BLACKFEET ECO KNOWLEDGE
Charlene Burns
Board Member
Charlene Burns Blackfeet Indian name is Iipikitstakiaaki which means Far Offering Woman. She comes from the most Northern part of the Blackfeet Reservation in a little town called Babb right up next to the Canadian border. Charlene is married to Bob Burns and they own and operate the Babb Bar/Cattle Baron Supper Club since 1978, one of the longest running Blackfeet owned businesses in the Blackfeet nation located on the northeastern entrance to Glacier National Park. The business features the art and stories of the Blackfeet people and the legacy of their ancestors. Her life passion is all about family. Mrs. Burns's goal has been to undo the trauma that set out to erase and disconnect the Blackfeet people from a healthy Blackfoot mindset that has sustained and connected to Blackfoot territory. That mindset taught healthy relationships with all life forms with a deep respect for the role that everything plays in the universe. Charlene went back to school and got a degree in psychology at the age of 56 searching for answers. Where she really found the answers within the Blackfeet cultural societies where each society is tutored and guided by ceremonial elders. Mrs. Burns is now a ceremonial elder for a couple of those societies and has devoted her life to reconnecting people to that mindset. Especially her 35 grandchildren and 35 great-grandchildren.