The Cree are a North American Indigenous people, numbering more than 350,000 in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations macro-communities. There are numerous Cree peoples and several nations closely related to the Cree, these being the Plains Cree, Woodland Cree, Rocky Cree, Swampy Cree, Moose Cree, and East Cree with the Atikamekw, Innu, and Naskapi being closely related. Also closely related to the Cree are the Oji-Cree and Métis, both nations of mixed heritage, the former with Ojibweg (Chippewa) and the latter with European fur traders. Cree homelands account for a majority of eastern and central Canada, from Eeyou Istchee in the east in what is now Quebec to northern Ontario, much of the Canadian Prairies, and up into British Columbia and the Northwest Territories. Although a majority of Cree live in Canada, there are small communities in the United States, living mostly in Montana where they share Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation with the Ojibwe people.
The Cree are in a variety of treaty relations with the Canadian state. Most notable are the Numbered Treaties which cover a majority of Cree homelands. In Quebec, the East Cree (along with the Inuit of Nunavik) entered into one of the first modern treaties: the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement which formalized relations between the province and both Eeyou Istchee and the Nunavik region of Inuit Nunangat. A documented westward migration, over time, has been strongly associated with their roles as traders and hunters in the North American fur trade.
Etymology The word "Cree" comes into English from the French , short for (alternatively: , , or ), which came from the Ojibwemowin word . The Ojibweg used the term for numerous communities which they encountered north and west of Lake Superior, predominately in Manitoba. The French used these terms to refer to various groups of peoples in Canada, some of which are now better distinguished as Severn Anishinaabe (Oji-Cree), who speak a related but distinct Algonquian language (Ojibwemowin).
In general, Cree and peoples related to the Cree (like the Atikamekw and Innu) use one of two terms to refer to themselves. The first comes from the Proto-Algonquian roots *nehi and *rowi meaning "balance" and "action, movement" which, when combined, becomes the Cree word for "Indigenous person". Nations like the Plains Cree (sing. nêhiyaw ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐤ; plural: nêhiyawak ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐘᐠ), Woodland Cree (Nīhithaw ᓃᐦᐃᖬᐤ; pl.: Nīhithawak ᓃᐦᐃᖬᐘᐠ), and Western Swampy Cree (nêhinaw ᓀᐦᐃᓇᐤ; pl.: nêhinawak ᓀᐦᐃᓇᐘᐠ) use such a formulation. The Atikamekw also use this form (Nehirowisiw; pl.: Nehirowisiwok), which adds the Proto-Algonquian root *siw ("human being"), rendering "one who is in balance with nature" as its translation.
The other form comes from the Proto-Algonquian root *elenyiwa meaning "human", used by the rest of the Cree and related nations: Rocky Cree: Īthiniw; pl.: Īthiniwak Eastern Swampy Cree: ininîw ᐃᓂᓃᐤ; pl.: ininîwak ᐃᓂᓃᐘᐠ' Moose Cree: ililîw ᐃᓕᓕᐤ; pl.: ililîwak ᐃᓕᓕᐗᒃ East Cree: Coastal: Iiyiyuu ᐄᔨᔫ; pl.: Iiyiyuuch ᐄᔨᔫᒡ Inland: Iinuu ᐄᓅ; pl.: Iinuuch ᐄᓅᒡ Innu: Western: Innu; pl.: Innut / Innuat Eastern: Ilnu; pl.: Ilnuatsh Naskapi: iiyuw ᐃᔪᐤ; pl.: iiyinaahch ᐃᔨᓇᒡ
Sub-groups and geography
The Cree are generally divided into eight groups based on dialect and region. These divisions do not necessarily represent ethnic subdivisions within the larger ethnic group:
Plains Cree – a total of about 34,000 people in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and Montana, USA. Woodland Cree and Rocky Cree – homelands include northern Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan. Swampy Cree – this nation lives in northern Manitoba, along the Hudson Bay coast, and adjacent inland areas to the south and west, as well as in Ontario, along the coasts of Hudson Bay and James Bay. Some also live in eastern Saskatchewan, around Cumberland House. Their dialect has 4,500 speakers. Moose Cree – Moose Factory in Northeastern Ontario; this nation lives on Moose Factory Island, near the mouth of the Moose River, at the southern end of James Bay. "Factory" used to refer to a trading post. East Cree – Grand Council of the Crees; numbering at approximately 18,000, the Eeyouch and Eenouch live predominately in their homeland, Eeyou Istchee, in northern Quebec as well as in neighbouring Nunavik. Atikamekw – although not considered Cree, this closely related nation has one of the highest rates of intergenerational language transmission, with approximately 95% of the nation speaking their language, Nehiromowin. Their homeland is named Nitaskinan, translating to "our land", and it is located in the upper Saint-Maurice River valley of Quebec (about north of Montreal). Their population is around 8,000. Innu and Naskapi – also not considered Cree, these closely related nations, once called "Montagnais", live in their homelands of Nitassinan and St'aschinuw (ᒋᑦ ᐊᔅᒋᓄᐤ) on the Labrador Peninsula, both meaning "our land" as well. Their territories comprise most of the present-day political jurisdictions of eastern Quebec and Labrador. Their cultures are differentiated, as some of the Naskapi are still caribou hunters, and more nomadic than many of the Innu; the Innu have more permanent settlements. The total population of the two groups (in 2003) was about 18,000 people, of which approx. 15,000 were in Quebec. Their dialects and languages are the most distinct from the Cree spoken by the groups west of Lake Superior.
Due to the many dialects of the Cree language, the people have no modern collective autonym. The Plains Cree and Attikamekw refer to themselves using modern forms of the historical ("Indigenous person"), namely and , respectively. The Moose Cree, East Cree, Naskapi, and Innu all refer to themselves using modern dialectal forms of the historical , meaning 'man.' Moose Cree use the form , coastal East Cree and Naskapi use (variously spelled , , and ), inland East Cree use (variously spelled and ), and Montagnais use and , depending on dialect. The Cree use "Cree", "cri", "Naskapi, or "montagnais" to refer to their people only when speaking French or English.
Political aboriginal organization
Historical
As hunter-gatherers, the basic units of organization for Cree peoples were the "lodge", a group of perhaps eight to a dozen people, usually the families of two separate, but related, married couples living together in the same wigwam (domed tent) or tipi (conical tent), and the band, a group of lodges who moved and hunted together. In the case of disagreement, lodges could leave bands, and bands could be formed and dissolved with relative ease. However, as there is safety in numbers, all families would want to be part of some band, and banishment or exile was considered a very serious punishment. Bands would usually have strong ties to their neighbours through intermarriage and would assemble together at different parts of the year to hunt and socialize together. Other than these regional gatherings, there was no higher-level formal structure, and decisions of war and peace were made by consensus, with allied bands meeting together in-council. People could be identified by their clan, which is a group of people claiming descent from the same common ancestor; each clan would have a representative and a vote in all important councils held by the band (compare: Anishinaabe clan system).
Each band remained independent of each other. However, Cree-speaking bands tended to work together and with their neighbours against outside enemies. Those Cree who moved onto the Great Plains and adopted bison hunting, called the Plains Cree, were allied with the Assiniboine, the Métis Nation, and the Saulteaux in what was known as the "Iron Confederacy", which was a major force in the North American fur trade from the 1730s to the 1870s. The Cree and the Assiniboine were important intermediaries in the First Nations trading networks on the northern plains.
When a band went to war, they would nominate a temporary military commander, called a , loosely translated as "war chief". This office was different from that of the "peace chief", a leader who had a role more like that of diplomat. Big Bear was the leader of his band in the run-up to the 1885 North-West Rebellion, but once the fighting started Wandering Spirit became war leader.
Contemporary There have been several attempts to create a national political organization that would represent all Cree peoples, at least as far back as a 1994 gathering at the reserve of the Opaskwayak Cree Nation.
Language
The Cree language (also known in the most broad classification as Cree-Montagnais, Cree-Montagnais-Naskapi, to show the groups included within it) is the name for a group of closely related Algonquian languages, the mother tongue (i.e. language first learned and still understood) of approximately 96,000 people, and the language most often spoken at home of about 65,000 people across Canada, from the Northwest Territories to Labrador. It is the most widely spoken Indigenous language in Canada. The only region where Cree has official status is in the Northwest Territories, together with eight other aboriginal languages, French and English. Note: The western group of languages includes Swampy Cree, Woods Cree and Plains Cree. The eastern language is called Moose Cree.
The two major groups, nehiyaw and Innu, speak a mutually intelligible Cree dialect continuum, which can be divided by many criteria. In a dialect continuum, "It is not so much a language, as a chain of dialects, where speakers from one community can very easily understand their neighbours, but a Plains Cree speaker from Alberta would find a Quebec Cree speaker difficult to speak to without practice."
One major division between the groups is that the Eastern group palatalizes the sound to either (c) or to (č) when it precedes front vowels. There is also a major difference in grammatical vocabulary (particles) between the groups. Within both groups, another set of variations has arisen around the pronunciation of the Proto-Algonquian phoneme *l, which can be realized as or (th) by different groups. Yet in other dialects, the distinction between (ē) and (ī) has been lost, merging to the latter. In more western dialects, the distinction between and (š) has been lost, both merging to the former. "Cree is a not a typologically harmonic language. Cree has both prefixes and suffixes, both prepositions and postpositions, and both prenominal and postnominal modifiers (e.g. demonstratives can appear in both positions)."
Victor Golla, an American linguist, counts Cree dialects as eight of 55 North American languages that have more than 1,000 speakers and which are being actively acquired by children.
Identity and ethnicity
In Canada
The Cree are the largest group of First Nations in Canada, with 220,000 members and 135 registered bands. Together, their reserve lands are the largest of any First Nations group in the country. The largest Cree band and the second largest First Nations band in Canada after the Six Nations of the Grand River of the Iroquois is the Lac La Ronge Indian Band in northern Saskatchewan.