Alternative Names
Eeyou (singular); Eeyouch (plural); person, the people. The term Cree is only used when spoken in English and is not the term the people use for themselves.
Location and Linguistic Affiliation
The entire population of Cree in Canada spreads from the province of Alberta to the province of Quebec. Historically ranging from plains-dwellers to woodland and northern sub-Arctic hunters, the many Cree nations are the most widely distributed geographically of First Nations in Canada. All of the Cree dialects derive from the Algonquian language family. The eastern Cree of the James Bay region of Quebec, the population highlighted in this entry, speak Cree as their first language and English, French, or both after that (96% have Cree as their mother tongue, 90% speak it at home; 77% speak English, 29% speak French in addition to Cree, 20% speak neither French nor English [Schnarch, 2001]).
Overview of the Culture
The James Bay Cree or Eeyouch of Eeyou astchee(the people’s...
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References
Adelson, N. (2000). Being alive well: Health and the politics of Cree well-being. Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press.
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Grand Council of the Crees (GCC) (1996). Never without consent: James Bay Crees stand against forcible inclusion into an independent Quebec. Toronto, Canada: ECW Press.
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Adelson, N. (2004). Cree. In: Ember, C.R., Ember, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Medical Anthropology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-29905-X_62
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