The name "Medicine Hat" is the English translation of 'Saamis' (SA-MUS) – the Blackfoot word for the eagle tail feather headdress worn by medicine men – or 'Medicine Hat'. Several legends are associated with the name from a mythical mer-man river serpent named 'Soy-yee-daa-bee' – the Creator – who appeared to a hunter and instructed him to sacrifice his wife to get mystical powers which were manifest in a special hat. Another legend tells of a battle long ago between the Blackfoot and the Cree in which a retreating Cree "Medicine Man" lost his headdress in the South Saskatchewan River.
A number of factors have always made Medicine Hat a natural gathering place. Prior to the arrival of Europeans the Blackfoot, Cree and Assiniboine nations used the area for hundreds of years. The gently sloping valley with its converging water ways and hardy native cottonwood trees attracted both man and the migratory bison herds which passed through the area
