Chipewyan

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: [http://www.fnmr.gov.sk.ca/community/directory/fns/buffalo-river/ Buffalo River] , Black Lake, English River, Font du Lac River, Lac la Hache, Stoney Rapids, Turnor Lake, Patuanakcite web |url=http://www.canoesaskatchewan.rkc.ca/arch/trad.htm#taltheilei |title=Archeological Traditions |accessdate=2007-10-12 |work=canoesaskatchewan]

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. [cite web |url=http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/ch/rcap/sg/sg36_e.html |title=The Sayisi Dene (Manitoba) |accessdate=2007-10-12 |work=Indian and Northern Affairs Canada]

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"(or C-word) 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. [Campbell, Lyle (1997). "American Indian Languages: The Historical Linguistics of Native America". Oxford: Oxford University Press, pg. 395] 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

* Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation. "Footprints on the Land: Tracing the Path of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation". Fort Chipewyan, Alta: Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, 2003. ISBN 0973329300
* Birket-Smith, Kaj. "Contributions to Chipewyan Ethnology". Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1930.
* Bone, Robert M., Earl N. Shannon, and Stewart Raby. "The Chipewyan of the Stony Rapids Region; A Study of Their Changing World with Special Attention Focused Upon Caribou". Mawdsley memoir, 1. Saskatoon: Institute for Northern Studies, University of Saskatchewan, 1973. ISBN 0888800037
* Clayton-Gouthro, Cecile M. "Patterns in Transition: Moccasin Production and Ornamentation of the Janvier Band Chipewyan". Mercury series. Hull, Quebec: Canadian Museum of Civilization, 1994. ISBN 0660140233
* Cook, Eung-Do. 2006. "The Patterns of Consonantal Acquisition and Change in Chipewyan (Dene Suline)". International Journal of American Linguistics. 72, no. 2: 236.
* Dramer, Kim, and Frank W. Porter. "The Chipewyan". New York: Chelsea House, 1996. ISBN 1555461395
* Elford, Leon W., and Marjorie Elford. "English-Chipewyan Dictionary". Prince Albert, Sask: Northern Canada Evangelical Mission, 1981.
* Goddard, Pliny Earle. "Texts and Analysis of Cold Lake Dialect, Chipewyan". Anthropological papers of the American Museum of Natural History, v. 10, pt. 1-2. New York: Published by order of the Trustees [of the American Museum of Natural History] , 1912.
* Grant, J. C. Boileau. "Anthropometry of the Chipewyan and Cree Indians of the Neighbourhood of Lake Athabaska". Ottawa: F.A. Acland, printer, 1930.
* Human Relations Area Files, inc. "Chipewyan ND07". EHRAF collection of ethnography. New Haven, Conn: Human Relations Area Files, 2001.
* Irimoto, Takashi. "Chipewyan Ecology: Group Structure and Caribou Hunting System". Senri ethnological studies, no. 8. Suita, Osaka, Japan: National Museum of Ethnology, 1981.
* Li, Fang-kuei, and Ronald Scollon. "Chipewyan Texts". Nankang, Taipei: Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, 1976.
* Lowie, Robert Harry. "Chipewyan Tales". New York: The Trustees, 1912.
* Paul, Simon. "Introductory Chipewyan: Basic Vocabulary". Saskatoon: Indian and Northern Education, University of Saskatchewan, 1972.
* Scollon, Ronald, and Suzanne B. K. Scollon. "Linguistic Convergence: An Ethnography of Speaking at Fort Chipewyan, Alberta". New York: Academic Press, 1979. ISBN 0126333807
* Shapiro, Harry L. "The Alaskan Eskimo; A Study of the Relationship between the Eskimo and the Chipewyan Indians of Central Canada". New York: American Museum of Natural History, 1931.
* Sharp, Henry S. "Chipewyan Marriage". Mercury series. Ottawa: National Museum of Canada, 1979.
* Sharp, Henry S. "The Transformation of Bigfoot: Maleness, Power, and Belief Among the Chipewyan". Smithsonian series in ethnographic inquiry. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1988. ISBN 0874748488
* VanStone, James W. "The Changing Culture of the Snowdrift Chipewyan". Ottawa: [Queen's Printer] , 1965.
* Wilhelm, Andrea. "Telicity and Durativity: A Study of Aspect in Dëne Sųłiné (Chipewyan) and German". New York: Routledge, 2007. ISBN 0415976456

External links

* [http://www.atc97.org/acfn.html Official website]
* [http://reference.allrefer.com/encyclopedia/C/Chipewya.html Chipewya]