Moose Cree

Cree who speak the Moose Cree and Swampy Cree dialects number 35,000 people and live in approximately 42 mixed communities of Cree and Ojibwa in Ontario and Manitoba; in 1993 these communities ranged in size from 2,729 people at Fort Albany, Ontario, to 425 at Fort Severn, also in Ontario. Speakers of the Moose and Swampy dialects principally occupy the west coast of James Bay from the Moose River in northeastern Ontario to the Churchill River in northern Manitoba. In Ontario they reside in the following communities: Moose Factory, Kushechewan, Fort Albany, Attawapiskat, Weenusk, and Fort Severn. Communities in Manitoba include York Factory, Churchill (with Chipewyan), Fox Lake, and Shamattawa. The Cree at Moosonee and Kushechewan mainly belong to the Attawapiskat and Weenusk First Nations. The Mocreebek who reside near Moose Factory and Moosonee are originally from Quebec and speak the James Bay Cree dialect. The Cree who speak the Moose Cree and Swampy Cree dialects refer to themselves as ininiw, meaning “person.”

Many Cree communities in the northern parts of Ontario are mixed communities of Ojibwa and Cree which include significant numbers of bilingual Ojibwa-Cree; some of these speak what is known as Oji-Cree, which denotes the Severn dialect of the Northern Ojibwa. Depending upon their degree of isolation, some speak English. English was not usually learned, however, until children went to school. Bilingual Cree and Ojibwa usually have English as a second language.

Until the 1720s, the Cree may have derived political advantages from their middleman role between Europeans and other natives. Cree access to large quantities of trade goods, however, was restricted by the distance over which goods were transported and by the size of canoes. In any case, the establishment of HBC fur-trade posts prompted the French to move into the interior region north and west of Lake Superior from the early 1700s on, thereby undercutting the Cree’s position as middlemen. The result was a gradual westward shift for some Cree (hence becoming Plains Cree), some joining the Western Woodland Cree and others joining Assiniboine and Ojibwa groups. Through pre-existing trading alliances, the Cree were able to exercise control over the economy of two regions: west of Lake Winnipeg the Cree allied with the Blackfoot beginning in the 1730s; south of Lake Winnipeg, alliances were established with the Assiniboine, Mandan Hidatsa, and Saulteaux. However, the proliferation of trade posts across the west continued, with significant consequences for the Cree. Though they still traded with whites, they modified their participation in the fur-trade economy by providing provisions to increasing numbers of fur traders, principally in the form of bison meat, grease, pemmican, wild rice, fresh game, vegetables, and fish. By 1850 the Cree’s middleman monopoly was a thing of the past.

Similar to the James Bay Cree, some Cree called “Home Guards” elected to remain permanently on the Hudson Bay river mouths to supply provisions to the posts. The Home Guard Cree provided food, primarily geese, as well as furs, supplies, and equipment to the fur traders, and in the process they became more dependent on traders for food and clothing, even though they provided more food to the traders than they received. The social composition of the Home Guard Cree population changed through intermarriage with traders, resulting in large mixed-blood populations. The development of trading specialists and the Home Guard created two distinct economic patterns and communities.

Though the Cree first encountered missionaries in the late seventeenth century in the form of Jesuits stationed at Fort Albany, sustained efforts to convert the Cree did not occur until the nineteenth century. One of the most active missionaries of that time was the Methodist James Evans. Travelling widely throughout the area, Evans not only spread the Christian message to traders and Cree alike, he also attempted to convert the Cree by instructing them in a system of phonetic syllabics. The system was transferred from community to community through copies on birchbark. These “talking birch barks” that “spoke” of the Great Spirit were well received by the Cree. Although no uniform system existed across the Subarctic and syllabics often competed with Roman orthography, syllabics has enabled the Cree to learn in their native language and to publish newspapers.

The response to Christianity by the Cree was mixed. Some adopted it and were even ordained as priests, and some were converted to Christianity without understanding it. Traditional beliefs did not disappear, for the Cree merged concepts of both belief systems. In 1842–43 a native religious movement led by the Cree prophet Abishabis spread through Cree communities between Churchill in present-day Manitoba and the Albany River in Ontario. Reflecting native distress in the face of Christian proselytization and declining economic resources, the short-lived crusade attempted to reclaim the old ways of life. By the 1930s, however, most Cree were nominal Christians. The most recent denomination to enter some Cree communities is the Pentecostal Church. At Moose Factory, Cree influences on Christianity are apparent in the establishment of the Cree Gospel Church and the Native New Life Church.

Christian missions also provided education to the Cree initially through boarding-schools at Fort Albany (1902), Fort Hope (1910), and in 1945 at McIntosh, Ontario, near Sioux Lookout. This form of accculturation forced Cree children from their homes and disrupted communities. Today, most Cree communities have their own elementary schools. Communications and long-distance learning are also available through the native communication service Wawatay.

The governments of Canada and Ontario entered into treaties with the Cree (and Northern Ojibwa) beginning in 1905 (Treaty 9) and ending in 1930, under which Cree ancestral lands were surrendered in exchange for reserves. Meanwhile, beginning in the 1890s, Cree communities began to have greater access to material goods from the newly constructed Canadian Pacific Railway via Wabigoon. Their isolation was further relieved in 1930 after Ontario Northland Railway established a station at Moosonee. Since the late 1940s, Cree located at York Factory (which closed in the 1950s), Winisk, and Attawapiskat have been attracted to wage labour in the larger centres of Churchill, Moosonee, Moose Factory, and Fort Albany. The construction of a radar base in 1955 at Winisk brought temporary employment but further disrupted the trapping economy. After this economic boom, the Cree returned to trapping and have developed local commercial industries in tourism, arts and crafts, and construction.

In 1973 the Cree (and Ojibwa) who signed Treaty 9 organized themselves politically into a Grand Council. Through this organization, now called the Nishnawbe-Aski Nation, the Cree maintain several community and economic programs, including treaty-rights and land-claims research, health and medical services (such as treatment for alcoholism and drug-abuse), and native-leadership training. The Nishnawabe-Aski Treaty area is the largest in Ontario, covering about 650,000 square kilometres and containing 50 native communities with approximately 30,000 residents.