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Tsuu T'ina (Sarcee)

Athapaskan languages have turned up in some oddly distant places (California and Mexico) so it is not so surprising that this otherwise northern family of languages should have spawned a dialect now found as far south as Calgary. The Tsuu Tina are supposed to have diverged from the Dunne-za before the arrival of fur traders in 1772-73. With the westward movement of the Cree the Tsuu Tina were supposedly pushed south where they formed close contacts with Blackfoot, Plains Cree and Stoney Indians. By the mid-1800s Tsuu Tina were considered a part of the Blackfoot Confederacy and lived hunting the buffalo near the Red and Bow Rivers (Dempsey, p. 37).

Tribal location since Signing of Treaties

The Tsuu Tina seem to have separated from their Dunne-za relations In the early 1700s, and formed alliances with plains tribes such as the Cree, Blackfoot or Stoney. Today the Tsuu Tina have a reserve on the outskirts of Calgary.


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