Ethnic group
The Sakāwithiniwak or Woodland Cree, are a Cree people, calling themselves Nîhithaw in their own dialect of the language. They are the largest indigenous group in northern Alberta and are an Algonquian people. Prior to the 18th century, their territory extended west of Hudson Bay, as far north as Churchill. Although in western Northern Saskatchewan and Manitoba, by the 18th century, they acted as middlemen in trade with western tribes. After acquiring guns through trade, they greatly expanded their territory and drove other tribes further west and north.
The Rocky Cree or Asinikaw Īthiniwak are often grouped alongside the Woodland Cree, though many see them as a distinct group of Cree.[1] The Rocky Cree once spoke a distinct "r" dialect of Cree before assimilating into the Woodland "th" dialect.[2]
Culture
Their lodges varied in materials depending upon where they lived. In the southern areas they lived in birch-bark wigwams, and further north, where birch was more stunted, they used coverings of pine boughs and caribou hide over conical structures. There was a clear division of labour among men and women. The men hunted, fished, made canoes, sledges, hunting tools and weapons of war. The women foraged, snared rabbits and other small mammals, tanned hides, cut firewood, made snowshoes, pitched tents, hauled wood, wove fish nets, and made clothing adorned with quill- and bead-work. Coats and blankets were made from woven hare skin or soft caribou fur. In the spring and autumn the Woodland Cree hunted ducks and geese, and ptarmigan in the winter. Like many other tribes that depended upon snowshoe hares for food and clothing, they were affected by the periodic decline in populations, especially in the ninth and tenth years when hares almost altogether disappeared. Winter was a particularly difficult time for the Woodland Cree.
Post-Contact
The Woodland Cree were one of the first Aboriginal nations west of Hudson Bay to trade with European fur traders, as early as the 17th century. They became very closely associated with the fur trade and adapted their clothing and many aspects of their lifestyle and culture to European ways. Considered excellent hunters and trappers, they provided meat and pemmican to the fur trade posts and furs, either directly, or indirectly from trade with other tribes. Marriages or alliances between Cree women and fur traders became an essential link in fur trade negotiations. Because families were on the move most of the time, women in childbirth often had their babies on the trail.
The offspring of this alliance formed the basis of a new nation of people, the Métis, who adopted the lifestyle of their mother's people or of Europeans and received education in order to become clerks and traders for the North West and Hudson's Bay Companies. By 1800, the Cree were well established in Alberta, from Athabasca-Peace delta in the north, along the Peace River and south as far as the Saskatchewan River.
Woodland Cree use legends to convey stories throughout time. Many legends are about aspects of the environment, such as "How the raven stole the sun" and "Deawitchita and the fire rock." It is said that those who tell the legends have the most ikanisha, which means wisdom in woodland cree.
