In the United States, Cree people historically lived from Lake Superior westward. Today, they live mostly in Montana, where they share the Rocky Boy Indian Reservation with Ojibwe (Chippewa) people.[5]
The documented westward migration over time has been strongly associated with their roles as traders and hunters in the North American fur trade.[6]
and Montagnais (together known as the Innu) are inhabitants of an area they refer to as Nitassinan. Their territories comprise most of the present-day political jurisdictions of eastern Quebec and Labrador. Their cultures are differentiated, as some of the Naskapi are still caribou hunters and more nomadic than many of the Montagnais. The Montagnais have more settlements. The total population of the two groups in 2003 was about 18,000 people, of which 15,000 lived in Quebec. Their dialects and languages are the most distinct from the Cree spoken by the groups west of Lake Superior.
Naskapi
are inhabitants of the area they refer to as Nitaskinan (Our Land), in the upper St. Maurice River valley of Quebec (about 300 km or 190 mi north of Montreal). Their population is around 8,000.
– this group lives in northern Manitoba along the Hudson Bay coast and adjacent inland areas to the south and west, and in Ontario along the coast of Hudson Bay and James Bay. Some also live in eastern Saskatchewan around Cumberland House. Their dialect has 4,500 speakers.
Swampy Cree
Another map of Cree dialectsWoodland Cree and Rocky Cree [10] – a group in northern Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan.
– a total of 34,000 people in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and Montana.
Plains Cree
The Cree are generally divided into eight groups based on dialect and region. These divisions do not necessarily represent ethnic sub-divisions within the larger ethnic group:
Due to the many dialects of the Cree language, the people have no modern collective autonym. The Plains Cree and Attikamekw refer to themselves using modern forms of the historical nêhiraw, namely nêhiyaw and nêhirawisiw, respectively. Moose Cree, East Cree, Naskapi, and Montagnais all refer to themselves using modern dialectal forms of the historical iriniw, meaning 'man.' Moose Cree use the form ililiw, coastal East Cree and Naskapi use iyiyiw (variously spelled iiyiyiu, iiyiyuu, and eeyou), inland East Cree use iyiniw (variously spelled iinuu and eenou), and Montagnais use ilnu and innu, depending on dialect. The Cree use "Cree", "cri", "Naskapi, or "montagnais" to refer to their people only when speaking French or English.[11]
The name "Cree" is derived from the Algonkian-language exonymKirištino˙, which the Ojibwa used for tribes around Hudson Bay. The French colonists and explorers, who spelled the term Kilistinon, Kiristinon, Knisteneaux,[14][15]Cristenaux, and Cristinaux, used the term for numerous tribes which they encountered north of Lake Superior, in Manitoba, and west of there.[16] The French used these terms to refer to various groups of peoples in Canada, some of which are now better distinguished as Severn Anishinaabe (Ojibwa), who speak dialects different from the Algonquin.[17]
Depending on the community, the Cree may call themselves by the following names: the nēhiyawak, nīhithaw, nēhilaw, and nēhinaw; or ininiw, ililiw, iynu (innu), or iyyu. These names are derived from the historical autonymnēhiraw (of uncertain meaning) or from the historical autonym iriniw (meaning "person"). Cree using the latter autonym tend to be those living in the territories of Quebec and Labrador.[11]
Group of Cree people
Merasty women and girls, Cree, The Pas, Manitoba, 1942
In Manitoba, the Cree were first contacted by Europeans in 1682, at the mouth of the Nelson and Hayes rivers by a Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) party traveling about 100 miles (160 km) inland. In the south, in 1732; in what is now northwestern Ontario, Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de La Vérendrye, met with an assembled group of 200 Cree warriors near present-day Fort Frances, as well as with the Monsoni,[28] (a branch of the Ojibwe). Both groups had donned war paint in preparation to an attack on the Dakota and another group of Ojibwe.[29]
After acquiring firearms from the HBC, the Cree moved as traders into the plains, acting as middlemen with the HBC.
live in Obedjiwan, Quebec on the north shore of Gouin Reservoir in the Mauricie region. Their reserve, Obedjiwan 28, contains the community. It is located approximately 375 km (233 mi) by road west of Saguenay and 375 km (233 mi) east of Val-d'Or.[50]
Atikamekw d'Opitciwan
are based in Manawan, Quebec, on the south-western shores of Lake Métabeskéga in the Lanaudière region. The reserve is located 165 km (103 mi) by road northeast of Mont-Laurier or 250 km (160 mi) north of Montreal.[51]
