Siksika Nation

The Siksika (English pronunciation: " Seeg -see- Kah " Elapsed from the singular Siksikáíkoan - " Blackfoot ", therefore in engl often Blackfoot. ) Or Siksikáwa (plural: " black feet") are one of three First Nations of Nitsitapii ( Blackfoot ) south of the Canadian province of Alberta. Since they were the northernmost tribe of Nitsitapii ( Blackfoot ), they were often referred to as Northern Blackfoot.

The Siksikáwa described themselves often simply as Sao kitapiiksi ( " People of the Plains ( levels )").

Culturally, historically and linguistically, they are closely related to the Kainai ( Káínawa or Blood) and the Northern Piegan ( Apatohsipikani or Peigan ) and the Southern Piegan ( Aamsskáápipikani or Blackfeet ). All four strains were talking ( talk ) each slightly different dialects of the Plains Algonquian scoring Blackfoot ( Ni'tsiitapipo'ahsin or Nitsipussin ) and call themselves Ni- tsi - ta -pi- ksi or Ni- tsi -ta- pi ( Niitsítapi ) (pronounced nee - TAH peh - itsee - "The true, balanced people" ). The Nitsitapii ( Blackfoot ) described themselves as distinct from neighboring tribes often as nitsi - poi - yiksi ( "a people that our - speaks language - the true ").

The total population of the four Nitsitapii ( Blackfoot ) strains before the contacts with Europeans and three devastating epidemics is estimated at 15000-18000 tribal members.

Naming and designation

Your own name Siksika (singular ) comes from the Blackfoot ( Ni'tsiitapipo'ahsin or Nitsipussin ), meaning " Blackfoot " and is derived from the words sik ( "black" ) and ka ( "foot" ), the means of the infix - be si - assembled. The plural is Siksikáwa ("black feet"). The first Europeans arrived probably first on the Siksika and rendering the word Blackfoot on the closely related strains with them the Kainai and Northern and Southern Piegan.

Confederation of Blackfoot ( Blackfoot Confederacy )

Territory and members of the Confederation

Together with the Nordathapaskisch -speaking Sarcee ( abgel of the Blackfoot name as Saahsi or Sarsi - " courageous people, stubborn, defiant people" ), and (from about 1793 to 1861 ) with the also Algonquian -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 major tribal groups of Nitsitapii ( Blackfoot ) consisted of large areas of the North West Plains and handed in the north to the North Saskatchewan River ( Ponoká'sisaahta or Ponokasisahta - " Elk River" ) with Fort Edmonton (formerly Edmonton House, now Edmonton ) as an important trading post and by the mid -19th century in the south to the Musselshell River and Yellowstone River ( Otahkoiitahtayi or Otahkoi - tah - tayi - "Yellow River " - " Yellow River " ) in Montana. In addition, they ruled the territory of the headwaters of the Missouri River and roamed southwards to Three Forks along the Madison River, Jefferson River, Ruby River, Beaverhead River, Red Rock River, Big Hole River and Wise River in southwestern Montana, also chased the Small Robe band of the Piegan mostly south of the Missouri River. In the west, their territory was bounded by the Rocky Mountains ( Miistakistsi ) and extended in the north- east along the South Saskatchewan River to its present Alberta - Saskatchewan border ( Kaayihkimikoyi ), east of the Cypress Hills and the Great Sand Hills ( Omahskispatsikoyii ) in southwestern Saskatchewan as well as in the southeast on the Plains to the Montana - North Dakota border. Herein, the Sweetgrass Hills ( in Blackfoot: kátoyissiksi - "Sweet Pine Hills ") and Chief Mountain ( Ninastako ) their sacred mountains. They called their great tribal area Nitawahsin - nanni ( "Our Land" ), an obvious word equation with Nitassinan ( "Our Land" ), the name for the territory of the Innu and Naskapi in the east.

By the allied Sarcee in the northwest of Nitsitapii ( Blackfoot ), the actual sphere of the Confederacy extended even to the parks and Plains in northeastern British Columbia and northwestern Alberta, from Hay River and Peace River in the north southward between the North Saskatchewan River, Athabasca River, Red Deer River and South Saskatchewan River west of Edmonton. To the east of Nitsitapii ( Blackfoot ) the (at times) allied Gros Ventre once lived along the Saskatchewan River Forks ( the confluence of the North Saskatchewan River and South Saskatchewan River) and along the upper reaches of the Saskatchewan River in western Saskatchewan - until this with before the guns armed enemy Cree - Assiniboine south had to flee to the Milk River in Montana.

→ Main article: Blackfoot

Tribal areas of the Siksika

The Siksika lived north / northeast of the Kainai and Piegan mostly east of the present Calgary ( in Blackfoot moh - kins TSIs - " elbow " ) along the Battle River in the north southward along the Sounding River, Red Deer River to the Bow River in south-central Alberta and eastward along these rivers, and along the South Saskatchewan River to the west of Saskatchewan. However, they were often even further north along the North Saskatchewan River to find and although they roamed southward to the Milk River and Missouri River in northern Montana in the United State, but they were the British ( and later Canadians ) were closer and in the usually not involved in the trade as well as to contracts with the Americans.

The Siksika were approximately 2,000 to 3,000 tribal members, the smallest tribal group of Nitsitapii ( Blackfoot ); 1879 2.249 tribal members were officially registered.

Way of life and historical development

The nomadic Siksika lived as the northernmost of the tribes of Nitsitapii at Battle and Red Deer River. They lived as a warrior and chased especially bison. While they lived with their closely related neighboring tribes in intensive exchange and peace, they were enemies in particular with the Cree and Assiniboine to. The tribe gathered in front of the arrival of the first trappers between 2000 and 3000 members, and although they wandered into the area of the Missouri River, they were rarely involved in American affairs, but regarded the British as their allies.

Middle of the 19th century changed the chief Crowfoot with the signing of Treaty No. 7, the lifestyle of the people fundamentally. As of 1877, the Siksika settled in an Indian Reserve at Blackfoot Crossing in East Calgary. They were sedentary and operated farms and ranches, some also worked in a coal mine on the land of the Siksika. After the sale of part of the reserve in 1912 and 1918, the Siksika were the richest of the Western Canadian First Nations, the wealth, however, was completely used up until the mid 20th century. Meanwhile, the tribe is governed by an elected chief and a twelve-member Council, which is elected by the members of the people every two years.

Language

Their language, Blackfoot, they call Ni'tsiitapipo'ahsin ( " language of the true balanced people " ) or Nitsipussin ( "True, true language "). However, today spoken by approximately 39,000 Nitsitapii ( Blackfoot ) only 3,250 in Canada and 100 in the U.S., their native language, most speak today as a first language Canadian or American English. Some younger Nitsitapii ( Blackfoot ) in Canada also speak Cree.

Since 2008, the various tribes try to enforce that the Blackfoot language is integrated into local curricula for schools. To this end, many terms had to be recreated to be as technical or mathematical problems into account.

Current situation

Today (July 2013) is one of the Siksika Nation about 6,925 tribal members, of which about 3,790 on the 696.54 km ² Siksika 146 Reserve at Bow River in southern Alberta, about 87 km southeast of Calgary, live. After the Blood Indian Reserve 148 of the Kainai ( Blood) Nation, which includes 1413.87 km ², it is the second largest reserve in Canada.