Indigenous peoples of Alberta

The Indigenous peoples of Alberta are the inhabitants of the Canadian province of Alberta whose descendants lived in the region before the arrival of European settlers. The Canadian government considers Indigenous peoples to be members of First Nations bands, Métis, and Inuit. Métis are mixed-race descendants of First Nations people and Europeans, while the Inuit are Indigenous residents of the northernmost regions of North America. As of the 2021 Canadian Census, Alberta was home to an Indigenous population of 284,465. The figure is the fourth-highest among the nation's thirteen provinces and territories and about 16 percent of Canada's total Indigenous population. The largest groups of First Nations people in Alberta were the Cree and the three tribes of the Blackfoot Nation. Other prominent groups included the Dene, Nakoda, Anishinabe, and Aseniwuche Winewak. Alberta also had the largest population of Métis in the country.

Demographics

Alberta is a province covering about 255,540 square miles (661,848 square kilometers) on the western plains of Canada. It borders Saskatchewan on the east, British Columbia on the west, the Northwest Territories to the north, and the US state of Montana to the south. The province was incorporated into Canada in 1905 and named for Princess Louise Caroline Alberta, the daughter of Britain's Queen Victoria. The northern section of Alberta is covered by dense forests and dotted with lakes, while the southern region consists of grass-covered prairies and farmland. The Rocky Mountains brush the southwestern edge of Alberta, marking the border with British Columbia. The geography of the Rockies keeps the province's climate relatively dry. Northern areas are colder, with January temperatures averaging below zero degrees Fahrenheit in some spots. Southern Alberta is more moderate, with temperatures in Calgary ranging from an average January low of 8 degrees Fahrenheit (-13 Celsius) to average July highs of 74 degrees (23 Celsius).

According to the 2021 Census, Alberta had a population of 4,262,635. The largest population centers are located in the province's central to southern regions. Calgary is Alberta's largest city and Canada's third-largest city, with a 2021 population of 1.3 million; the provincial capital, Edmonton, had a population of 1.1 million. Statistics Canada reported that in 2021, 145,645 residents claimed First Nations status, 127,475 identified as Métis, 2,945 as Inuit, and the remainder claiming other Indigenous identities.

Background

The first humans are believed to have traveled to North America from Asia over a land bridge in the Bering Strait about 13,000 to 15,500 years ago. Spear points discovered in the Athabasca region suggest ancient humans were hunting in northern Alberta about 10,000 years ago. Some rock carvings at Writing-On-Stone Provincial Park in southern Alberta are believed to be many thousands of years old.

The ancient peoples of Alberta developed along several different linguistic lines. The Athabaskan-speaking Dene settled primarily in the north; Algonquian speakers such as the Blackfoot lived on the southern plains; while the Inuit of the far north were members of the Eskimo-Aleut language family. Despite their language differences, many Indigenous groups shared similar social structures and spiritual beliefs. Traditional religions were based on the idea that spirits inhabit everything in the natural world, a concept known as animism. A common belief was that humans are interconnected to nature and part of a larger creation guided by a spiritual guardian or Great Spirit. Some mythologies also incorporate the trickster, a mischievous figure and legendary cultural hero. To the Cree, this figure was the shapeshifting Wesakechak; the Blackfoot had N'api, or Old Man; the spider Iktomi was part of Nakoda myth; while the Inuit believed in Sedna, the goddess of the sea.

The traditional ways of life for the Indigenous people of the region remained unchanged for centuries until the first Europeans arrived in North America. Even before first contact, the Blackfoot traded with neighboring tribes to acquire guns and horses, two revolutionary innovations brought to the New World by the Spanish in the sixteenth century. The first Europeans arrived in Alberta about 1755 and many others followed, drawn by the riches of the fur trade. The region at the time was inhabited by the Blackfoot, the tribes of the Dene, the Gros Ventres, and Kootenay. During the eighteenth century, the Cree and Nakoda moved into the area where they acted as guides and translators for the newcomers. Some groups, such as the Gros Ventres and Kootenay, were driven south and west into the modern-day United States.

In the mid-nineteenth century, missionaries and scores of white settlers began to flood into the region. The Canadian government took control of the territory in 1870 and began negotiating a series of treaties with the native people in an effort to open more land to settlers. These treaties, known as the Numbered Treaties, were signed between 1871 and 1921. The First Nations people of Alberta were included in Treaties 6, 7, and 8. Dissatisfaction with the results of the treaties triggered several rebellions among the Métis and First Nations people of Manitoba and Saskatchewan. After the government cracked down on the uprisings, many Métis fled west into Alberta.

In the early twentieth century, several First Nations groups formed political organizations to fight for their Indigenous rights. Many groups felt the Canadian government had not honored the Numbered Treaties and had unfairly seized native lands. In 1930, the government agreed and transferred control over land rights to the provincial government. By the late twentieth century, the federal and provincial governments began the process of negotiating land claim settlements with the country's Indigenous people. Since 1986, the province of Alberta has negotiated fourteen land settlements with First Nations groups. The largest deal was made with the Siksika Nation in 2022. The Canadian government agreed to pay $1.3 billion to resolve outstanding land claims.

Overview

As of 2022, the Department of Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada listed forty-five First Nations bands in Alberta. Thirty-two of these bands were affiliated with the Cree. Other bands were Dene, Blackfoot, Nakoda, and Anishinabe. The Aseniwuche Winewak are not recognized as a First Nation under Canadian law, but are considered a society under the Societies Act of the province of Alberta.

Cree

The Cree are an Algonquian-speaking people and were the largest First Nation in Canada with an estimated 2021 population of approximately 223,745 people who identified as having Cree ancestry. About 75 percent of Cree speakers resided in Alberta. The Cree language was also the most widely spoken Indigenous language in the nation with 86,475 speakers as of 2021. The term Cree comes from the French Kiristinon, referring to the native people near Hudson Bay, their original homeland. The Cree call themselves by their traditional name, Nêhiyawak, roughly translating as "the four directions people." They reside in portions of five provinces from Quebec to Alberta. The largest Cree reserve in the province was the Saddle Lake Cree Nation located northeast of Edmonton. It had a 2021 registered population of 11,006.

The Cree of Alberta share many cultural and linguistic bonds but are divided geographically. The Cree of the subarctic central forests are called the Woodland Cree. They traditionally lived in smaller family units and built houses out of birch bark. The Woodland Cree hunted game such as moose and caribou. The Cree of the southern prairies are the Plains Cree. They were primarily buffalo hunters who lived in tipis made from buffalo hide. The Plains Cree often shared customs with the peoples of the American Great Plains. The Woodland and Plains Cree speak different dialects of the same language and can easily understand each other.

Blackfoot

Blackfoot is a name given to an alliance of three tribes—the Kainai, Siksika, and Piikani—who once dominated a large portion of the Great Plains from southern Montana into central Alberta and Saskatchewan. The tribes were known as the Blackfoot Confederacy. They referred to themselves as the Siksikauwa, or "black-footed people," from the black dye used to color their moccasins. The Blackfoot were an aggressive people who were often at war with neighboring groups such as the Cree. They were the only native people who attacked the Lewis and Clark expedition on its journey to the Pacific Northwest from 1804 to 1806.

The Blackfoot were nomadic hunters who were highly reliant on the buffalo for survival. Like many Plains peoples, they practiced the Sun Dance, a religious ritual meant to honor the sun and seek help from the spirits. For many ceremonies, the Blackfoot used a symbolic wrapped bag of sacred objects called a medicine bundle. Each of the objects—such as feathers, animal skins, or rattles—held a special cultural significance.

In the late nineteenth century, the American and Canadian governments pressured the Blackfoot into giving up much of their land. In the United States, they were confined to a reservation in Montana where they became known as the Blackfeet. In Canada the three Blackfoot tribes were granted three reserves in Alberta. The largest was the Kainai Nation near the Montana border with a registered 2021 population of 12,963. The Siksika Nation, located east of Calgary, had a registered population of 3,537 and the Piikani Nation in southern Alberta had a population of 3,917.

Dene

The Dene are part of the Athabaskan language family, the largest Indigenous language group in North America, and primarily reside in the central to northern regions of Alberta. The Alberta Dene are divided into four groups with similar cultural and linguistic backgrounds but with differences based on geography.

The Dene Suliné, hunters and fisher folk formerly known as the Chipewyan, lived in the forest regions of central and northeast Alberta. In 2017, they resided on three reserves with a combined registered population of 4,815. The Dene Tha', or Slavey Nation, were caribou hunters from the Hay River and Caribou Mountains regions of northwestern Alberta. They lived on three reserves with a 2021 registered population of 3,149. The Tsuu T'ina, or Sarcee Nation, resided on a reserve southwest of Calgary. They had a registered population of 3,576. Despite their cultural relation to the other Dene, they have adapted to the Plains lifestyle of the Blackfoot. The hunters and fur trappers of the Dunne-za, or Beaver Nation, lived on a northern Alberta reserve with a registered population of 1,310.

Nakoda

Centuries ago, the Nakoda were part of the Yanktonai Sioux Nation who lived near the Mississippi River in the United States. The tribe moved north in the seventeenth century and later traveled into Alberta and split. One group maintained its woodlands lifestyle while the other adopted the culture of the plains peoples. The Nakoda in Alberta are also called the Stoney Nation and reside on three reserves with a combined registered population of about 5,397. The Nakoda speak the Siouan language and are related to the Dakota and Lakota Sioux of the United States.

Anishinabe

The Anishinabe were originally a people of the eastern woodland regions near the Great Lakes. They are related to the Ojibway and are also called the Saulteaux, a French term referring to their former homeland near Sault Ste. Marie in modern-day Michigan. Upon moving west, the Anishinabe adopted a Plains culture distinct from their woodland roots to the east. The Anishinabe had a registered population of 1,376 and occupied a reserve between Edmonton and Calgary.

Aseniwuche Winewak

The Aseniwuche Winewak Nation was formed from descendants of the Cree and Haudenosaunee, an Iroquoian people from the eastern regions of Canada and New York state who arrived in Alberta during the fur trade. They are not a recognized First Nation but organized in 1994 under an Alberta law allowing groups with common interests to incorporate as a society. They are located in Grande Cache in central Alberta near the British Columbia border.

Métis

Of the 624,220 people identifying as Métis in the 2021 census, 127,475 lived in the province of Alberta. Ontario had the largest population in Canada at 134,615. The majority of Métis in Alberta are descendants of European hunters and fur trappers who married Cree women. While the Métis were considered an Indigenous people by the Canadian government, they were not granted the same rights as the First Nations and Inuit until 2016. A ruling by the Canadian Supreme Court granted them the same federal protections as other Indigenous peoples considered by the Canadian government.

Inuit

The Inuit are an Arctic people with a total population of about 155,792 residing from Greenland to Russian Siberia. In Canada, their traditional homeland is called Inuit Nunangat, a region that stretches from Labrador to the Northwest Territories and Yukon. Many Inuit of Inuit Nunangat continue to rely on traditional hunting and fishing for their livelihoods. Many of the Inuit who left their Arctic homeland have settled in urban areas. About 127,475 Inuit lived in Alberta as of 2021.

Bibliography

"Aboriginal Peoples: Fact Sheet for Alberta." Statistics Canada, 14 Mar. 2016, www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/89-656-x/89-656-x2016010-eng.htm. Accessed 20 Apr. 2017.

"Aboriginal Peoples of Alberta: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow." Government of Alberta, 2013, indigenous.alberta.ca/documents/AboriginalPeoples.pdf?0.276972591644153. Accessed 20 Apr. 2017.

Carew-Miller, Anna. "The Great Plains and High Plateau: The Blackfoot Confederacy." Native American Confederacies. Mason Crest, 2014.

"Census Profile, 2016 Census Alberta [Province] and Canada [Country]." Statistics Canada, 9 Aug. 2019, www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/dp-pd/prof/index.cfm?Lang=E. Accessed 15 Jan. 2021.

"First Nations in Alberta." Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada, 15 Sept. 2010, www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1100100020670/1100100020675. Accessed 20 Apr. 2017.

Graveland, Bill. "Alberta First Nations Signs Historic Land Claim Settlement with Feds." Canada's National Observer, 3 June 2022, www.nationalobserver.com/2022/06/03/news/alberta-first-nation-signs-historic-land-claim-settlement-feds. Accessed 13 Jan. 2025.

"The Métis: A New Canadian Nation." Canada's First Peoples, firstpeoplesofcanada.com/fp‗metis/fp‗metis1.html. Accessed 20 Apr. 2017.

McMillan, Alan D., and Eldon Yellowhorn. First Peoples in Canada. Douglas & McIntyre, 2004.

"Our Story." Aseniwuche Winewak Nation of Canada, www.aseniwuche.ca/our-story. Accessed 20 Apr. 2017.

Preston, Richard J. "Cree." Canadian Encyclopedia, 9 Jan. 2017, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/cree/. Accessed 20 Apr. 2017.

Stamp, Robert M. "Alberta." Canadian Encyclopedia, 10 Feb. 2016, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/alberta/. Accessed 20 Apr. 2017.

Stern, Pamela R. Historical Dictionary of the Inuit, 2nd ed. Scarecrow Press, 2013.