Blackfoot

The Blackfoot were a tribe from Arizona. It was the first of the tribes that Caesar took control of and forged into his Legion.

Background
At some point in 2247, Mormon missionary Joshua Graham, as well as two Followers of the Apocalypse - Bill Calhoun and Edward Sallow, the young man later known as Caesar, ventured into the Grand Canyon. Edward had been sent there to learn the dialects of the canyon tribes, with Calhoun sent to assist, and the pair met with Joshua along the way. Upon reaching their goal, they climbed down into the canyon, meeting the Blackfoots.

Graham was able to communicate with them, and the two groups at first had friendly relations. However, the tribe would grow hostile for an unknown reason, capturing the three and holding them for ransom. Joshua Graham would come to blame himself, believing that he must had mistranslating something to the Blackfoots, leading them to decide that the outsiders wouldn't be leaving.

At the time the tribe was at war with seven other tribes, a war they were inevitably going to lose. Unwilling to be destroyed along with them, and against the wishes of his companions, Caesar chose to use his knowledge to train the Blackfoot tribe in the art of warfare after witnessing their lack of knowledge first hand. He showed them how to clean and maintain guns, operate with small unit tactics, create their own explosives and to strike at their weakest enemies first. He quickly impressed them enough to the point where he was made their leader.Caesar: "If you think it's worthwhile to make smart people learn how to talk like backward savages, you're a Follower of the Apocalypse... or an idiot. Anyway, we met up with a Mormon missionary who already knew a bunch of dialects - Joshua Graham. He was supposed to teach me. But before that went too far, the Blackfoot tribe captured us, to hold us for ransom. They were a backward bunch. But the real problem was, they didn't know how to fight." The Courier: "What was wrong with the Blackfoot?" Caesar: "The Blackfoot were at war with seven other tribes, each just as pissant as they were. But outnumbered like that, they weren't going to last long. It's one thing to be taken hostage, another to be lashed to a sinking ship. So over Calhoun's objections, I decided to take certain steps." The Courier: "What steps did you take?" Caesar: "I taught them how to use the guns they already had - how to strip and clean them, how to breathe when pulling a trigger, how to reload ammunition. They looked at me like I was some kind of a sorcerer. So I taught them how to make explosives, and started drilling them on small unit tactics. If there's anything I learned as a Follower of the Apocalypse, it's that there's a lot of good information in old books." The Courier: "What happened after you trained the Blackfoot?" Caesar: "{LATIN} Divide et impera - divide and conquer. I led the Blackfoot against the Ridgers, their weakest enemy. When they refused to surrender, I ordered every man, woman, and child killed. When next we surrounded the Kaibabs and they likewise refused... I took one of their envoys to the Ridgers' village and showed him the corpse piles. This was new for the tribes, you see. They played at war, raiding each other, a little rape and pillage here, a little ransoming there. I showed them total warfare. Like I said, there's a lot you can learn from old books." The Courier: "What happened to the tribes?" Caesar: "The Kaibabs joined me, and the Fredonians after that - all the pissant tribes, with names that should be forgotten. I knew from the start I'd need to eradicate this plague of tribal identities, replacing them with a monolithic culture, a uniform identity. So that's what I did, once my confederation of tribes was large enough. I crowned myself Caesar and created a single Great Tribe - my Legion. I sent Calhoun, the Follower captured with me, back West with a message that I should not be interfered with. Joshua Graham, the Mormon interpreter, stayed with me and served as my first Legatus." (Caesar's dialogue)

If the Courier speaks with Canyon Runner, he mentions being a former member of the tribe, and that they were the first conquered by the Legion.

Appearances
The Blackfoot are mentioned in Fallout: New Vegas and its add-on Honest Hearts.