Siksika

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Chief Curley Bear, 1903

The Siksika (English pronunciation: "Seeg-see-Kah", derived from the singular Siksikáíkoan - "Blackfoot", hence often Blackfoot ) or Siksikáwa (plural: "Blackfoot") are one of the three First Nations of the Nitsitapii ( Blackfoot) in the southern Canadian province of Alberta . Since they were the northernmost tribe of the Nitsitapii (Blackfoot), they were also often referred to as the Northern Blackfoot .

The Siksikáwa often referred to themselves simply as Sao-kitapiiksi ("People of the Plains").

Culturally, historically and linguistically they are closely related to the Kainai (Káínawa or Blood) and the Northern Piegan (Apatohsipikani or Peigan) and Southern Piegan (Aamsskáápipikani or Blackfeet) . All four strains spoke (spoke) each slightly different dialects of the Plains Algonquin counting Black Foot (Ni'tsiitapipo'ahsin or Nitsipussin) and designate as Ni-tsi-ta-pi-ksi or Ni-tsi-ta-pi (Niitsítapi) (read: nee-itsee-TAH-peh - "The true, balanced people"). The Nitsitapii (Blackfoot) often referred to themselves as Nitsi-poi-yiksi ("people who speak our - the true - language") to differentiate themselves from neighboring tribes .

The total population of the four Nitsitapii (Blackfoot) tribes before contact with Europeans and three devastating epidemics is estimated to be 15,000 to 18,000 tribal members.

Naming and designation

Your own designation Siksika (singular) comes from the Blackfoot (Ni'tsiitapipo'ahsin or Nitsipussin) and means "black foot" and is derived from the words sik ("black") and ka ("foot"), which by means of the infix - si- are put together. The plural is Siksikáwa ("black feet"). The first Europeans probably first met the Siksika and transferred the word Blackfoot to the closely related tribes of the Kainai and Northern and Southern Piegan.

Blackfoot Confederacy

Territory and Members of the Confederation

Together with the Northern-Athapaskan -speaking Sarcee (derived from the Blackfoot designation as Saahsi or Sarsi - "courageous people, stubborn, defiant people") and (from approx. 1793 to 1861) with the Algonquin-speaking Gros Ventre (in Blackfoot : Piik-siik-sii-naa - "snakes" or Atsina - "like a Cree, ie enemy") they formed the so-called Confederation of Blackfoot (Blackfoot Confederacy) .

The traditional territory of the three great tribal groups of the Nitsitapii (Blackfoot) comprised large areas of the Northwestern Plains and extended in the north to the North Saskatchewan River ( Ponoká'sisaahta or Ponokasisahta - "Elk River") with Fort Edmonton (formerly: Edmonton House , today's Edmonton ) as an important trading post and no later than the middle of the 19th century in the south to the Musselshell River and Yellowstone River ( Otahkoiitahtayi or Otahkoi-tah-tayi - "Yellow River") in Montana. They also ruled the upper reaches of the Missouri River and roamed south to Three Forks along the Madison River , Jefferson River , Ruby River , Beaverhead River , Red Rock River , Big Hole River and Wise River in southwest Montana , and the Small Robe hunted Band of Piegan mostly south of the Missouri River . In the west, their territory was bounded by the Rocky Mountains ( Miistakistsi ) and extended in the northeast along the South Saskatchewan River to today's Alberta-Saskatchewan border ( Kaayihkimikoyi ), east of the Cypress Hills and the Great Sand Hills ( Omahskispatsikoyii ) in the southwest of Saskatchewan and in the southeast on the plains to the Montana-North Dakota border. The Sweet Grass Hills (in Blackfoot: kátoyissiksi - "Sweet Pine Hills") and Chief Mountain ( Ninastako ) were their sacred mountains. They named their large tribal area Nitawahsin-nanni ("Our Land"), an obvious word equation with Nitassinan ("Our Land"), the name for the Innu and Naskapi territory in the east.

Through the allied Sarcee in the northwest of the Nitsitapii (Blackfoot), the actual sphere of influence of the Confederation even extended to the parks and plains in northeast British Columbia and northwest Alberta, from the Hay River and Peace River in the north south between the North Saskatchewan River, Athabasca River , Red Deer River and South Saskatchewan River west of Edmonton. In the east of the Nitsitapii (Blackfoot) the (temporarily) allied Gros Ventre once lived along the Saskatchewan River Forks (the confluence of the North Saskatchewan Rivers and South Saskatchewan Rivers) and along the upper reaches of the Saskatchewan River in western Saskatchewan - until these before the with Guns armed enemy Cree - Assiniboine had to flee south to the Milk River in Montana.

Main article: Blackfoot

Siksika tribal areas

The Siksika lived north / northeast of the Kainai and Piegan mostly east of today's Calgary (in Blackfoot moh-kíns-tsis - "elbow") along the Battle River in the north, south along the Sounding River , Red Deer River to the Bow River in south-central - Alberta and east along these rivers and along the South Saskatchewan River to western Saskatchewan . However, they were often found further north along the North Saskatchewan River, and although they also roamed south to the Milk River and Missouri Rivers in northern Montana in the United States , they were closer to the British (and later Canadians) and were in the Usually not involved in trade or contracts with the Americans.

The Siksika were the smallest tribal group of the Nitsitapii (Blackfoot) with around 2,000 to 3,000 tribal members; In 1879, 2,249 tribal members were officially registered.

Way of life and historical development

Chief Crowfoot, 1887

The nomadic Siksika lived as the northernmost of the Nitsitapii tribes on the Battle and Red Deer Rivers . They lived as warriors and mainly hunted bison . While they lived in intensive exchange and peace with their closely related neighboring tribes, they were especially enemies with the Cree and the Assiniboine . Before the first trappers arrived, the tribe comprised between 2000 and 3000 members. Although they migrated as far as the Missouri River area , they were seldom involved in American affairs, and viewed the British as their allies.

In the mid-19th century, when Chief Crowfoot signed Treaty No. 7 fundamental to the way of life of the people. From 1877 the Siksika settled in an Indian reserve near Blackfoot Crossing in eastern Calgary . They settled down and ran farms and ranches , some also worked in a coal mine on the Siksika land. After part of the reserve was sold in 1912 and 1918, the Siksika became the wealthiest people of western Canada's First Nations, but their fortunes were completely depleted by the mid-20th century. The tribe is now led by an elected chief and a twelve-member council, which is elected every two years by members of the people.

language

They call their language, the Blackfoot , Ni'tsiitapipo'ahsin ("language of true, balanced people") or Nitsipussin ("true, real language"). However, of the 39,000 or so Nitsitapii (Blackfoot), only 3250 in Canada and 100 in the USA speak their mother tongue; most of them now use Canadian or American English as their first language. Some of the younger Nitsitapii (Blackfoot) in Canada also speak Cree.

Since 2008, the various tribes have been trying to get the Blackfoot language integrated into the local curricula for schools. For this, many terms had to be newly created in order to meet technical or mathematical requirements, for example.

Todays situation

Today the Siksika Nation has about 6,925 tribe members, of which about 3790 live on the 696.54 km² Siksika 146 Reserve on the Bow River in southern Alberta, about 87 km southeast of Calgary. (As of July 2013) After the Blood Indian Reserve 148 of the Kainai (Blood) Nation , which covers 1,413.87 km², this is the second largest reservation in Canada.

literature

  • Betty Bastien, Jürgen W. Kremer: Blackfoot ways of knowing: the worldview of the Siksikaitsitapi , University of Calgary Press 2004
  • Raymond J. DeMallie (Ed.): Handbook of North American Indians . Volume 13: Plains. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, 2001, ISBN 0-16-050400-7
  • Susan Berry, Jack Brink, Provincial Museum of Alberta (Eds.): Aboriginal Cultures in Alberta: Five Hundred Generations , University of Alberta, 2007, ISBN 0-7785-2852-9
  • Andrew Bear Robe: Siksika Nation: Indian Government: Treaties, Aboriginal Rights, and Current Developments: Rebuilding the Siksika Nation , The Nation, 1991, University of Michigan

Individual evidence

  1. Indian Reserves around Calgary - How and why to pronounce them correctly  ( Page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.calgary20.ca  
  2. the area between the North Saskatchewan River and Battle River (the name derives from the war between the Blackfoot tribes and the Cree Assiniboine) became the border of the now warring tribal alliances.
  3. from the Blackfoot as omukoyis from the Sarcee as Nasagachoo and from the Stoney (Nakoda) as titunga called - are each all these names "Big House"
  4. since the Siksika and Piegan prevented the Kutenai from trading at Fort Edmonton, the Kutenai Rocky Mountain House was built further west near the Rocky Mountains and thus the tribal areas
  5. ^ Annis May Timpson: First Nations, First Thoughts: The Impact of Indigenous Thought in Canada , University of British Columbia, 2010, ISBN 978-0-7748-1552-9
  6. Nitawahsin-nanni- Our Land ( Memento of the original dated August 7, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.blackfootcrossing.ca
  7. the place where Calgary later emerged was also referred to as "elbow" in Cree otos-kwunee , in Sarcee kootsisáw and in Stoney wincheesh-pah , later as the city grew, the Blackfoot referred to it as moh-kíns-tsis-aká-piyoyis - "Elbow Many Houses", all names refer to the confluence of the Elbow River near Calgary with the Bow River , which forms a capital L as a result
  8. ^ Ethnologue - Languages ​​of the World - Blackfoot
  9. See Blackfeet Language Institute aims at integrating Blackfeet language into school curricula, in: Glacier Reporter, June 23, 2008 .
  10. Homepage of the Kainai Nation (Blood Tribe) ( Memento of the original from January 31, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bloodtribe.org
  11. Indian and Northern Affairs Canada: Registered Population - Siksika - July 2013 ( Memento of the original from October 4, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English), Retrieved August 21, 2013 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / pse5-esd5.ainc-inac.gc.ca

Web links

Commons : Siksika Nation  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files