Although Crowfoot was the adoptive father of Poundmaker, he kept the potentially powerful Blackfoot Confederacy out of the 1885 rebellion. His people harboured grievances as acute as those of any other band, but Crowfoot's control over his people was based on the immense prestige he had earned through his management of traditional Indian rivalries. That chiefs had no authority beyond the respect accorded to their wisdom and experience was often beyond the grasp of white administrators.
