- Pimicikamak Cree Nation
Pimicikamak Cree Nation is sometimes used as a name for
Pimicikamak , one of the more populousCree indigenous peoples in Canada.Etymologically , "Pimicikamak Cree Nation" is apolyglot description of this indigenous people, and is not aname . "Pimicikamak" is theCree name of anindigenous people whose traditional territory was thedrainage basin of the upperNelson River in what came to be known asRupert's Land . [Margaret Anne Lindsay & Jennifer S.H. Brown, "The History of thePimicikamak People to the Treaty Five Period", The Centre for Rupert's Land Studies at TheUniversity of Winnipeg ,Winnipeg (2008).] "Cree" is 18th-Century Frenchslang derived from "the Old Algonkin dialect form "kiristino", which was "the name of an obscure band of Indians who roamed the region south of James Bay in the first half of the seventeenth century". [David H. Pentland, "Synonymy" in "West Main Cree", in "Handbook of North American Indians", June Helm, ed., Smithsonian Institution 1981, Washington, D.C., v. 6, p. 227.] It is anexonym that was not used by the Pimicikamak people to describe themselves. [David Thompson recorded "The French Canadians...call them 'Krees', a name which none of the Indians can pronounce...", "Life with the Nahathaways" in "David Thompson: Travels in Western North America 1784-1812", Victor G. Hopwood, ed., Macmillan of Canada, Toronto (1971), p. 109.] Today, "Crees use the name Cree to refer to themselves only when speaking English or French." [David H. Pentland, "Synonymy" in "West Main Cree", in "Handbook of North American Indians", June Helm, ed., Smithsonian Institution 1981, Washington, D.C., v. 6, p. 227.] "Nation " is an English word. The combination of these three terms describes the Pimicikamak people less accurately than its own name "Pimicikamak"."Pimicikamak Cree Nation" may be abbreviated as "PCN" referring erroneously to the Cross Lake Band of Indians or
Cross Lake First Nation , not to be confused with the Mexican metal band of that name.Pimicikamak is anindigenous people whose origins lie inpre-history ; the Cross Lake Band of Indians is a pseudo-corporate legal entity created by the "Indian Act". ["Indian Act", R.S.C., 1985, c. I-5, (Can.), http://lois.justice.gc.ca/en/showtdm/cs/I-5, accessed 3 September 2008.] The Pimicikamak people is governed by four councils under customary law.Cross Lake First Nation is governed by a Band Council under the "Indian Act". [But note that the Band Council is no longer elected under the "Indian Act"; see: "The Pimicikamak Election Law, 1999", s. 19: "For greater certainty, provisions of the Indian Act andregulations thereunder, in respect of election of Chief and Council of the Band, shall not apply in respect of the Band." and s. 26: "Notwithstanding theIndian Act and Regulations thereunder, the Chief and Council of the Nation shall be, "ex officio", the Chief and Council of the Band.", http://www.pimicikamak.ca/law/LAWoELEf_cor.DOC, accessed 3 September 2008.]Footnotes
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.