Across Canada and the United States there are many First Nations languages which are a part of the Algonquian language family, all of which with varying states of health. Although these languages share many characteristics of the Algonquian language family, the cultures, systems of beliefs, and geographic location of their respective Nations differentiate them. In being shaped by the landscape, cultures, and spirituality of the First Nations, the language brings the speakers closer to their land and traditions while reaffirming their identity as First Peoples. Using the Blackfoot Nation to further explore this concept, this paper will show that while language threads together First Nations culture, spirituality, traditions and land, as well as their identity, each of these essential components also maintain and revitalize the language. Though referred to most commonly as the Blackfeet or Blackfoot, many refer to themselves as the Nitsitapiksi (Ni-tsi-ta-pi-ksi), the “Real People,” a term used by the Blackfoot to also refer to all First Peoples of the Americas (The Blackfoot Gallery Committee, 2013, 11). The term Niitsipoiyksi is used to refer to those who are “the speakers of the Real language,” that being Blackfoot, but it may also mean those who speak their Aboriginal language (The Blackfoot Gallery Committee, 2013, 11). The Blackfoot Peoples are made up of three distinct Nations the Kainai, the Piikuni and Siksika. Though this is how some Blackfoot literature refers to the Nations, it is still common to hear these Nations referred to as the Blood Nation for the Kainai, Peigan (Canada) or Blackfeet (United States) for the Piikuni, and Blackfoot or Northern Blackfoot for the Siksika (The Blackfoot Gallery C... ... middle of paper ... ...placed in the Blackfoot that led to a social breakdown within the communities, such as alcoholism, depression, and violence, which further distanced many Blackfoot from their culture and language (Bastien, 2004). As much of what has been written here has been focused on the Blackfoot culture and the ways it has been impacted by settlers, language will now be discussed more in-depth to further illustrate how it has also been impacted. Works Cited Bastien, B. (2011). Blackfoot ways of knowing: The worldview of the siksikaitsitapi. Calgary, Alberta: University of Calgary Press. Blackfoot Gallery Committee, The (2013). The story of the blackfoot people: Nitsitapiisinni. (2nd ed.). Ontario: Firefly Books. Tovias, B. (2011). Colonialism on the prairies: Blackfoot settlement an cultural transformation, 1870 - 1920. Portland, Oregon: Sussex Academic Press.
Steckley, J., & Cummins, B. D. (2008). Full circle: Canada's First Nations (2nd ed.). Toronto:
There was a period of time, before the appearance of Europeans on the continent, that the Nephilim did not have this “rule” or “compulsion” to keep their existence hidden from humans. The Bigfoot were known to the Native Americans by many names. Legends and lore sprang up from the Native American’s interaction with the Bigfoot. The Native Americans always considered them to be a “society” or “tribe.” The relationship the Bigfoot tribes had with the Native Americans was precarious at best. Many Native American tribes described the Bigfoot as cannibals, mountain devils, kidnappers, rapist, and thieves.
Journalist John G. Neihardt’s Black Elk Speaks is one of the most famous texts on the Sioux culture. However, when considering journalism and anthropology, one may realize that Neihardt’s work was much more journalistic than anthropological. When studying culture, an anthropologist would do it holistically. Rather than only looking at individual components of culture, anthropologists must consider every piece of a society to fully understand it.
The Niitsitapi (also called Blackfoot Indians), reside in the Great Plains of Montana as well as Alberta and Saskatchewan located in Canada. Only one of the Niitsitapi tribes are named Siksika, also known as Blackfoot.
This provides powerful insight into the role Bigfoot like creatures played in Native American cultures. Some tribes were not afraid of the creatures, considering them kind and helpful, while peacefully coexisting with them. Other tribes found them to be more violent and dangerous creatures. The fact that these tribes called the animals Stick Indians or Brush Indians seems to suggest that the creatures were simply other tribes they did not get along with opposed to a village of mythical creatures. Some examples of Bigfoot like creatures in Native American tribes include the Chiye – Tanka, the Lofa, the Maxemista, and the popular Sasquatch. The Chiye – Tanka was the Bigfoot like creature of the Sioux Indians (“Native American,” n.d.). This animal
The settlement of the white people had taken its toll on the Blackfoot's. The Napikwans began to move in on the Indians, taking over their hunting ranges, and forcing them from the land in which they had lived for years. "At the time the Pikunis gave the Napikwans some land in return for promises that we would be left alone to hunt on our ranges" (174). The Indians did so as a reassurance that they were safe living with the white people. They thought that would put an end to the white mans greed. As more agreements were made between the Napikwans and the Lone Eaters, the Indians were promised goods to make up for the loss of ranges, as well as some of the white mans money. "These things never came to pass. And so we have every reason to hate the Napikwans" (174).
Some native words used by Cree Indians: Kiwetin meaning the north wind that brings misfortune (Gill, Sullivan 158). Another word is maskwa used for bear, the most intelligent and spiritually powerful land animal (Gill, Sullivan 182). A water lynx that holds control over lakes and rivers is called “Michi-Pichoux”; they are associated with unexplained deaths (Gill, Sullivan 189). Tipiskawipisim is used for the moon who is the sister of the sun. Once a flood destroys the first humans, Tipiskawipisim creates the first female (Gill, Sullivan 303).
Bibliography: Bibliography 1. John Majewski, History of the American Peoples: 1840-1920 (Dubuque: Kent/Hunt Publishing, 2001). 2.
They started moving west in 1600’s when the Europeans showed up. They eventually were on The Cree’s land. The Cree are one of Blackfoot's enemies. They moved so far west that they moved towards the Rockies.
While noting that the Nanticoke possessed “the physiognomy, color, and hair ranging from the European, the mulatto, and the Indian…” he nevertheless concluded that, “even the most negroid of these people is quite different from that of the common Southern Negro type. [The Nanticoke] are much more refined in appearance, with thinned lips and narrower noses.” Speck traced these features to probable Moorish ancestors as well as to a small amount of African admixture that likely ceased by the mid-eighteenth century. Perhaps Speck’s insistence that the Nanticoke had not experienced recent black admixture accounts for why the photos accompanying his study included Nanticoke with lighter skin tones who he described as exhibiting the Nanticoke “type.” Besides their physical resemblance to Indians, Speck noted few surviving cultural traits amongst the group, although he reported that their Indian forbearers likely inspired the Nanticoke’s hunting practices. Like the Jackson Whites, none of the Nanticoke spoke a native language. Although some informants believed that the language had been spoken in the recent past, the last speakers were believed to have died sometime during the late nineteenth century. Despite the lacking many indigenous
To understand Jackson’s book and why it was written, however, one must first fully comprehend the context of the time period it was published in and understand what was being done to and about Native Americans in the 19th century. From the Native American point of view, the frontier, which settlers viewed as an economic opportunity, was nothin...
I’m going to compare Inuit people and the Blackfoot people, Completed. So after talking about the four differences and the two similarities I hope you learned something about my certain topic. Remember, It doesn’t have to be the same to be cool, In the end It doesn’t
Before the research project is continued there are some things that need to be covered so that you - the reader - do not get confused about certain vocabulary used throughout the paper. “Muskogee, or Creek, is a Muskogean language of the American Southeast. The language has been in decline, but some young people are working to keep their ancestral language alive (1).”
The Contemporary Issues in Native American Culture provides a lot of varied topics and interests. In this paper, the main issue will be the topic of tribal language preservation. How tribes are able to raise money to enhance language efforts, how tribes are working to preserve the language, and how tribes are using language to maintain cultural awareness and identity will be discussed.