"In 1931 when Matson visited them, and with Dr. Schrader collected blood specimens for their study
(Matson and Schrader, 1933), the Agency records at Browning, Montana showed many Blackfeet to be mixed with other tribes. These included Canadian Cree, American Cree, Chippewa, Cherokee,
Snake, Shoshone, Sioux, Gros Ventre, Flathead, Kootenai and Alaskan. Phenotypic indicators of
admixture with Blacks were also observed among a few persons. During the twentieth century,
admixture with non-Indians has been a prominent stimulus to social, demographic, and genetic change. Ewers (1958) has described the demographic consequences of this process in detail. In summary, by 1950 approximately 85% of the tribal population of 6,000 persons were of mixed (i.e. non-Indian and Indian) ancestry. These observations are supported by those of McFee (1968) who has described the composition of the Blackfeet population as follows:
The Blackfeet tribal enrollment as of February 1, 1960 was 8,456 members of which 4,850 lived on the reservation. Roughly 13 percent of this resident population was fullblood, while perhaps another 10 percent was less than one-quarter Indian."
-The Genetic Composition of Reservation Populations: The Blackfeet Reservation, Montana, U.S.A
by Dwight A. Rokala, Herbert F. Polesky and G. Albin Matson
Human Biology, Vol.49, No.1 (Febrauary 1977),
pg.20
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