Cree Tribe History, Culture, and Facts

The Cree tribe is one of North America’s most distinguished native people, native to Canada and closely related to the Ojibwa.

Their near-monopoly of the fur trade and land territory forged them into a cultural and economically influential tribe that completely influenced the European settlers who related with them.

Keep reading as we reexamine the history, culture, and facts about the Cree Tribe.

Cree Tribe History

One of the most unrivaled native groups of North America, the name “Cree” is gotten from “Kristineaux,” or “Kri” for easy pronunciation.

The name was given to them by French traders.

As hunters and gatherers, the basic social structure for the Cree Tribe was the lodge, a group of probably 8 or 12 people, most often the families of two different but related couples, who dwelt together in the same domed tent or tipi, and the band, a collection of lodges who migrated and hunted together.

If there was any disagreement between the people, lodges could leave the bands, and the bands could be established and dissolved almost easily.

However, as there is safety in unity, all families would be part of some band, and expulsion was considered a serious punishment.

They would normally have a strong relationship with their neighbors via intermarriage and would come together at various times of the year to interact and hunt together.

Aside from these local gatherings, no sophisticated formal structure and determinations of peace and war were ever made by concession, with allied bands gathering together in council.

The people could be recognized by their clan, individuals affirming descent from the same common ancestor.

Cree bands who migrated into the Great Plains and embraced bison hunting were called the Plains Cree.

These bands were all independent of each other.

The Cree-speaking bands, however, work with their neighbors against their mutual enemies.

They were allied with the Metis Nation, the Assiniboine, and the Iron Confederacy, which was a respectable force in the North American fur trade from the 18th century to the 19th century.

When they were at war, each band chose a temporary military commander, called an okimahkan which loosely means “war chief.”

The Cree are, however, divided into eight groups according to their language and region; Moose Cree, James Bay Cree, Attikamekw, Swarmpy Cree, Woods Cree, Plains Cree, Naskapi, and Montagnais Cree.

Colonial contact

In 1682, the Cree tribe first contacted the Europeans at the mouth of the Nelson and Hayes Rivers, North of Manitoba and Canada, by a Hudson’s Bay Company party traveling inland.

In 1732, a second contact was made with southern bands in the northwestern part of Ontario when Pierre Gaultier de Varennes encountered a collected group of 200 Cree warriors and members of the Monsoni tribe, a part of the Ojibwe along present-day Fort Frances.

At that time, the native groups were preparing to assault the Dakota Sioux and other Ojibwe natives.

Warlike in nature, the Cree people were, however, friendly to fur traders, and their chronology is intertwined with the Hudson’s Bay and North West fur companies.

The Cree people secured firearms from the Hudson’s Bay Company, and several migrated into the plains as intermediaries with the fur trade company.

The Cree people intermarried with the French and Scottish colonists to form people of mixed blood called Metis.

After many years, the inflow of European emigrants into America had no significant effect on the lives of the woodland Cree in northern Canada.

However, the Plains Cree adopted the “horse culture” of the Plains Indians and hunted bison.

Over time, European Americans’ advancement and the buffalo herds’ setback pushed the Plains Cree to relocate to reservations and adopt farming.

The Metis and Cree in Canada opposed the Canadian government workforce when the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railroad overran their lands. In 1885, they were finally defeated.

Today

The Cree language is one of the most spoken native languages.

In today’s society, the Cree tribe is one of the topmost First Nations groups in Canada, with more than 350,000 people bearing Cree ancestry.

Many of the Cree tribe in the United States live mostly in Montana, where they share the Rocky Boy Indian Reservations with the Ojibwe tribe.

Others reside in Fort Belknap Indian Reservation and Fort Peck Indian Reservation, which are also in Montana.

The Cree people call themselves “Be Hiyawak,” meaning “those who speak a similar language.” Rocky Boy was gotten from the name of a chief of the band of Chippewa Indians.

The economy of the reservation is majorly empowered by livestock and agriculture.

The Cree tribe observes Rocky Boy’s Pow Wow annually in August.

Cree Tribe culture

Language

The Cree tribe spoke the Algonquian language, which is a continuum.

Depending on the area, some Cree groups speak a little different version of the language than the Cree people in other areas.

The nearer the speakers’ communities are, the more possible they are to understand themselves.

Religious Beliefs

Over centuries ago, the Cree tribe have been secretive about their beliefs with scoffing outsiders.

Convictions in a Great Spirit, known as misi-manito, or an Evil Spirit, known as macimanito-w, may be of colonial origin.

Wi-htikow, the cannibal giant, was feared greatly.

Their religion was animistic, and all living organisms and certain nonliving things had spirits or manitowak.

Through visions and dreams, people could obtain the help of mighty animal spirits in activities such as hunting, lovemaking, and warfare.

There was no concept of the supernatural and no priesthood also.

Ceremonies

No ceremonies were ever documented for the earliest times, but in modern history, tea festivals of Thanksgiving are observed in spring and autumn.

Banquets were held after the success of hunts.

Christian rites are now popular.

Arts

An abundant oral tradition consists of both secular and sacred stories.

Wisakecahk was the protagonist of the famous trickster or converter of stories.

The Cree people, in the past, had their faces and bodies tattooed and painted with complex designs.

Women wore quills and, later, beads.

Medicine

The sick and injured were regarded as a person’s suffering due to personal, evil spirits, for which treatment from a medicine man was necessary.

The treatment included herbal potion and setting broken bones, but the supernatural help summoned in the ritual of the sweat bath or the shaking tent was also paramount.

Death and Afterlife

Terminal illness was welcomed with collectedness, but the dying individual demanded that his survivors avenge his death, for death was thought to be the result of witchcraft.

Burials were in a grave or on a platform.

Shots were fired inside the tent to scare away the evil spirit.

Cree Facts

1. They lost much of their territory when several hydroelectric dams were constructed in the James Bay region.

2. The chief of a band, region, or local was the most competent man and most honored or believed to possess supernatural power. If the administration of a leader declined, the band would supplant him or members from that band would leave to join another prosperous band.

3. Infanticide was very common, but only as a condition based on the availability of food and a mother’s capacity to nurse.

4. The Cree had no ceremony, as most religious customs were at a personal level and associated with the person’s spirit from their childhood vision quest.

5. The Cree TRIBE had no tribal identity. Rather, they recognized themselves by their native band and functioned independently during the winter, fall, and spring.