The Blackfeet Indian Writing Company (or Blackfeet Writing Instruments) was a pen and pencil manufacturer on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Browning, Montana, USA[1] founded in 1972.[2][3] The company grew in 1981 when they bought out Lindy, a ballpoint pen manufacturer, for $700,000 which they profited from expanding their company up $6.2 million. As part of a tribal owned economic initiative, the factory opened in 1972 but closed in the early 2000s[4] The company was transferred from the tribe to a private employee-owned company in 1992.[3]

The pencils were made with care, delicacy out of ceramics that were shown in specialty catalogs in beginning of the 1990’s. The Blackfeet Indian writing company is the most popular pencil; however, they were bought out to a private firm in 1992. Sales suffered and went down to 27,000 pencils made.

The company made, among other products, the cedar wood "The Blackfeet Indian Pencil" in various hardnesses. The "swagger stick" ballpoint pen was, for a time, an official writing implement of the US Senate.[5] The company also introduced the 'Earth Pencil', an eraserless pencil produced entirely from natural products, including soy ink for imprinting.[1] The former factory burned down in 2019.[6]

Composer John Luther Adams still uses Blackfeet Indian pencils when writing music.[7] The 42 pencils in their museum are located in Browning, Montana.

References

  1. 1 2 Blackfeet Indian Writing Co., Inc
  2. ↑ The Blackfeet Indian Pencil revisited, Pencil Talk blog, 10 October 2007
  3. 1 2 Blackfeet pencil factory competes in volatile industry Archived April 13, 2009, at the Wayback Machine, Ron Selden, Indian Country Today, 29 March 2000, retrieved 3 July 2010
  4. ↑ "A Pencil to the Past". 18 March 2009.
  5. ↑ https://digitalcommons.wustl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1063&context=record
  6. ↑ "Flames engulf old 'Pencil Factory". 13 November 2019.
  7. ↑ John Luther Adams. (2018, January 12). I still use the rare Blackfeet Indian #2 — the best pencil ever made [Facebook update]. Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/john.l.adams.9/posts/10213149548164611?pnref=story.

https://www.penciltalk.org/2007/10/the-blackfeet-indian-pencil-revisited

https://brandnamepencils.com/brand/blackfeet-indian-writing-co

  • A Pencil to the Past (blog post about The Blackfeet Indian Pencil), Adirondack Base Camp, 18 March 2009, retrieved 3 July 2010


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