Trans-Indian Identity and the Inuit 'Other': Relations between the Chipewyan and Neighboring Aboriginal Communities in the Eighteenth Century
| Autor: | Strother E. Roberts |
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| Rok vydání: | 2010 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | Ethnohistory. 57:597-624 |
| ISSN: | 1527-5477 0014-1801 |
| DOI: | 10.1215/00141801-2010-038 |
| Popis: | The history of the Canadian Arctic and Subarctic hints at how certain aboriginal American communities constructed identities across the lines drawn by differences in language and culture. This history also suggests that aboriginal com- munities' ability, or willingness, to stretch the limits of group inclusion faced certain environmentally and economically dictated constraints. A study of the relationships between Chipewyan Indians and their Indian and Inuit neighbors in the lands lying west of Hudson Bay in the eighteenth century suggests that Indian trading, cohabi- tation, and war-making served to create and reinforce culturally constructed inter - community identities. These identities proved fluid enough to incorporate sometime rivals (the Crees and Yellowknives) as well as new trading partners (Hudson's Bay Company employees) while still excluding cultural others (the Inuit), at least until the end of the century. This study of the interactions of Indian and Inuit communi- ties west of Hudson Bay suggests that, at least during the eighteenth century, the Chipewyan constructed a cross-tribal, trans-Indian sense of identity at least par - tially defined by their rejection of the Inuit "other." Early on the morning of 17 July 1771, a band of over a hundred men wove their way between the rolling hills running parallel to the banks of the Coppermine River. Led by an influential Chipewyan trader named Mato - nabbee, this raiding party joined together a diverse collection of peoples and languages. The great majority of the party consisted of Chipewyan, accompanied by an indeterminate number of Yellowknife Indians as well as two Crees. The Chipewyan and Yellowknives spoke distinct dialects of the Athabascan language family. The Crees were Algonquian speakers. A traditional animosity had long existed between the Crees and their Atha- bascan neighbors, and it persisted into the nineteenth century. Likewise, linguistic consanguinity did not entirely discourage confrontation between |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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