FOUR SACRED DRUMMERS

The Blackfeet were ceremonial people and they loved their music. At many Blackfeet sacred ceremonies - for instance, the thunderpipe ceremony, when they opened the thunderpipe bundle in the spring after they heard the first thunder - they had drummers who would play and sing. The drummers played a very important part at all of these gatherings. To the Blackfeet, four was a sacred number, representing the four directions: north, east, south and west, so there were always four drummers. The viewer sees a sense of movement with these four drums, drumsticks and drummers. The background was kept to a minimum to keep the emphasis on the character studies.