Cardinal is one of the most common surnames among

aboriginal people There is no generally accepted definition of Indigenous peoples, although in the 21st century the focus has been on self-identification, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territ ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

(primarily

Cree The Cree, or nehinaw (, ), are a Indigenous peoples of the Americas, North American Indigenous people, numbering more than 350,000 in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations in Canada, First Nations. They live prim ...

and

Métis The Métis ( , , , ) are a mixed-race Indigenous people whose historical homelands include Canada's three Prairie Provinces extending into parts of Ontario, British Columbia, the Northwest Territories and the northwest United States. They ha ...

). It originated as a French name and came to

New France New France (, ) was the territory colonized by Kingdom of France, France in North America, beginning with the exploration of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Kingdom of Great Br ...

and was part of the

North American fur trade The North American fur trade is the (typically) historical Fur trade, commercial trade of furs and other goods in North America, beginning in the eastern provinces of French Canada and the northeastern Thirteen Colonies, American colonies (soon- ...

by the 1680s. In the 1780s, a small group of Cardinals came from Quebec to what is now

northern Alberta Northern Alberta is a geographic region located in the Canadian province of Alberta. An informally defined cultural region, the boundaries of Northern Alberta are not fixed. Under some schemes, the region encompasses everything north of the ce ...

to work in the fur trade, they stayed and intermarried with the local native peoples and reproduced prolifically. As a result, thousands of Cree and Métis people from across Alberta and beyond can trace their descent to the Cardinals.Heather Devine
A clip from ''The Métis in the 21st Century Conference''
June 18-20, 2003 Notable people with the surname include: * A.W. Cardinal, Canadian musician * Aurèle Cardinal, Canadian architect * Brian Cardinal, American basketball player *

Celeigh Cardinal Celeigh Cardinal is a Canadian folk singer-songwriter from Alberta.

, Canadian musician * Douglas Cardinal (born 1934), Canadian architect * Fernando Cardinal, Portuguese futsal player * Gil Cardinal, Canadian architect of Métis descent * Harold Cardinal (1945–2005), Cree writer and political leader * Imajyn Cardinal, Canadian actress * Jean-Guy Cardinal, Québécois politician *

Joseph-Narcisse Cardinal Joseph-Narcisse Cardinal (February 8, 1808 – December 21, 1838) was a notary and political figure in Lower Canada. He was the first person executed for taking part in the Lower Canada Rebellion. He was born in Saint-Constant in 1808, the son ...

, Lower Canadian politician and rebel * Judah ben Isaac Cardinal (13th century), Arabic-Hebrew translator * Linda Cardinal (born 1959), Canadian political scientist * Lorne Cardinal, Canadian actor *

Marie Cardinal Marie Cardinal (born Simone Odette Marie-Thérèse Cardinal; 9 March 1929 – 9 May 2001) was a French novelist and occasional actress. Life and career Cardinal was born in French Algeria and was the sister of the film director Pierre Cardinal ...

(1929–2001), French novelist. *

Martin Cardinal Constable Martin Cardinal is an Ottawa Police Service member who sparked national outrage on November 25, 2000, when an amateur video taken by Darcy Peterson from his balcony showed an officer repetitively slamming a handcuffed and restrained fem ...

, Canadian police officer and subject of controversy *

Mark Cardinal Mark E. Cardinal (born May 5, 1961 in Victoria, British Columbia) is a former Canadian national rugby player. He played as a hooker. Cardinal played 35 times for Canada, from 1986 to 1999, scoring 3 tries, 13 points in aggregate. He played thre ...

, Canadian rugby player *

Mike Cardinal Melvin Percy Joseph Cardinal (July 17, 1941 – January 12, 2023) was a Canadian politician from Alberta. He served as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1989 until 2008 as a Progressive Conservative representing the electora ...

, Canadian politician *

Tantoo Cardinal Tantoo Cardinal CM (born July 20, 1950) is a Canadian actress. Of Cree and Métis heritage, in 2009 she was made a member of the Order of Canada "for her contributions to the growth and development of Aboriginal performing arts in Canada, as a s ...

, Canadian actress

References

{{surname First Nations culture in Canada Cree culture Métis culture History of Alberta

See also

References