Chipewyan

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The Chipewyan (Denésoliné or Dënesųłiné) are a Dene Aboriginal people in Canada, whose ancestors were the Taltheilei. There are approximately 11,000 Chipewyan living in the Canadian Arctic regions around Hudson Bay, including Manitoba and the Northwest Territories, as well as northern parts of Alberta and Saskatchewan. Present-day bands exist in:

• Alberta: Fort Chipewyan First Nation, Fort McKay First Nation, Janvier, Fort McMurray First Nation, Cold Lake
• Manitoba: Barren Lands, Churchill, Sayisi Dene, Northlands
• Northwest Territories: Fort Resolution/Deninu Kue First Nation, Smiths Landing, Lutsel K'e
• Saskatchewan: Buffalo River, Black Lake, Clearwater River, English River, Font du Lac River, Lac la Hache, Stoney Rapids, Turnor Lake, Patuanak^[1][2]

Ethnography

Historically, the Denesuline were allied to some degree with the southerly Cree, and warred against Inuit and other Dene peoples to the north of Chipewyan lands.

An important historic Denesuline is Thanadelthur ("Marten Jumping"), a young woman who early in the 18th century helped her people to establish peace with the Cree, and to get involved with the fur trade (Steckley 1999).

• Louis Riel was a grandson of a Chipewyan

The Sayisi Dene of northern Manitoba are a Chipewyan band notable for hunting migratory caribou. They were historically located at Little Duck Lake, and known as the "Duck Lake Dene". In 1956, government relocated them to the port of Churchill on the shore of Hudson Bay and a small village north of Churchill called North Knife River, joining other Chipewyan Dene, and becoming members of "Fort Churchill Dene Chipewyan Band". In the 1970s, the "Duck Lake Dene" opted for self-reliance, a return to caribou hunting, and relocated to Tadoule Lake, Manitoba, legally becoming "Sayisi Dene First Nation (Tadoule Lake, Manitoba)" in the 1990s.^[3]

Language

Denesuline (Chipewyan) speak the Dene Suline language, of the Athabaskan linguistic group. Dene Suline is spoken by those First Nations members whose name for themselves is a cognate of the word Dene ("people"): Denésoliné (or Dënesųłiné).

The name Chipewyan is, like many people of the Canadian prairies, of Algonquian origin. It is derived from the Plains Cree name for them, Cīpwayān (ᒌᐘᔮᐣ), "pointed skin", from cīpwāw (ᒌᐚᐤ), "to be pointed"; and wayān (ᐘᔮᐣ), "skin" or "hide" - a reference to the cut and style of Chipewyan parkas.^[4] Many Chipewyan believe that the name is derogatory.

Despite the superficial similarity of the names, the Chipewyan are not related to the Chippewa (Ojibwa) people.

Notes

Further reading

External links

• Official website
• Chipewya
• The Indigenous Maps and Mapping of North American Indians