(Sarcee) referred to it as Chadish-kashi ("black/rocks"), the Cree as Kuskusukisay-guni ("black/rocks"), and the Nakoda (Stoney) as Ipubin-saba-akabin ("digging coal"). The Kutenai referred to it as ?aokwum.

After the United States Army stopped alcohol trading with the Blackfeet Nation in Montana in 1869, traders John J. Healy