Tsilhqot’in

Tsilhqot'in

Traditional Tsilhqot'in baby cradle
Total population
(4,100 (2008))
Regions with significant populations
Canada ( British Columbia)
Languages
English, Tsilhqot’in
Religion
Christianity, Animism
Related ethnic groups
Dakelh, Navajo

The Tsilhqot'in (/tʃɪlˈkoʊtɪn/ chil-KOH-tin; also spelled Chilcotin, Tsilhqut'in, Tŝinlhqot’in, Chilkhodin, Tsilkótin, Tsilkotin) are a First Nation band government of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group that live in British Columbia, Canada. They are the most southern of the Athabaskan-speaking aboriginal peoples in British Columbia.

The Tsilhqot'in (formerly known as Chilcotin) were part of an extensive trade network, trading salmon from the coast of BC to Cree people territories to the East. Fish oil was also a commodity of interest.

The Tsilhqot’in first encountered European trading goods in the 1780s and 1790s when British and American ships arrived along the northwest coast seeking sea otter pelts. By 1808, a fur-trading company out of Montreal called the North West Company had established posts in the Carrier (Dene) territory just north of the Tsilhqot’in. They began trading directly and through Carrier intermediaries.

In 1821 what was then the Hudson’s Bay Company established a fur trade post at Fort Alexandria on the Fraser River, at the eastern limit of Tsilhqot’in territory. This became the tribal people's major source for European goods.