My blog

A little bit about me and a lot about the things we do.

Thursday 10 October 2013

Culture Days

Ron and I went for a bear-free walk this morning and found out the schools were hosting culture days.

We thought we would check it out and I also thought that it would be interesting if I could research a little bit about where we live. 

We currently live on a Cree Reserve.  The Cree are one of the largest First Nations People in North America with over 200,000 members living in Canada.  There are 7 very large Cree Communities throughout Canada and the United States with many bands in each area.  We live in the Woodland Cree Community.

Their history is based on being hunters/gatherers.  This group of young people were experiencing the after effects of hunting.  They were busy plucking feathers off of ducks for a feast that they would enjoy later.
From Wikipedia:

The basic unit of organization for Cree peoples were the lodge, a group of perhaps eight or a dozen people, usually the families of two separate but related married couples, who lived together in the same wigwam (domed tent) or teepee (conical tent), and the band, a group of lodges who moved and hunted together. In the case of disagreement lodges could leave bands, and bands could be formed and dissolved with relative ease, but as there is safety in numbers, all families would want to be part of some band, and banishment was considered a very serious punishment. Bands would usually have strong ties to their neighbours through intermarriage and would assemble together at different parts of the year to hunt and socialize together.

Inside the high school the culture of the people is portrayed on the walls and for this day it was in every classroom with paddle making, jigging, bead making and other stations to reinforce their culture.
Super quiet in this classroom as they concentrated
on the art of bead making.
 From Wikipedia:
Given the traditional Cree opening to mixed marriages,...bands are ultimately of mixed heritage and multilingualism and multiculturalism was the norm.  In recent years, as indigenous languages have declined across western Canada where there were once three languages spoken on a given reserve, there may now only be one. This has led to a simplification of identity, and it has become "fashionable" for bands in many parts of Saskatchewan to identify as "Plains Cree" at the expense of a mixed Cree-Salteaux history. There is also a tendency for bands to recategorize themselves as "Plains Cree" instead of Woods Cree or Swampy Cree.
 
So there you have your history and geography lesson for the day.

1 comment:

Catherine said...

Well look what you learn when you are catching up on blogs!! Interesting!
Wishing you and your sweetie a peaceful and quiet Thanksgiving weekend my friend!
xo Catherine