blackfoot Grammar [see below].
  
  Donald G. Frantz, Blackfoot Grammar (Univ. of Toronto Press, 1991, 159 pp., $45 CDN). --- Frantz intends this short but comprehensive grammar of Blackfoot (covering Blood and Piegan as well as "Blackfoot" proper) to "serve a variety of audiences," including both laymen and linguists. The 22 chapters progress from relatively non-technical discussions of orthography, basic grammatical structures and verbal categories, to fairly detailed treatments of complex verb stems and some syntactic topics (nominali-zations, questions, and complement clauses). Throughout, examples are numerous and fully analyzed. Appendices lay out the full paradigms of intransitive, transitive inanimate, and transitive animate verbs, and provide a reference list of phonological rules. An index, detailed section headings, and frequent cross-references (including good footnotes) facilitate finding one's way around. This is a reference grammar in the strict sense, designed to be used alongside the dictionary. Between them, the two books should provide the student of Blackfoot, at any level, nearly everything necessary for mastering the formal structure of the language.
  
  
• Order from: Univ. of Toronto Press, 10 St. Mary St., Toronto, Ontario M4Y 2W8, CANADA. (US orders to: 340 Nagel Drive, Buffalo, NY 14225.) [June 1989 & Jan. 1992]

• Transitions, a 30-minute documentary film by Blackfeet educator (and SSILA member) Darrell Kipp, in collaboration with Joe Fisher, examines the disappearance of the Blackfeet language during the past century, and emphasizes the tremendous loss that is only now beginning to be realized. Screened at the Sundance Film Festival and the National Gallery of Art, the film is now available for sale in various formats by Native Voices Public Television at Montana State University. The formats include: 1/2" VHS (educational use), $99.95; 3/4" (educational use), $149.95; and 1/2" VHS (home use only), $39.95. A teacher's study guide is also available for $4. - Order from: Native Voices, VCB Room 222, Montana State Univ., Bozeman, MT 59717 (tel: 406/994-6218; fax: 406/994-6545; e-mail: (NV@sesame.kusm.montana.edu). Add $4 for shipping and handling.