Pimicikamak Cree Nation is sometimes used as a name for
Pimicikamak, one of the more populous
Cree indigenous peoples in Canada.
Etymologically, "Pimicikamak Cree Nation" is a description of this indigenous people, and is not a name.
"Pimicikamak" is the
Cree name of an
indigenous people whose traditional territory was the
drainage basin of the upper
Nelson River in what came to be known as
Rupert's Land.[1] "Cree" is 18th-Century French slang derived from "the Old Algonkin dialect form "kiristino", which was "the name of an obscure band of Indians who roamed the region south of James Bay in the first half of the seventeenth century".[2] It is an
exonym that was not used by the Pimicikamak people to describe themselves.[3] Today, "Crees use the name Cree to refer to themselves only when speaking English or French."[4] "Nation" is an English word. The combination of these three terms describes the Pimicikamak people less accurately than its own name "Pimicikamak".
The Pimicikamak Cree Nation has, as of 2016, the highest suicide rate in all of Canada. Residents made 140 attempts in the span of a fortnight in March 2016, or ten per day. Band councillor Donnie McKay blamed the epidemic on the isolated community's lack of jobs, guidance counselors and suicide prevention specialists.[7][8][9][10][11][12][13]
One noted program to counter the suicide epidemic is the Pimicikamak Thunder, a youth
softball team.[14] The team was profiled in The Sound of Thunder, a 2017 documentary feature produced by and aired on
TSN as part of
Bell Let's Talk.[15]
References
^Margaret Anne Lindsay & Jennifer S.H. Brown, The History of the
Pimicikamak People to the
Treaty Five Period, The Centre for Rupert's Land Studies at The
University of Winnipeg, Winnipeg (2008).
^David H. Pentland, "Synonymy" in "West Main Cree", in Handbook of North American Indians, June Helm, ed., Smithsonian Institution 1981, Washington, D.C., v. 6, p. 227.
^David Thompson recorded "The French Canadians...call them 'Krees', a name which none of the Indians can pronounce...", "Life with the Nahathaways" in David Thompson: Travels in Western North America 1784–1812, Victor G. Hopwood, ed., Macmillan of Canada, Toronto (1971), p. 109.
^David H. Pentland, "Synonymy" in "West Main Cree", in Handbook of North American Indians, June Helm, ed., Smithsonian Institution 1981, Washington, D.C., v. 6, p. 227.
^Indian Act, R.S.C., 1985, c. I-5, (Can.),
[1], accessed 3 September 2008.
^But note that the Band Council is no longer elected under the Indian Act; see: The Pimicikamak Election Law, 1999, s. 19: "For greater certainty, provisions of the
Indian Act and
regulations thereunder, in respect of election of Chief and Council of the Band, shall not apply in respect of the Band." and s. 26: "Notwithstanding the
Indian Act and Regulations thereunder, the Chief and Council of the Nation shall be, ex officio, the Chief and Council of the Band.",
http://www.pimicikamak.ca/law/LAWoELEf_cor.DOCArchived 6 July 2011 at the
Wayback Machine, accessed 3 September 2008.