Blackfeet Indian Writing Company facts for kids

The Blackfeet Indian Writing Company (or Blackfeet Writing Instruments) was a pen and pencil manufacturer on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Browning, Montana, USA founded in 1972. As part of a tribal owned economic initiative, the factory opened in 1972 but closed in the early 2000s The company was transferred from the tribe to a private employee-owned company in 1992. The company made, among other products, the cedar wood "The Blackfeet Indian Pencil" in various hardnesses. The "swaggar stick" ballpoint pen was, for a time, an official writing implement of the US Senate. The company also introduced the 'Earth Pencil', an eraserless pencil produced entirely from natural products, including soy ink for imprinting. The former factory burned down in 2019.

Composer John Luther Adams still uses Blackfeet Indian pencils when writing music.