Swampy Cree

The Swampy Cree people, also known by their autonyms Néhinaw, Maskiki Wi Iniwak, Mushkekowuk, Maškékowak, Maskegon or Maskekon[1] (and therefore also Muskegon and Muskegoes) or by exonyms including West Main Cree, Lowland Cree, and Homeguard Cree,[2] are a division of the Cree Nation occupying lands located in northern Manitoba, along the Saskatchewan River in northeastern Saskatchewan, along the shores of Hudson Bay and adjoining interior lands south and west as well as territories along the shores of Hudson and James Bay in Ontario.

They are geographically and to some extent culturally split into two main groupings, and therefore speak two dialects of the Swampy Cree language, which is an "n-dialect": In Manitoba, The Swampy Cree's first recorded contact with Europeans was in 1682 at the mouth of the Nelson and Hayes rivers in northern Manitoba by a Hudson's Bay Company party travelling about 100 mi (160 km) inland.

[3] In Ontario, contact with the Swampy Cree (Omuskegowuk) is in the early 1600s with Henry Hudson's arrival into James Bay.

[4] Historically, the Cree nations in the central part of the Cree continuum were classified by their relationship to Hudson Bay and James Bay: Lowland (Homeguard) Cree who were found along the coast, Lowland (Half-Homeguard) Cree who seasonally transitioned between the coast and the interior, and the Upland Cree in the deep interior who often were intermixed with the Ojibwe.

Today, together with the "n-Cree" dialect-speaking Woodland Cree, those who live in the Lowlands and Uplands who speak the "n-Cree" dialect are called "Swampy Cree",[6] but culturally Moose Cree (the Cree speaking the "l-dialect")[7] and other peoples of the Upland including the Oji-Cree occasionally self-identify as being "Swampy Cree".