The Tsuutʼina Nation (), also spelled Tsuu Tʼina or Tsu Tʼina, is a First Nation

band government In Canada, an Indian band (), First Nation band () or simply band, is the basic unit of government for those peoples subject to the ''Indian Act'' (i.e. status Indians or First Nations). Bands are typically small groups of people: the largest in ...

in Alberta, Canada. The Tsuu T'ina Nation 145 reserve is located directly west of

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

, with its eastern edge directly adjacent to the southwest city limits. Their traditional territory spans a much larger area in southern Alberta. The land area of the current reserve is 283.14 km² (109.32 sq mi), and it had a population of 1,982 in the

2001 Canadian census The 2001 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population. Census day was May 15, 2001. On that day, Statistics Canada attempted to count every person in Canada. The total population count of Canada was 30,007,094. This w ...

. The northeast portion of the reserve was used as part of CFB Calgary, a

Canadian Army The Canadian Army () is the command (military formation), command responsible for the operational readiness of the conventional ground forces of the Canadian Armed Forces. It maintains regular forces units at bases across Canada, and is also re ...

base, from 1910 to 1998. In 2006, the land was returned to the Nation by the

Government of Canada The Government of Canada (), formally His Majesty's Government (), is the body responsible for the federation, federal administration of Canada. The term ''Government of Canada'' refers specifically to the executive, which includes Minister of t ...

. The Tsuutʼina people were formerly known by the

Blackfoot The Blackfoot Confederacy, ''Niitsitapi'', or ''Siksikaitsitapi'' (ᖹᐟᒧᐧᒣᑯ, meaning "the people" or " Blackfoot-speaking real people"), is a historic collective name for linguistically related groups that make up the Blackfoot or Bl ...

exonym An endonym (also known as autonym ) is a common, name for a group of people, individual person, geographical place, language, or dialect, meaning that it is used inside a particular group or linguistic community to identify or designate them ...

''Saahsi'', typically spelled ''Sarcee'' or less frequently ''Sarsi''. These spellings reflect the fact that the French uvular ''r'' is quite similar in pronunciation to the Blackfoot

velar Velar may refer to: * Velar consonant Velar consonants are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth (also known as the "velum"). Since the velar region ...

''h''. The original meaning of this term is unclear, but suggested meanings include concepts to do with being 'bold', 'hardy', 'strong-willed', or 'stubborn'. It does not appear to be related to any other modern Blackfoot word.

History

The Tsuutʼina are an

Athabaskan Athabaskan ( ; also spelled ''Athabascan'', ''Athapaskan'' or ''Athapascan'', and also known as Dene) is a large branch of the Na-Dene language family of North America, located in western North America in three areal language groups: Northern, ...

group, once part of the more northerly

Dane-zaa The Dane-zaa (ᑕᓀᖚ, also spelled Dunne-za, or Tsattine) are an Athabaskan languages, Athabaskan-speaking group of First Nations in Canada, First Nations people. Their traditional territory is around the Peace River (Canada), Peace River in A ...

Beaver Beavers (genus ''Castor'') are large, semiaquatic rodents of the Northern Hemisphere. There are two existing species: the North American beaver (''Castor canadensis'') and the Eurasian beaver (''C. fiber''). Beavers are the second-large ...

Indians') nation, who migrated south onto the Great Plains during the early 18th century, before written records of the area. Tsuutʼina

oral history Oral history is the collection and study of historical information from people, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people who pa ...

has preserved the memory of their separation from the Dane-zaa. In turn, the

Plains Apache The Plains Apache are a small Southern Athabaskan tribe who live on the Southern Plains of North America, in close association with the linguistically unrelated Kiowa Tribe. Today, they are headquartered in Southwestern Oklahoma and are federally ...

separated from the Tsuu'tina on the Northern Plains. The Tsuutʼina lived in

tipi A tipi or tepee ( ) is a conical lodge tent that is distinguished from other conical tents by the smoke flaps at the top of the structure, and historically made of animal hides or pelts or, in more recent generations, of canvas stretched on ...

s, and hunted along the edge of the forest in the winter months. During the summer, Tsuutʼina bands met on the open prairie to hunt bison, and participate in dances, festivals, and ceremonies. The Tsuutʼina consisted of five bands, the Big Plumes, Crow Childs, Crow Chiefs, Old Sarcees and Many Horses, and each band was led by a chief. Explorer David Thompson said that the Tsuutʼina lived in the Beaver Hills near present-day Edmonton during the 1810s,Coues, Elliot (Ed.): ''New Light on the Early History of the Greater Northwest. The Manuscript Journals of Alexander Henry and of David Thompson, 1799-1814''. Vol II. London, 1897. where they cohabited with the

Cree The Cree, or nehinaw (, ), are a Indigenous peoples of the Americas, North American Indigenous people, numbering more than 350,000 in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations in Canada, First Nations. They live prim ...

. At some point, however, they came into conflict with the Cree and moved further to the south, eventually forming an alliance with the Blackfoot. Explorer Captain John Palliser visited the Tsuutʼina on a scientific expedition sometime between 1857 and 1860, and he estimated their population to be around 1400. Increasing contact with

Europeans Europeans are the focus of European ethnology, the field of anthropology related to the various ethnic groups that reside in the states of Europe. Groups may be defined by common ancestry, language, faith, historical continuity, etc. There are ...

deeply affected the traditional Tsuutʼina way of life, primarily due the disappearance of

bison A bison (: bison) is a large bovine in the genus ''Bison'' (from Greek, meaning 'wild ox') within the tribe Bovini. Two extant taxon, extant and numerous extinction, extinct species are recognised. Of the two surviving species, the American ...

on which the Tsuutʼina relied for survival. In 1877, the Tsuutʼina and various other Indigenous peoples signed Treaty 7, which resulted in the formation of reserves. These reserves offered the Tsuutʼina a means of survival following the disruption of their traditional lifestyle, and it allowed for the westward expansion of

farming Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...

and European settlement. By the time the Tsuutʼina settled into their reserve in 1881, outbreaks of

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by Variola virus (often called Smallpox virus), which belongs to the genus '' Orthopoxvirus''. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (W ...

scarlet fever Scarlet fever, also known as scarlatina, is an infectious disease caused by ''Streptococcus pyogenes'', a Group A streptococcus (GAS). It most commonly affects children between five and 15 years of age. The signs and symptoms include a sore ...

, and inter-tribal warfare reduced their population to a mere 450. By 1924, the Tsuutʼina population fell to around 160. The Tsuutʼina likely acquired most of their Plains Indian culture from the Blackfoot. Although in most respects the Tsuutʼina are typical Northern Plains Indians, their Tsuutʼina language is an

language.Goddard, Pliny Earle: ''Sarsi Texts''. University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology. Vol. 11, No. 3 (Feb. 1915). Pp. 189-277. Their language is closely related to the languages of the

Dene The Dene people () are an Indigenous group of First Nations who inhabit the northern boreal, subarctic and Arctic regions of Canada. The Dene speak Northern Athabaskan languages and it is the common Athabaskan word for "people". The term ...

groups of northern Canada and Alaska, and also to those of the

Navajo The Navajo or Diné are an Indigenous people of the Southwestern United States. Their traditional language is Diné bizaad, a Southern Athabascan language. The states with the largest Diné populations are Arizona (140,263) and New Mexico (1 ...

and

Apache The Apache ( ) are several Southern Athabaskan language-speaking peoples of the Southwestern United States, Southwest, the Southern Plains and Northern Mexico. They are linguistically related to the Navajo. They migrated from the Athabascan ho ...

peoples of the American Southwest, rather than the geographically nearer

Blackfoot language The Blackfoot language, also called Niitsi'powahsin () or Siksiká ( ; , ), is an Algonquian languages, Algonquian language spoken by the Blackfoot Confederacy, Blackfoot or people, who currently live in the northwestern plains of North Americ ...

and the

Cree language Cree ( ; also known as Cree–Montagnais language, Montagnais–Naskapi language, Naskapi) is a dialect continuum of Algonquian languages spoken by approximately 86,475 people across Canada in 2021, from the Northwest Territories to Alberta to ...

, which are both

Algonquian languages The Algonquian languages ( ; also Algonkian) are a family of Indigenous languages of the Americas and most of the languages in the Algic language family are included in the group. The name of the Algonquian language family is distinguished from ...

21st century

In 2007, the Tsuutʼina opened the Grey Eagle Casino just outside Calgary city limits. The Grey Eagle complex began a major expansion, including construction of a hotel, in 2012. Both the initial construction of the casino and the expansion have been accompanied by concerns among city residents about traffic tie-ups in the area of the casino. Beginning in the late 2000s, the proximity of the Nation's territory to the city of

led to disagreement over Alberta's plans to construct the southwest portion of Highway 201, a ring road. The freeway, completed in 2023, encircles the City of Calgary. The southwest portion was planned to pass through Tsuutʼina land to avoid environmentally sensitive areas. A 2009 referendum by the Nation rejected a plan to transfer reserve land to the Province of Alberta to permit construction of the southwest portion of the ring road. Some members of the Nation were upset by the rejection of the land transfer, while others viewed it as a triumph both environmentally and for the Nation. A subsequent referendum held by the Nation in 2013 approved the land transfer for the ring road, the Tsuutʼina portion of which was named Tsuutʼina Trail, even though it caused the forced removal of some residents from their traditional land by the Chief and Council. The construction disturbed 22 hectares of wetlands. On 28 August 2020,

Costco Costco Wholesale Corporation is an American multinational corporation which operates a chain of membership-only big-box warehouse club retail stores. As of 2021, Costco is the third-largest retailer in the world, and as of August 2024, Cos ...

opened a store at 12905 Buffalo Run Boulevard, in the Shops at Buffalo Run development created by the Nation's development project, Taza. This store is the first Costco branch on a First Nations reserve in Canada, and as of 6 October 2020, Costco had indicated that the store had broken records.

Notable members

* Harold Crowchild, last surviving Tsuutʼina and Treaty 7 veteran of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. * O. E. L. "Bud" Graves, artist and painter/sculptor, became a full member of the tribe after many years of association with its people.

Honorary chiefs

* W. G. Hardy, professor at the

University of Alberta The University of Alberta (also known as U of A or UAlberta, ) is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta, and Henry Marshall Tory, t ...

given the honorary title of "Chief Running Eagle" by the Tsuutʼina.

References

External links