Sarcee

Sarcee, North American Plains Indians of Athabaskan linguistic stock who lived in the 18th and 19th centuries near the upper Saskatchewan and Athabaska rivers in the present provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan, Can. They probably moved southward to this region near the end of the 17th century when they became the northern neighbours of the Blackfoot peoples, from whom they received some protection from enemies.

The Sarcee adopted several aspects of Blackfoot culture, including military societies and the Sun Dance. As hunting and gathering provided them with sustenance, tobacco was their only crop; it was planted with much ceremony. The Sarcee suffered from continual attacks by the Cree and other tribes; their population was reduced further by epidemics of smallpox and scarlet fever in the 19th century. Having drawn together during the hardships of the 19th century, the Sarcee, Blackfoot, and Alberta Assiniboin ceded their hunting grounds to the dominion government of Canada in 1877 and took residence on a reservation in 1880.

Early 21st-century population estimates indicated some 1,000 Sarcee descendants.