Swampy Cree

Swampy Cree (Nèhinaw)
Descended fromCree
BranchesWestern Swampy Cree, Eastern Swampy Cree
LanguageSwampy Cree language
Western Swampy Cree
LanguageN-dialect
Eastern Swampy Cree
Omaškêkowak
Languageeastern dialect of the Swampy Cree language, which kept the s/š distinction
nêhinaw / ininîw
"Indigenous person" / "human being"
PersonW: nêhinaw ᓀᐦᐃᓇᐤ
E: ininîw ᐃᓂᓃᐤ
PeopleW: nêhinawak ᓀᐦᐃᓇᐘᐠ
E: ininîwak ᐃᓂᓃᐘᐠ
LanguageW: nêhinawêwin ᓀᐦᐃᓇᐌᐎᐣ
E: ininîmowin ᐃᓂᓃᒧᐎᓐ
Hand Talk
CountryW: nêhinawaskiy ᓀᐦᐃᓇᐘᐢᑭᐩ
E: ininîwaskiy ᐃᓂᓂᐗᔅᑭᔾ
Map of Cree lands; the Swampy Cree are colored gray.

The Swampy Cree people, also known by their autonyms Néhinaw, Maskiki Wi Iniwak, Mushkekowuk, Maškékowak, Maskegon or Maskekon (and therefore also Muskegon and Muskegoes) or by exonyms including West Main Cree, Lowland Cree, and Homeguard Cree, are a division of the Cree Nation occupying lands located in northern Manitoba, along the Saskatchewan River in northeastern Saskatchewan, along the shores of Hudson Bay and adjoining interior lands south and west as well as territories along the shores of Hudson and James Bay in Ontario. They are geographically and to some extent culturally split into two main groupings, and therefore speak two dialects of the Swampy Cree language, which is an "n-dialect":

European contact

In Manitoba, The Swampy Cree's first recorded contact with Europeans was in 1682 at the mouth of the Nelson and Hayes rivers in northern Manitoba by a Hudson's Bay Company party travelling about 100 mi (160 km) inland. In Ontario, contact with the Swampy Cree (Omuskegowuk) is in the early 1600s with Henry Hudson's arrival into James Bay.

First Nations

Historically, the Cree nations in the central part of the Cree continuum were classified by their relationship to Hudson Bay and James Bay: Lowland (Homeguard) Cree who were found along the coast, Lowland (Half-Homeguard) Cree who seasonally transitioned between the coast and the interior, and the Upland Cree in the deep interior who often were intermixed with the Ojibwe. West of these Lowland and Upland Cree were the Woodland and Plains Cree. Linguistically, the Cree are divided by their general language features, where the Cree nations in the central part of the Cree continuum are classified as "th-Cree", "n-Cree" and "l-Cree", from west to east; Cree traditionally associated with the Woodland Cree make no distinction between "s" and "š", while the Lowland and Upland Cree do. Today, together with the "n-Cree" dialect-speaking Woodland Cree, those who live in the Lowlands and Uplands who speak the "n-Cree" dialect are called "Swampy Cree", but culturally Moose Cree (the Cree speaking the "l-dialect") and other peoples of the Upland including the Oji-Cree occasionally self-identify as being "Swampy Cree".

West Swampy Cree
East Swampy Cree
Moose Cree

Ethnonyms

Reflecting either Swampy Cree (O)maškêko(wak) "Swampy(-ies)", or Odawa (O)mashkiigo(wag) "Swampy(-ies)"
Reflecting Swampy Cree (O)maškêko-ininiw(ak) "Swamp People"
Reflecting Ojibwe (O)mashkiigoo(g) "Swampy(-ies)"
Reflecting a translation
Other

Notes

  1. ↑ Path of the Elders
  2. ↑ Victor, Lytwyn (2002). Muskekowuck Athinuwick: Original People of the Great Swampy Land. University of Manitoba. pp. xi. ISBN 9780887553462.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  3. ↑ Hlady M., Walter. "Indian Migrations in Manitoba and the West". Manitoba Historical Society.
  4. ↑ Long S., John. "Narratives of Early Encounters between Europeans and the Cree of Western James Bay". Ontario History, 80 (3), 227-245.
  5. ↑ Lytwyn, pp. 42, 52–53
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Rhodes, Richard and Evelyn Todd, 1981, p. 53, p. Fig. 1
  7. ↑ Honigmann, p. 218
  8. ↑ Lytwyn, p.42
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Swampy Cree Tribal Council Incorporated
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Lovisek, 1999, "Western Woodland Cree" pp. 43–44.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Lovisek, 1999, "Moose Cree" pp. 41–42.
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Mushkegowuk Council
  13. ↑ Ellis, C. D., 1995, p. xiv

References