The Tsuutʼina are an
Athabaskan group, once part of the more northerly
Dane-zaa ('
Beaver Indians') nation, who migrated south onto the Great Plains during the early 18th century, before written records of the area. Tsuutʼina
oral history has preserved the memory of their separation from the Dane-zaa. In turn, the
Plains Apache separated from the Tsuu'tina on the Northern Plains. The Tsuutʼina lived in
tipis, and hunted along the edge of the forest in the winter months. During the summer, Tsuutʼina bands met on the open prairie to
hunt bison, and participate in dances, festivals, and ceremonies. The Tsuutʼina consisted of five bands, the Big Plumes, Crow Childs, Crow Chiefs, Old Sarcees and Many Horses, and each band was led by a
chief.
Explorer David Thompson said that the Tsuutʼina lived in the
Beaver Hills near present-day Edmonton during the 1810s, where they cohabited with the
Cree. At some point, however, they came into conflict with the Cree and moved further to the south, eventually forming an alliance with the Blackfoot. Explorer
Captain John Palliser visited the Tsuutʼina on a scientific expedition sometime between 1857 and 1860, and he estimated their population to be around 1400. Increasing contact with
Europeans deeply affected the traditional Tsuutʼina way of life, primarily due the disappearance of
bison on which the Tsuutʼina relied for survival. In 1877, the Tsuutʼina and various other Indigenous peoples signed
Treaty 7, which resulted in the formation of
reserves. These reserves offered the Tsuutʼina a means of survival following the disruption of their traditional lifestyle, and it allowed for the westward expansion of
farming and European settlement. By the time the Tsuutʼina settled into their reserve in 1881, outbreaks of
smallpox,
scarlet fever, and inter-tribal warfare reduced their population to a mere 450. By 1924, the Tsuutʼina population fell to around 160. Their language is closely related to the languages of the
Dene groups of northern Canada and Alaska, and also to those of the
Navajo and
Apache peoples of the American Southwest, rather than the geographically nearer
Blackfoot language and the
Cree language, which are both
Algonquian languages.
21st century In 2007, the Tsuutʼina opened the Grey Eagle Casino just outside Calgary city limits. The Grey Eagle complex began a major expansion, including construction of a hotel, in 2012. Both the initial construction of the casino and the expansion have been accompanied by concerns among city residents about traffic tie-ups in the area of the casino. Beginning in the late 2000s, the proximity of the Nation's territory to the city of
Calgary led to disagreement over Alberta's plans to construct the southwest portion of
Highway 201, a ring road. The freeway, completed in 2023, encircles the City of Calgary. The southwest portion was planned to pass through Tsuutʼina land to avoid environmentally sensitive areas. A 2009 referendum by the Nation rejected a plan to transfer reserve land to the Province of Alberta to permit construction of the southwest portion of the ring road. Some members of the Nation were upset by the rejection of the land transfer, while others viewed it as a triumph both environmentally and for the Nation. A subsequent referendum held by the Nation in 2013 approved the land transfer for the ring road, the Tsuutʼina portion of which was named Tsuutʼina Trail, even though it caused the forced removal of some residents from their traditional land by the Chief and Council. The construction disturbed 22 hectares of wetlands. On 28 August 2020,
Costco opened a store at 12905 Buffalo Run Boulevard, in the Shops at Buffalo Run development created by the Nation's development project, Taza. This store is the first Costco branch on a First Nations reserve in Canada, and as of 6 October 2020, Costco had indicated that the store had broken records. == Notable members ==