Lesson: History Re-imagined
Cree Language, Culture and History
Objectives: Learn about the Cree culture through language, people and history. Reflect on the effects of colonization, and the clash of cultures.
Materials:
Cree Language, Culture and History
Objectives: Learn about the Cree culture through language, people and history. Reflect on the effects of colonization, and the clash of cultures.
Materials:
- Cree texts "Cree Language, People and History"
- Cree Fact Sheet
- Read the text "Cree Language, People and History" and the Cree fact sheet
- With what has already been learned in class, reflect on the effects of colonization and how the contact of cultures sometimes result in clashes
- Group discussion on racism, white supremacy mentality, and find similar contemporary issues around the world
- In groups of 4, create an alternate history of Canada - what could have been done for both colonizers and nations to thrive?
Cree Language, People and History
Language: Cree is an Algonquian language spoken by more than 70,000 people across southern Canada and into Montana. There are five major Cree dialects: Western/Plains Cree, Northern/Woodlands Cree, Central/Swampy Cree, Moose Cree, and Eastern Cree. Some linguists consider these distinct languages, but they are largely mutually intelligible. The most divergent is Eastern Cree, which some consider a closer relative to the Innu languages Montagnais and Naskapi than to the other Cree dialects--then again, others consider Montagnais, Naskapi, and/or Attikamekw to be dialects of Cree themselves. This lack of linguistic consensus reveals the remarkable diversification of the Cree language. In general, Cree people can understand the dialects of communities closest to them, but not those further away: though a Northern Cree may understand both a Western Cree and an Eastern Cree, they might have trouble understanding each other, and only the East Cree speaker would have hope of understanding Montagnais. All five Cree dialects (though not Atikamekw or the Innu languages) are written in a unique syllabary which uses shapes to represent consonants and rotates them in the Four Directions to represent vowels. There are two more languages which, while not Cree, are heavily influenced by Cree: Michif, a Metis creole combining French nouns with Cree verbs, and Severn Ojibway, an Ojibwe dialect often called "Oji-Cree" because it has borrowed liberally from Cree and uses the Cree syllabary instead of the Roman alphabet used by most other Ojibwe speakers. One of the most important and influential of American Indian languages, Cree also has one of the best chances of conitnued survival, with many children being raised bilingually or in Cree with English or French as a second language. Cree is a polysynthetic, verb-based language with long words and fairly free word order. People: The Cree are Canada's largest native group, with 200,000 registered members and dozens of self-governed nations. "Cree" comes from the French name for the tribe, "Kristenaux," variously said to be a corruption of the French word for "Christian" or an Algonquian word for "first people." When speaking their own language the Cree refer to themselves as Ayisiniwok, meaning "true men," Nehiyawok, meaning "speakers of our language," or Iyiniwok, meaning simply "the people" (this word has the same Central Algonquian root as the Montagnais word Innu). There are also more than 100,000 people known as Métis, of mixed-blood Cree, French, and other Canadian ancestry. Though many Cree regard the Metis as Cree brethren--and, indeed, though many registered Cree Indians are also mixed-blood--the Metis have a unique culture and their own creole tongue (known as Michif). The Atikamek and the Innu (Montagnais and Naskapi) are also related to the Cree but consider themselves distinct. History: Cree history is very hard to synopsize because the Cree tribe spans such a broad territory, from the Rocky Mountains all the way to the Atlantic Ocean. Though their common culture and language bind them together as a people, the James Bay Cree and Woodland Cree tribes do not necessarily have any more shared history than the white people in Quebec and Alberta do. With that caveat, though, the Cree Indians as a whole have weathered European colonization better than perhaps any other group of Native Americans. Their sheer numbers and broad range helped keep them from being too decimated by European diseases to maintain stability, as happened to many smaller nations, and their particular cultural affinity for intertribal marriage (remarked upon in the oral histories of their Indian neighbors) meshed well with the intent of the French, the primary Europeans to have dealings with them. Where the English tended to try to move Indian groups further away from their civilization, the French tried to engulf them. The Cree, who had held a similar attitude towards colonization before the French ever got there, engulfed back. The result was the Metis, a race of primarily French-Cree mixed-bloods, and distinct French and Cree populations who generally got along pretty well. Since Canadian nationhood, the Cree people have faced the same problems of self-determination and land control that every aboriginal group has, but they remain better-equipped to face them than most, and the Cree language is one of the few North American languages sure of surviving into the next century. Source: http://www.native-languages.org/cree.htm |
Cree Fact Sheet
How do you pronounce the word "Cree"? What does it mean? Cree is pronounced to rhyme with the English word "see." It's a shortened form of the French word for the tribe, Kristeneaux, but it's not clear where that word came from. It may have been a French mispronunciation of a Cree clan name (Kenistenoag) or a Cree mispronunciation of the French word for "Christian" (Chrétien.) In their own language the Crees call themselves Iyiniwok or Ininiwok, meaning "the people," orNehiyawok, "speakers of the Cree language." Where do the Crees live? The Cree tribe is one of the largest American Indian groups in North America. There are 200,000 Cree people today living in communities throughout Canada and in parts of the northern United States (North Dakota and Montana). Here is a map showing the traditional territories of the Cree and some of their neighbors. There are also more than 100,000 Metis people in Canada. Many Metis people descend from Cree Indians and French Canadian voyageurs. Are the Woodland Cree and Plains Cree two different tribes? No, those are just English names that describe how different Cree bands lived. Cree Indians from prairie regions, especially in southern Manitoba and Alberta, are often known as the Plains Cree. Cree Indians who live in the forested land further to the north and east are often known as the Woodland Cree. Woodland and Plains Cree people share the same language and customs, but they had some differences in traditional lifestyle based on their environment. For example, the Woodland Crees built houses out of birchbark, but the Plains Crees built teepees out of buffalo hide. How is the Cree Indian nation organized? Each Cree community lives on its own reserve (or reservation, in the United States.) Reserves are lands that belong to the Crees and are under their control. Cree Indian bands are called First Nations in Canada and tribes in the United States. Each Cree tribe or First Nation is politically independent and has its own government, laws, police, and services, just like a small country. Some Cree nations have also formed coalitions to address common problems. The political leader of a Cree band is called a chief (okimahkan in the Cree language.) In the past, Cree chiefs were men who had distinguished themselves in war. Today chiefs can be men or women, and they are elected in most Cree bands, just like mayors and governors. What language do the Crees speak? Most Cree people speak English or French, but some of them also speak their native Cree language. Cree is a musical language that has complicated verbs with many parts. If you'd like to know some easy Cree words, tansi (pronounced tahn-see) is a friendly greeting and mahti (pronounced mah-tee) means "please." What was Cree culture like in the past? What is it like now? There are many different Cree bands, but the Mistissini Cree of Quebec have an especially informative website, where you can learn about Cree culture and history and view plenty of photographs. Source: http://www.native-languages.org/mohawk-legends.htm |