This post began as an aside to the last, but ended up fascinating me so much that I figured it would be easier to split it off. This is not meant to be an exhaustive discussion about word formation in Cree…I just wanted to point out some cool things in the context of telling kids…
Category: Plains Cree
Getting the kids ready for bed…in Cree!
In the spirit of the last post, nêhiyawêtân!, I have been trying to be more consistent with my use of Cree at home. In order to do this, I’m focusing on certain periods of the day to really get the vocabulary down. My goal is to become more used to using Cree with my children,…
nêhiyawêtân!
Before I had children, the plan was that I would be a fluent speaker of Cree so that I could teach it to my children. How hard could it be? I already knew some Cree, and I’d learned to speak Spanish fluently in a short period of time without intensive studies. (The father of my…
Pan-Indianism, Pan-Métisism
My last post was about what non-natives learn about us, and thus how we are portrayed by them. I suppose this post is about what we learn (and teach) about ourselves. Pan-Indianism If you’ve ever been to an urban ceremony, you are probably used to hearing about the medicine wheel, about Turtle Island, the Grandfathers,…
What my children learn about themselves in school
In Quebec, I’ve come to realise, “Métis” still means “half-breed” to most. If you identify as Métis, people will ask which of your parents is an Indian. At first I used to go into this long explanation about the genesis of the Métis, and how the founders of my community were Mohawk from Kahnawake which…