SARCEE

The Athapascan-speaking Sarcee occupied ancestral territory along the North Saskatchewan River in what is now the Canadian province of Alberta. They are thought to have branched off from the BEAVER (tsaTTINE) living to the north along and around the Peace River. Since Sarcee territory was part of the northern plains, their life-ways came to differ from those of other ATHAPASCANS of the Subarctic (see SUBARCTIC INDIANS).

The use of the horse spread from the Spanish to the tribes of the West, starting in the 1600s. The Sarcee probably did not acquire horses until the early 1800s. On doing

Sarcee knife with steel blade

So, they lived a nomadic existence like other PLAINS INDI ANS, depending on buffalo as their main food. They are the only Athapascan people classified as part of the Great Plains Culture Area. The name Sarcee, Sarci, or Sarsi, pronounced SAR-see, is thought to mean “not good.” Their Native name is Tsuu T’ina. Since the Sarcee were traditional enemies of the Plains CREE, they became part of the Blackfoot Confederacy (see BLACKFEET) for mutual protection. The biggest killer of the Sarcee, however, was not intertribal warfare but disease brought to their people through regular contacts with Hudson’s Bay Company traders. Many Sarcee died in the smallpox epidemics of 1836 and 1870 and the scarlet fever epidemic of 1856.

In 1877, the Sarcee signed away most of their lands to the Canadian government. In 1880, they were placed on a reserve near present-day Calgary, Alberta, where their descendants live today. The tribe operates a cultural center on the reserve and sponsors an annual powwow.