HOME | DD

Description
Cree, one of the major Algonquian-speaking Native American tribes, whose domain included an immense area from east of Hudson and James bays to as far west as Alberta and Great Slave Lake in what is now Canada. Originally inhabiting a smaller nucleus of this area, they expanded rapidly in the 17th and 18th centuries after engaging in the fur trade and acquiring firearms; the name Cree is a truncated form of Kristineaux, a French adaptation of the self-name of the James Bay band.

Wars with the Dakota Sioux and Blackfoot and severe smallpox epidemics, notably in 1784 and 1838, reduced their numbers. At the time of Canada’s colonization by the French and English, there were two major divisions of Cree; both were typical American Subarctic peoples.

Traditionally, the Woodland Cree, also called Swampy Cree or Maskegon, relied for subsistence on hunting, fowling, fishing, and collecting wild plant foods. They preferred hunting larger game such as caribou, moose, bear, and beaver but relied chiefly on hare for subsistence because of the scarcity of the other animals; the periodic scarcity of hare, however, sometimes caused famine.

Description
Cree, one of the major Algonquian-speaking Native American tribes, whose domain included an immense area from east of Hudson and James bays to as far west as Alberta and Great Slave Lake in what is now Canada. Originally inhabiting a smaller nucleus of this area, they expanded rapidly in the 17th and 18th centuries after engaging in the fur trade and acquiring firearms; the name Cree is a truncated form of Kristineaux, a French adaptation of the self-name of the James Bay band.

Wars with the Dakota Sioux and Blackfoot and severe smallpox epidemics, notably in 1784 and 1838, reduced their numbers. At the time of Canada’s colonization by the French and English, there were two major divisions of Cree; both were typical American Subarctic peoples.

Traditionally, the Woodland Cree, also called Swampy Cree or Maskegon, relied for subsistence on hunting, fowling, fishing, and collecting wild plant foods. They preferred hunting larger game such as caribou, moose, bear, and beaver but relied chiefly on hare for subsistence because of the scarcity of the other animals; the periodic scarcity of hare, however, sometimes caused famine.