Oji-Cree

Distribution of Anishinabe in North America; the residential area of ​​the Oji-Cree is colored in orange.

The Oji-Cree , Severn Ojibwa or Northern Ojibwa form a group of First Nations living in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Manitoba and belonging to the Algonquin language family. Culturally and historically, the Oji-Cree belong to the tribal group of the Anishinabe , to which the Ojibwe (Chippewa) , Saulteaux , Potawatomi , Odawa (Ottawa) , Algonquin , Nipissing and Mississauga are also assigned.

The Oji-Cree are descendants of mixed marriages between Ojibwe and Cree , hence their English name. According to their oral tradition, they were excluded from both tribes and formed a separate tribe in historical times. Today, the majority of them live between the traditional territories of the Ojibwe in the south and the Cree in the north and are predominantly attributed to the Anishinabe. Since the Oji-Cree identified themselves as Cree and not as Ojibwe , they were previously referred to as Cree by the British and Canadian governments . They were mostly woodland residents and dependent on fishing and hunting, as well as collecting wild rice and other wild plants.

Todays situation

According to the Canadian statistics office, the number of speakers for Oji-Cree increased from 5,480 to 5,610 people from 1996 to 2001, i.e. by 2.4%, while that of the Ojibwe variants by 6% and that of the Cree by 3.1 % decreased. The Oji-Cree language with around 12,600 speakers today is structurally closer to the Ojibwe language than the Cree language.

According to the 2015 census, the population of the Oji-Cree parishes is 26,263, from a total of 36 First Nations. The largest First Nation in Manitoba is the Garden Hill First Nation with 2,776 members (2011), while the Sandy Lake First Nation has the most members in Ontario with 3,034 (2015). Numerous Oji-Cree also live in predominantly white villages. Most of the branches are along the main waterways and by smaller lakes. They are allowed to fish and hunt there. Again, there are the issues that most First Nations have to deal with. This includes the system of residential schools with its consequences. In the boarding-like schools, many children were subjected to abuse and gradually lost their cultural roots and their traditional language. The number of prostitutes in the big cities is disproportionately high among Indian women.

See also

• List of North American Indian tribes

literature

• Bruce G. Trigger (Ed.): Handbook of North American Indians . Vol. 15: Northeast, Chapter: Southeastern Ojibwa, p. 769. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington DC 1978. ISBN 0-16004-575-4

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Anishinabe. Retrieved September 24, 2016 . 
2. ↑ Bruce G. Trigger (Ed.): Handbook of North American Indians . Vol. 15: Northeast, Chapter: Southeastern Ojibwa, p. 769. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington DC 1978. ISBN 0-16004-575-4
3. ↑ Statistics Canada: Aboriginal peoples of Canada, 2001 (archive) .
4. ^ History of Indian Residential Schools ( Memento of May 3, 2010 in the Internet Archive ).
5. ↑ Melissa Farley and Jacqueline Lynne: Prostitution of Indigenous Women: Sex Inequality and the Colonization of Canada's First Nations Women , 2003 ( Memento of the original from January 11, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.