Pimicikamak

Pimicikamak /pɪmɪˈtʃɪkəmæk/ is the name[note 1] of one of the Cree-speaking aboriginal peoples of Canada.[note 2] Pimicikamak is "a people of rivers and lakes. The traditional territory of Pimicikamak is around Sipiwesk Lake in the heart of the boreal forest, five hundred kilometres north of Winnipeg, Manitoba. Flowing through their land is Kichi Sipi, the Great River."[1] Pimicikamak's traditional territory also is known as Pimicikamak.[note 3]

Pimicikamak is related to but appears to be culturally and linguistically distinct from neighboring Swampy Cree and Rock or Rocky Cree peoples of the boreal forest.[2] There is less than complete consensus about these and other such anthropological definitions that may have been confused by changing fashions in colonial naming.[note 4] The existence of distinct peoples in Canada, though constitutionally entrenched,[3] is controversial by reason of perceived implications for Quebec separatism.[4] The identities and roles of aboriginal peoples in Canada continue to be clarified.[5]


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  1. ^ John Miswagon, "A Government of our Own", Frontier Centre for Public Policy, 21 April 2005, http://www.fcpp.org/main/publication_detail.php?PubID=1043 Archived 2007-10-09 at the Wayback Machine, accessed 24 September 2008.
  2. ^ About whom see: James G.E. Smith, "Western Woods Cree" in Handbook of North American Indians, vol. 6, June Helm, ed., Smithsonian Institution, Washington (1981), p. 256: "Western Woods Cree ... encompasses ... the Rocky Cree, the Western Swampy Cree, and Strongwoods or Bois Fort Cree."
  3. ^ See: Constitution Act, 1982, s. 35, Schedule B to the Canada Act, 1982 (U.K.) c. 11.
  4. ^ See, e.g.: Lucien Bouchard, A Visage Découvert, Lés Editions du Boréal, Montréal (1992); and see: Reference Re Quebec Secession, [1998] 2 S.C.R. 217 (Can.).
  5. ^ John Borrows, "Uncertain Citizens: Aboriginal Peoples and the Supreme Court", (2001) 80 Can. Bar Rev., 15.