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  • Table of Contents

    • Part 1: First Nations of the Peace River Region
    • Part 2: The Fur Trade Era
    • Part 3: Transportation and Communication
    • Part 4: Old Timers and the Price of Land
    • Part 5: Dawson Creek: The Story of the Community
    • Part 6: Mysteries, Adventures and Indian Legends
    • Part 7: Arts, Crafts and Recreation
    • Part 8: Agriculture
    • Part 9: Church Histories
    • Part 10: Schools
    • Part 11: Health Care
    • Part 12: Industries and Enterprises
    • Part 13: Policing the Peace
    • Part 14: Pouce Coupe, Rolla, and Other South Peace Communities
    • Part 15: Chetwynd and the Fort St. John Area
    • Part 16: The Alberta Peace
    • Part 17: Natural History of the Peace River Region
    • Part 18: Interviews with Old Timers
    • Part 19: Remembering Our Veterans

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01-034: An Explanation of the Name “Sarsi” or Sarcee

By Dorthea Calverley
 
In an interview on the CBC network with a well-known Alberta Indian, Adrian Hope, the following folk-tale was told concerning the origin of the name “Sarcee”:

“A lot of people wonder where the Sarcees come from. From Indian legends that I have heard, apparently there were twenty-six tipis that were sent out from the Beaver tribe. They went south until they met Rev. Father de Smet, the first missionary to hit Alberta. When he met them they were glad to have a friend. He got them praying — parroting his prayers. That went on for about a month and a half.

One night someone got sick. Of course the conjurors (medicine men) were conjuring over the sick person rattling and drumming and singing to drive away the bad spirits or whatever it was that was making the sick person suffer so.

When it was time to say their prayers in the morning, nobody showed up, so the priest went over. He was quite angry about it.

In French he said, “Qui est le sorcier-ca ici? (Who is this sorcerer here?)

He pointed right at them (the medicine men).

One fellow said, “Oh! That’s what we are, Sarcee!” So they took that name for their tribe.”

It sounds like a more reasonable explanation than some I have read! It is also possible that their associates, the Blackfoot, had a very similar-sounding word with a totally different meaning — which, in their eyes, fitted the actions of the strangers from the north — hence the story that the name meant “hard ones” or “strong ones”, or “hard language” (SAXSII) because their speech was so hard for their new allies to learn.

Mr. Hugh Dempsey, in the Glenbow-Alberta Institute’s pamphlet, The Sarcee Indians denies the widely held belief that the name was derived from the Blackfoot “sa” and “ahksi” meaning “no good”. Mr. Dempsey points out that the word for “no good” in Blackfoot speech is “matsokapi”.

 

« 01-033: People of the Rocks: The Sekani of British Columbia as Seen in the Journals of Mackenzie, Fraser, Harmon & Black

01-035: N.W.M.P. Inspector’s Account of Beaver-Sarcee Split »

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