Cree

• CATEGORY: Tribe
• CULTURE AREA: Subarctic
• LANGUAGE GROUP: Algonquian
• PRIMARY LOCATION: Surrounding and to the east of Hudson Bay
• POPULATION SIZE: 223, 745 in Canada (2021, The Canadian Encyclopedia); 1,964 in United States (2021: ACS 5-Year Estimates American Indian and Alaska Native Detailed Tables: Cree Tribal Grouping Alone)

The first European contact with the Cree occurred in 1611, but it was fully a hundred years before extensive contacts between the Hudson’s Bay Company and the Cree created one of the most lucrative settler-Indigenous American partnerships for a colonial economy in North America. The arrangement initially had advantages for the Cree as well. When the Hudson’s Bay Company first established contacts and trading posts on the shores of Hudson Bay, they planted themselves in the center of Cree territory. The Cree dominated all contact with the White traders by controlling the waterways from the lands west of the bay, allowing only their allies, the Assiniboine, to have equal contact with the Europeans. The fame of the Cree comes from their essential role as a “middleman” in relations with Indians far to the west of Hudson Bay itself. According to Leonard Mason, the history of Cree-settler contact can be divided roughly into three periods: the period of the Cree initiating contact with settlers (1610–1690), the period of settlers initiating contact with the Cree (1690–1820), and Indigenous American rehabilitation (1820–1940).

Traditional Lifeways

The traditional lands of the Cree lay between Hudson Bay and Lake Winnipeg—to the southeast, south, and southwest of Hudson Bay itself. The Cree's environmental location did not allow an extensive agricultural base to develop for subsistence, so the Cree were famed hunters who also gathered berries from the harsh boreal landscape when they were available. The long winters in this region can be devastating, and failure to gather enough food during prime hunting seasons could lead to disaster during the snowy winter months. The Cree hunted caribou, moose, black bear, beaver, otter, mink, muskrat, fox, wolf, wolverine, geese, and duck.

The Cree people, related to the larger Algonquian cultural tradition, did not live in large settlements and often traveled in small bands, a situation that led to a separate identity for some of the Cree peoples. There are no strong clans or lineage traditions that unify a larger Cree identity. The Cree themselves recognize three large “divisions,” corresponding roughly to the lands and ecological niches that they occupy: the Swampy Cree (maskêkowiyiniwak), inhabiting lands between Hudson Bay and Lake Winnipeg, the Woodland or Woods Cree (sakâwiyiniwak) in the forested lands away from the shores, and the Plains or Prairie Cree (paskwâwiyiniwak), who wandered farther east into the high Canadian prairie. Another division, known as the Têtes-de-Boules or Eastern Cree, who occupy lands in the lower St. Maurice River in Ottawa, were already separated from the others at the time of contact with White settlers. Some scholars simply differentiate between Woodlands and Prairie Cree, considering the “Swampy Cree” label to apply to the Woodlands group and implying that this is the major division between the two groups.

The Woodland/Swampy Cree were surrounded by the Beaver and Chipewyan to the north and west, the Saulteaux to the south, and Hudson Bay itself to the east. The Cree social organization was rather simple, with no central authority or formal leadership patterns. They are reputed to remain a reserved people to this day, exercising social control through reputation (maintained through frequent gatherings to exchange information and rumor) and the threat of conjuring and witchcraft. The separation of the Prairie Cree, from about 1790, transformed the canoe-based Cree culture of eastern Canada along the tributaries of the bay into a Plains culture based on hunting, warring, and buffalo.

In the movement of the Woodlands Cree up the rivers of Canada, they came into contact with the Blackfoot, who would transform Cree life. It is difficult to date this meeting with precision, but scholars suggest that by 1690, the initial contacts had been made. The Cree were able to take great advantage not only of their connections with the trapping interests of the Hudson’s Bay Company but also of their alliance with the Blackfoot, to whom they supplied European weapons in the Blackfoot wars against the Snake. A second major change in the culture of the Plains Cree came after securing horses; new alliances were formed in an attempt to secure a steady supply of horses from southern Indigenous Americans. The securing of horses can possibly be dated to just before 1770. The importance of horses to the Plains Cree greatly increased with the expansion of European trading posts farther and farther up the various tributaries. This expansion reduced dependence on the canoe and increased reliance on horses. These inland trading posts also demanded more supplies from their Cree contacts. They needed food as well as furs, and the Cree began to supply it by hunting the buffalo. It has been suggested that beaver populations were also declining, putting pressure on trapping as an economic resource for the Cree.

With all this adoption of the Plains lifestyle and dependence on the buffalo, the decimation of the buffalo herds had a devastating impact on the Cree since the buffalo herds first disappeared from their lands in Canada. The response of the Plains Cree was to solidify their territorial claims in the mid-1870s and to make war on the Blackfoot, their former allies, who still had access to the remaining herds. The defeat of the Prairie Cree made them dependent on relations with the Blackfoot. The traditional partners and occasional adversaries of the Cree were the Blackfoot, the Hidatsa, and their perennial allies, the Assiniboine.

Religion and Social Organization

Cree religious life was dominated by the influence of Christian missionaries; however, some aspects of traditional belief remain. Religion does not consist of a dominant ideology in Cree life, except for important rituals that surround the killing of prey in hunting, widely reported in most discussions of Cree religion and ritual. There are varying forms of belief in a central “great spirit” (kitci manitu) as well as varying versions of a belief in a malevolent, evil spirit (matci manitu) who must occasionally be placated in order to prevent illness and other problems in social life. There are shamans who are practiced in various forms of witchcraft. One of the most prevalent features of Cree religious/social life is the “shaking tent.” This is a tent reserved for ceremony and storytelling. The shaking tent is regularly a feature of larger Cree social gatherings. The Shaking Tent ceremony spread to the Menominee, Montagnais, Ojibwa, Ottawa, and Saulteaux nations of northeastern Canada.

The Cree traveled in small bands, and membership in these bands was fluid, changing with circumstances and environmental factors. Leadership was gained through prestige, particularly through success in warfare for the Plains Cree. There were warrior societies among the Cree, led by a warrior chief. The highest office was “chief,” selected from among the warrior chiefs. As was the case in other Plains societies, however, peacemaking was considered one of the most honorable virtues of a Cree leader. The second manner of acquiring status was through generosity. Food gathered by the band was distributed to all, and a form of “Plains communalism” maintained a balance with those possessions that were considered to belong to an individual.

The Cree experienced, as did other Indigenous North Americans, a series of devastating plagues that considerably reduced their numbers. There were serious smallpox outbreaks in 1780 and 1782, and one of the more extreme estimates from historians is that only one in fifty survived. The Indigenous peoples could not believe that illness could transfer from one person to another. Estimates of the Cree population in 1809 ranged around 5,000 individuals, increasing to 13,000 in 1860. Flu epidemics of 1908, 1909, and 1917 had a devastating impact on the Cree population. In 1924, census figures indicated a population of roughly 20,000.

When the fur trapping economy began to break down in the nineteenth century because of a decreasing interest in the European markets, the economic incentive for settler contact with the Cree also broke down. The Cree had become economically dependent on their settler contacts, and the reduction in the fur trade had a devastating effect on Cree independence. By 1940, there was a situation of serious dependence on the Canadian government for continued subsistence.

In the twenty-first century, the Cree remain one of the largest groups of Indigenous North Americans. The Cree remain actively involved in preserving the culture and language, which over 80,000 individuals continue to speak in the mid-2020s. Many Cree remain committed to self-government and exploring economic opportunities. Efforts to impart the Cree language, history, and culture to youth are extremely important to the Cree. 

Bibliography

"Cree." Native Land Digital, 31, July 2022, native-land.ca/maps/territories/cree. Accessed 12 Jan. 2025.

Jenness, Diamond. "Hunting Bands of Eastern and Western Canada." The North American Indians: A Sourcebook, edited by Roger Owen et al., Macmillan, 1967.

Kupferer, Harriet J. "The Cree Indians of the Subarctic." Ancient Drums, Other Moccasins: Native North American Cultural Adaptation, Prentice, 1988.

Mason, Leonard. The Swampy Cree: A Study in Acculturation. Anthropology Papers of the National Museum of Canada, Department of the Secretary of State, 1967.

Milloy, John S. The Plains Cree: Trade, Diplomacy, and War, 1790–1870. University of Manitoba Press, 1988.

Preston, Richard J., et al. “Cree.” The Canadian Encyclopedia, 7 Dec. 2023, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/cree. Accessed 12 Jan. 2025.

Smith, Nicholas N. Three Hundred Years in Thirty: Memoir of Transition with the Cree Indians of Lake Mistassini. Polar Bear, 2011.

"2021: ACS 5-Year Estimates American Indian and Alaska Native Detailed Tables: Cree Tribal Grouping Alone." US Census Bureau, data.census.gov/table/ACSDT5YAIAN2021.B01003?q=cree. Accessed 12 Jan. 2025.