Time+Travel+Paper

The Cree people have closed relationships with the land on which they live, their families & their ancestors each influenced the Cree. The Cree also believed that all things in nature should be respected. Animals, places, & people all had spirits help the guide living. The plain Cree’s believed that they could see into the future just by looking into the water. This strategy helped them in hunting & in war. (3) The Cree relied on the land for all their food, the tribes that lived near water fished otherwise they would hunt caribou, deer, moose, & bison. Birds & Ducks also are an important part of their diet, nuts, berries, & vegetables were to be taken on long journeys. (3) For clothing the Cree people wore feathers, head dresses, beads, jingle dresses, & moccasins; the Cree people wore most of these things, during “pow-wows.” (3) The definition of the Cree people is. They make their homes in parts of North American where the winters were long & summers were short because the seasons dictated their way of life. The Cree people had individual jobs within their families, the men would hunt & watch out for the tribes, the women would cook, clean, make clothes, & care for the children. The Elders would be there wisdom. (1) The Cree Society begun before the 1500s. It was never really well known around the world until the Fur Trade with the Europeans in the early 1500s. (2) The Cree society has not ended but they have evolved, and with all the mixed marriages that the Cree people culture is not as pure like is was back before Canada was founded. (3) The Cree culture was at its peak during the time that the Europeans came and begun the fur trade and also when the French traders and missionaries came to what is now Canada. (2) The Cree traded furs for such goods as tools and weapons. Beaver fur which was used in Europe to make felt hats, became the most valuable of these furs. The fur trade prospered until the mid-1800s, when fur bearing animals became scarce and silk hats became more popular than felt hats with beaver. (2) The Cree culture and people are spread out all over Canada; most live on the reserves that are made by the government specifically for the First Nations and Cree people. (3) There is an unanswerable question on why the Cree society began, the only explanation available is that they were always there. (3) The Cree society has not ended, although they have evolved with time. They continue with scared celebrations such as the pow-wow. (3) The Cree society is the way they are because they would like to still maintain balance with nature and with each other, and they can continue that with the gatherings that they hold. (3) Among the First Nations peoples, there are eight different stories of creation and their adaptations. They are listed as the following the earth diver, world parent, emergence, conflict, robbery, rebirth of corpse, two creators and their contests, and the brother myth. (4) The Past-Of the Cree people The Ojibway, whose ancestors are called the Anishinabeg, or First People, refer to the Cree as Kinistenoog, "They Who Were First". The Woodland Cree remained culturally intact, since their lives did not require changing. However, as the Cree became more and more dependent on the Plains, their culture began to change and take on certain attributes of their Sioux, Lakota, and Pawnee neighbors. The Plains Cree, during the late 1700's through the mid-1800's lived in harmony with the buffalo. The buffalo also provided the Cree with rawhide for clothing, bones to make weapons and tools, and a seemingly infinite number of other resources. No part of the buffalo went un-used. Within the Cree community there was a very specific division of labor between the men and women. Women were generally the food gatherers. Women spent their days foraging, checking trap lines, tanning hides, making snowshoes, hauling wood, and making, mending, and decorating clothing. Men were excellent hunters and fishers. Moose, beaver, ptarmigan, geese, ducks, and bear were all eaten by the Woodland Cree. The rivers and lakes provided a large amount of sturgeon, walleye, and trout. When the men were not hunting or fishing, they spent their time making tools, weapons, and canoes. During the fur trade, Cree populations throughout Canada were severely reduced because they were forced relocat and the diseases that the Europeans brought. Because the diseases had never been encountered by the Cree before then, their bodies did not have the proper immune systems and a lot died because of it. (4) Today- Today, people of the Cree Nation can be found throughout Canada (Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Ontario, and Quebec), and parts of Montana. About 120,000 Cree live in 135 bands in Canada. They have the largest population and are spread over the largest geographic area of any of the native groups in Canada. The Cree are one of the only nations who have lived in the eastern boreal forest and western Plains. While most Cree live in homes today, there is a increasing interest among the Cree to rediscover their history and ancestors. Throughout Canada there are programs and classes that modern Cree can take to better understand where they have come from by learning. (4)