Cree

(255 total words in this text)
(2423 Reads)  Printer-friendly page [1]
A native american tribe of the Algonquian nation, the Cree form an aboriginal nation who once lived in the Northern Plains of North America. They range from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean in both Canada and the United States. Their ancestral Cree language was once the most widely spoken in northern North America, but now not all Crees are fluent in it. English and French are more commonly used.

Skilled buffalo hunters and horseman, the Cree were allied to the Assiniboin of the Sioux before encountering English and French settlers in the sixteeth century.

Presently the remaining Cree in the United States live with the Assiniboin in Montana on the Fort Belknap Agency and Reservation.

The Cree in Canada
They are the largest group of First Nations in Canada with over 200,000 members. The Cree were known for openness to inter-tribal marriage. 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 M?tis are a group of mixed Cree and primarily French Canadian heritage, although it is generally accepted in academic circles that the term M?tis can be used to refer to a combination of any Aboriginal and European lineage. Some Anglo-Metis are also of Cree descent.

The Quebec Cree nation calls its homeland Eeyou Istchee (Cree for Land of the People). Its current leader is Grand Chief Ted Moses from the community of Eastmain in northern Quebec.

  
[ Back to Indian Wars [2] | Primary Sources Archive index [3] ]
Links
  [1] http://www.patriotfiles.com/index.php?name=Sections&req=viewarticle&artid=8589&allpages=1&theme=Printer
  [2] http://www.patriotfiles.com/index.php?name=Sections&req=listarticles&secid=43
  [3] http://www.patriotfiles.com/index.php?name=Sections