"The Backbone of the World, where the Blackfeet know themselves to have been created"
Two Medicine Lake
East Glacier Park, Montana, United States
At Two Medicine Lake, you stand within what the Blackfeet call Miistakis—the Backbone of the World. This is not metaphor. According to Blackfeet tradition, they were created among these mountains. The lake's name comes from Na-too-too-kase, the Place of Two Medicine Lodges, where ceremonies were held and prayers answered for at least 13,000 years. Today, Blackfeet tribal members still travel here for prayer and vision quests, maintaining an unbroken connection to the land their ancestors have known since before the last ice age receded.
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Quick Facts
Location
East Glacier Park, Montana, United States
Coordinates
48.4922, -113.3664
Last Updated
Jan 14, 2026
Learn More
Two Medicine has been central to Blackfeet life for at least 13,000 years. The lake takes its name from Na-too-too-kase, the Place of Two Medicine Lodges, where ceremonies were held along the shore. The Blackfeet call the surrounding mountains Miistakis—the Backbone of the World—and know themselves to have been created here.
Origin Story
The origin stories of Two Medicine are creation stories. The Blackfeet know themselves to have been created among these peaks and springs—the mountains called Miistakis, the Backbone of the World. This is not a place the Blackfeet came to from somewhere else. This is where they began.
The name Two Medicine derives from Na-too-too-kase—the Place of Two Medicine Lodges. Long ago, along the shore of this lake, two medicine lodges were built. In these lodges, ceremonies were held, chants were sung, and prayers were made. Old Man heard the prayers and answered through spirit helpers. The lodges gave the place its name, and though the structures are gone, the place remembers what happened there.
The surrounding peaks and the lake itself participate in this origin. They are not backdrop but participants—living presences in a cosmology where landscape and people are related rather than separate.
Key Figures
John Murray
Blackfeet Tribal Historic Preservation Officer who documented Blackfeet presence in the Two Medicine area extending back at least 13,000 years—among the oldest continuous cultural connections to a landscape in North America.
Spiritual Lineage
Two Medicine belongs primarily to the Blackfeet Nation—including the Piikani, Kainai, and Siksika peoples. The area lies within their traditional territory, which extended from this spine of mountains eastward across the plains. The creation of Glacier National Park in 1910 placed this sacred landscape under federal management, but Blackfeet connection to Two Medicine predates the park by 130 centuries and persists regardless of administrative boundaries.
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