Information about Cree

Cree

Cree camp near Vermilion, Alberta
Total population
over 200,000
Regions with significant populations
Canada, United States
Languages
Cree, English, French
Religions

Related ethnic groups
Métis, Oji-Cree, Ojibwe

The Cree are an indigenous people of North America who occupy an area from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean in both Canada and the United States. They now constitute the largest group of First Nations people in Canada and are referred to as Native Americans in the United States. The Cree language is an Algonquian language and was once the most widely spoken in northern North America. Currently, however, not all Crees speak Cree fluently and English is more commonly used in Cree communities in the United States, Western Canada and Ontario. In Quebec, however, almost all Crees speak fluent Cree; English and French are nevertheless used in the work place, public administration, and for external relations.

Skilled buffalo hunters and horsemen, the Cree were allied to the Assiniboine of the Sioux before encountering English and French settlers in the 16th century.

Presently, the remaining Cree in the United States live on the Rocky Boy Indian Reservation which is shared with the Chippewa.

In Canada

Cree Girl (1928).

The Cree are the largest group of First Nations in Canada, with over 200,000 members and 135 registered bands.^[1] This large number may be due to the Cree's traditional openness to inter-tribal marriage. Together, their reserve lands are the largest of any First Nations group in the country.^[1] The largest Cree band, and the second largest First Nations Band in Canada after the Six Nations Iroquois is the Lac La Ronge Band in northern Saskatchewan.

The Métis were traditionally the mixed offspring of Cree (or Ojibwa) and French Canadian (or English or Scottish) heritage. According to the Canadian Government's Indian and Northern Affairs, the Metis were historically the offspring of French fur traders and Prairie Cree women or, from unions of English or Scottish traders and Northern Dene women. It is now generally accepted though in academic circles that the term Métis can be used to refer to any combination of persons of mixed Native with Non-Native heritage. Although, historical definitions for Metis remain. Some Anglo-Metis are also of Cree descent. Canada's Indian and Northern Affairs specifically but broadly define Metis to be those persons of mixed First Nation and European ancestry.

The Grand Council of the Crees in Quebec calls its homeland Eeyou Istchee (Cree for 'Land of the People'). Its current leader is Grand Chief Matthew Mukash, formerly Deputy Grand Chief under Ted Moses and more recently CEO of the Whapmagoostui Eeyou Enterprise Development Corporation in Quebec’s northern-most Cree community.

The Nishnawbe-Aski Nation (NAN) is a political group of Cree, Ojibwe and Oji-Cree descendants based in northern Ontario. Its territory encompasses two thirds of the northern half of the province. It comprises 50 First Nation communities, further represented by regional Tribal Councils denoting each territorial area of Cree, Ojibwe and Oji-Cree peoples. The word nishnawbe means 'people' in all these related languages. Similarly, aski means 'land' in all the languages and is similar to the Quebec Cree word 'istchee'. Cree and Ojibwe are Algonquian languages that share many similarities and are separated by subtle differences in dialects from region to region.

Beliefs

The tribes of the Cree Nation, living in the Canadian forests and US plains, venerated the spirits of the hunt. The Earth Spirit was the mother of all animals, and there was also a less-defined Sky being. Religion emphasized a close relationship with the tribes' ancestors or "old people", believed to be always near at hand. Tribal shamans frequently entered trances to visit the land of the dead. Nature was seen as an integrated whole, so that animals spoke and told tales, and legends of the winds and of the four directions were common. Close contact with European traders and white settlers, coupled with the adoption of agriculture, greatly altered the mythology of these tribes.

Cree Creation Story

This is how one Cree tribe explains the creation of the world:

When light first came to the earth, O-ma-ma-ma the earth mother of the Cree people gave birth to the spirits of the world. The first born was Binay-sih, the thunderbird who protects the animals from the sea serpent, Genay-big. Thunderbirds shout out their unhappiness or anger with black clouds, rain and fire flashes in the sky. The second born was Ina-kaki, the lowly frog who heightens the sorcerer's powers and helps to control the insects in the world. The third born was the trickster Wee-sa-hay-jac, who can change himself into many forms or shapes to protect himself. The fourth child was Ma-heegun, Wee-sa-hay-jac's little wolf brother. They travel together with Wee-sa-hay-jac on his back. The fifth born was Amik the beaver, who is greatly respected because he is an unfortunate human from a different world. Fish, rocks, grasses, and trees all came from the womb of the great earth mother O-ma-ma-ma. The earth was inhabited a long time by only animals and spirits because Wee-sa-hay-jac had not yet made any people.

Cree First Nations

A Cree woman (right)

Lubicon Lake Indian Nation
Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation
Opaskwayak Cree Nation
Enoch Cree Nation
Louis Bull Tribe First Nation
Bigstone Cree Nation
Beaver Lake Cree Nation
Little Red River Cree Nation
Kashechewan First Nation
Grand Council of the Crees of Quebec (representing nine Cree villages)
Muskoday First Nation
Norway House Cree Nation
One Arrow First Nation
Beaver Lake Cree Nation
Barren Lands First Nation
Misipawistik Cree Nation
Mushkego James Bay Cree
Fisher River Cree Nation
Saddle Lake Cree First Nation
Little Pine, Sask. First Nation

Cree Prophecy

Cree of Northern Québec

The so called Cree Prophecy: "Only after the last tree has been cut down / Only after the last river has been poisoned / Only after the last fish has been caught / Then will you find that money cannot be eaten" seems to be a shortened version of the Legend of Rainbow Warriors, that is sometimes reported as a Hopi prophecy, sometimes as a prophecy of an old Cree woman. The complete version of this prophecy speaks about trees, rivers, and fish, but not about money:

There was an old lady, from the "Cree" tribe, named "Eyes of Fire", who prophesied that one day, because of the white mans' or Yo-ne-gis' greed, there would come a time, when the fish would die in the streams, the birds would fall from the air, the waters would be blackened, and the trees would no longer be, mankind as we would know it would all but cease to exist. There would come a time when the "keepers of the legend, stories, culture rituals, and myths, and all the Ancient Tribal Customs" would be needed to restore us to health. They would be mankinds’ key to survival, they were the "Warriors of the Rainbow". (Lelanie Stone)

Instead, it speaks about an army of "Rainbow Warriors" that will appear to save the world. Thus, the sense of the prophecy differs from the wide-spread shortened version.

In Germany the Cree Prophecy is often mixed up with the famous speech of Chief Seattle in 1854. The Smith version of this speech closes with a prophecy that resembles the legend of Rainbow Warriors.

Notable Cree

Irene Bedard, actress
Jonathan Cheechoo, ice hockey player
Michael Greyeyes, actor
Autumn Petros-Good, scientist
Buffy Sainte-Marie, singer
Cree Summer, singer/actress
Gordon Tootoosis, actor

See:

References

1. ^ Source: Canadian Geographic

Sacred Legends of the Sandy Lake Cree. James R. Stevens, McClelland and Stewart Ltd, 1971

External links

Cree cultural site
Grand Council of the Crees (GCC) website
The Plains Cree - Ethnographic, Historical and Comparative Study by David Mandelbaum
Lac La Ronge Band website
Little Red River Cree Nation website
Dammed river from Canadian Geographic
Grant, Bruce (2000). The Concise Encyclopedia of the American Indian. New York: Wings Books. ISBN 0-517-69310-0.
CBC Digital Archives - James Bay Project and the Cree
Fisher River Cree Nation Offical Website
The Gift of Language and Culture website

Town of Vermilion

Location of Vermilion in Alberta
Coordinates:
Country
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Motto
"In God We Trust" (since 1956)
"E Pluribus Unum" ("From Many, One"; Latin, traditional)
Anthem
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Cree is the name for a group of closely-related Algonquian languages spoken by approximately 50,000 speakers across Canada, from Alberta to Labrador.

Dialect criteria

The Cree dialect continuum can be divided by many criteria.
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English}}}
Writing system: Latin (English variant)
Official status
Official language of: 53 countries
Regulated by: no official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1: en
ISO 639-2: eng
ISO 639-3: eng
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French (français, pronounced [fʁɑ̃ˈsɛ]) is a Romance language originally spoken in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Switzerland, and today by about 300 million people around the world as either
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A Métis is a person born to parents who belong to different groups defined by visible physical differences, regarded as racial. The term is of French origin, and also is a cognate of mestizo in Spanish.
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Oji-Cree, Anishinini or, less correctly, Severn Ojibwe, are a First Nation in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Manitoba, residing in a narrow band extending from the Missinaibi River region in Northeastern Ontario at the east to Lake Winnipeg at the west.
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Ojibwa, Anishinaabe, or Chippewa (also Ojibwe, Ojibway, Chippeway, Aanishanabe, or Anishinabek) is the largest group of Native Americans-First Nations north of Mexico, including Métis.
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The term indigenous peoples has no universal, standard or fixed definition, but can be used about any ethnic group who inhabit the geographic region with which they have the earliest historical connection.
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North America is a continent ^[1] in the Earth's northern hemisphere and (chiefly) western hemisphere. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the southeast by the Caribbean Sea, and on the south and west
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The Rocky Mountains

Moraine Lake, and the Valley of the Ten Peaks, Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada

Countries | United States,Canada

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Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions; with a total area of about 106.4 million square kilometres (41.1 million square miles), it covers approximately one-fifth of the Earth's surface.
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Motto
"In God We Trust" (since 1956)
"E Pluribus Unum" ("From Many, One"; Latin, traditional)
Anthem
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First Nations is a Canadian term of ethnicity which refers to the aboriginal peoples located in what is now Canada, and their descendants who are neither Inuit nor Métis. Lest the descriptive First Nations imply the only First Peoples, it is important to recognize that the Inuit
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American Indian and Alaska Native
One race: 2.5 million^[1]
In combination with one or more other races: 1.6 million^[2]
Regions with significant populations United States

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Cree is the name for a group of closely-related Algonquian languages spoken by approximately 50,000 speakers across Canada, from Alberta to Labrador.

Dialect criteria

The Cree dialect continuum can be divided by many criteria.
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Algonquian language may refer to:

Algonquian languages, language sub-family indigenous to North America
Algonquin language, the particular Algonquian language spoken by certain First-Nations people of Canada

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Ontario

Flag Coat of arms
Motto: Ut Incepit Fidelis Sic Permanet (Latin: Loyal she began, loyal she remains)

Capital Toronto
Largest city Toronto
Official languages English (de facto)
Government
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Québec
Quebec ^[1]

Flag Coat of arms
Motto: Je me souviens (French: I remember)

Capital Quebec City
Largest city Montreal
Official languages French
Government
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B. bison

Binomial name
Bison bison
(Linnaeus, 1758)

Subspecies

B. b. athabascae
B. b.
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The Assiniboine, also known by the Ojibwe name Asiniibwaan "Stone Sioux", and the Cree as Asinîpwât are a Native American/First Nations people originally from the Northern Great Plains area of North America, specifically in present-day Montana and parts of
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As a means of recording the passage of time, the 16th century was that century which lasted from 1501 through 1600.

See also: 16th century in literature

Events

1500s

1500s: Mississippian culture disappears.

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The Rocky Boy Indian Reservation is an Indian reservation of the Chippewa-Cree tribe located in the U.S. state of Montana. The smallest reservation in the state, it was created in 1916 and is located in Hill County and Chouteau County in northern Montana about
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