From dictionary editor Earle Waugh: “I was thinking about the Alberta Elders’ Cree Dictionary/alperta ohci kehtehayak nehiyaw otwestamâkewasinahikan the other day and noted that 25 years ago we first took delivery of printed copies.
I recall with great pleasure the response to the dictionary. It won the Award of Merit from the Association for Canadian Studies, the Award of Distinction from the Board of Governors at the University of Alberta, and Scholarly Title of the Year from the Alberta Book Publishing Awards. I was humbled to receive a headdress and the name Piwapiskamostos from the Cree people of Alberta.
More importantly, the dictionary was eagerly received by many people and organizations, and is still selling well after all these years. Its wide use is a testament to the dedication of Nancy LeClaire and George Cardinal and contributions from many others, including more than 100 individual Cree speakers.
I recall that I first met Sister Nancy in 1975 when we hosted the Native Conference, and she came to my office offering to work with me on the dictionary. We started with written file cards, Cree one side, English the other, graduated to typed file cards, then to various computer programs, ending with Microsoft Word’s various versions. She left us when we had arrived at ‘N’ and told me her powakan would sit on my shoulder until it was done!
Along the way, I had discovered Fr. Rogier Vandersteene’s hand-written word list, and various other Cree dictionaries, all of which were incorporated in one way or another into the dictionary. I remember the years of student assistants working away over the summer. And I note that it has been almost 50 years since this began!
Sister Nancy and George Cardinal have now walked into the spirit world, but I continue to value greatly their wonderful contribution to the publishing world and they have a special place in my memory. Obviously the Cree people value deeply their contribution to Cree literacy.
Earle Waugh
From the Press: Knowing that the Alberta Elders’ Cree Dictionary/alperta ohci kehtehayak nehiyaw otwestamâkewasinahikan continues to help Cree language users and learners is something all of the members at the Press take great pride in. Following are two excerpts from the dictionary: the Introduction and Preface.
Introduction
The Cree language is a beautiful language, therefore it should never die off. I guess this is one of the main reasons that I decided to participate in the writing of the Alberta Elders’ Cree Dictionary/ alperta ohci kehtehayak nehiyaw otwestamâkewasinahikan. It is the language of my ancestors, so it is also my native language; I would like to keep it ongoing as long as possible, even forever. Also, I hope this book could help some of our present Cree language teachers.
As the Cree language is such a complex language, the grammar seems to change a little bit from one district to another. So I would say that my language is from the northeastern corner of Alberta. It is a mixture of Northern or Woods Cree and Plains Cree. For example, Northern Cree has some different word endings than the Plains Cree.
Now this book will not help you to speak because no book can, but it is intended to help you along if you are learning the Cree language. In order to speak you have to practice speaking, like a little child learning to speak from her or his parents.
Alberta Elders’ Cree Dictionary/alperta ohci kehtehayak nehiyaw otwestamâkewasinahikan is an honoring gift to all my great Cree ancestors.
nehiyawewin metoni miyohtâkwan pekiskwewin namoya wehkac. Takeh nipemakahk eyokoh ohci kakeh tepiyimoyan kita ni sohkamakiyan kita masinahaman kihte alperta ohci kehtehayak nehiyaw otwestamâkewasinahikan. Aniskac ni mosômpanak opekiskwaweniwaw macikah nesta ni pekiskwewin. Namoya ni nitaweyihten kita nipîmakahk mina enitaweyihtaman anohc nehiyaw kiskinwahamakewak kita âpacitatwaw mistahi kita nesoh kamakwak.
Ayisk oma nehiyawewin pahpîcoses esa esi pikiskwanowew pahpîtos etîh kohtaskanesihk macikah pîtoses esi masinahikatew. Taspwa, sakaw nehiyawewin osam pokoh nikîh apacihtan.
Maka namoya masinahikan ohci awîyak takeh maci nehiyawew poko kita kocet pekiskwewin. Tapiskoc awasis ka maci pekiskwet onekihikwah ohci. Oma masinahikan ka osehtayan nehiyaw awasisak kita âpacitatwaw ekâ onehiyaweweniwaw kita wanikiskisitotahkwaw.
Alberta Elders’ Cree Dictionary/alperta ohci kehtehayak nehiyaw otwestamâkewasinahikan piskoc okihtawihiwiwewin ni mosômpanak ohcih.
George Cardinal
Preface
This dictionary is a gift from the elders to the Cree people of Alberta. The Alberta Elders’ Dictionary Project began in the mid 1970s through the initiative of Sister Nancy LeClaire, a Samson Cree from Hobbema who had a great personal love for the Cree language. Sister Nancy, as she was known to everyone, believed that an authoritative dictionary of the language spoken by many Alberta Cree would not only aid Cree youth in becoming more fluent in her beloved language, but would provide a bridge for the rest of Albertans to appreciate its beauty. She therefore called upon those elders whose wisdom and understanding of the Cree language were known and respected throughout the province.
The Cree people of northern Alberta constitute the largest Aboriginal language group in the province, and Alberta Cree also have fellow Cree-speakers across Canada. Cree speakers are part of the Algonquian language group, which is the most widespread of all Canadian Aboriginal language groups. There are three major dialects found among the people in Alberta, and Sister Nancy insisted that the dictionary be based upon both the Northern Cree (“TH” dialect) and the Plains Cree (“Y” dialect). As well, she originally wanted to include variant words from the “R” dialect of Saskatchewan and Manitoba, but as she progressed, she found this impossible to complete. She sought and received financial assistance from the Samson Cree Nation to undertake a dictionary project, and asked me to work with her in bringing together a team that would complete the task.
Technically our project began with Fr. Albert Lacombe’s Dictionnaire de la Langue Crise; we edited it to eliminate words that were not recognized by local Cree, and proceeded with the arduous process of providing translations of the Cree words into contemporary English. Clearly the dictionary we devised could not be a reference dictionary, which Fr. Lacombe seemed to have hoped he could create; rather, we merely wanted a serviceable record of local Cree words with their translations. A tool for students of the language up to senior high school seemed a reasonable goal. Sister Nancy utilized the insights of many elders and Cree consultants in this process, including those so disparate in age (at that time) as Albert Lightening of Hobbema (80) and Harold Cardinal of Sucker Creek (30), along with many others noted below. Thus it should be emphasized that this dictionary is based upon the language as it is used by Alberta’s Cree speakers as we have been able to collect it. This means that there may well be many words that we have missed, or that are used in other ways by some people. We hope that you will inform us of these, so that subsequent editions can include them. The same, of course, holds true for spelling mistakes and inconsistencies.
The work had progressed to the Cree letter “n” when Sister Nancy died. This left us with the task of completing the Cree-English section, and formulating the entire English-Cree portion. We were fortunate to be able to find a number of elders to help us continue this worthwhile project, especially George Cardinal, originally from Wabasca. We also had the financial support of a number of agencies, without which carrying on would have been most difficult. We especially appreciated the help of the Native Education Project of Alberta Education during the many years it took to complete the project.
During the early period of the dictionary, the work of Father Rogier Vandersteene became known to me; he had laboured among the Cree in several settlements in northern Alberta before his untimely death. A superb Cree speaker, he had developed a 500-page manuscript on learning Cree. Many words, not listed in Lacombe’s text, were incorporated from Vandersteene’s work. Other sources were also checked, including Anne Anderson’s writings, the curriculum of the School of Native Studies at the University of Alberta, prepared by Emily Hunter and Betty Karpinski, and the word list of the Cree Curriculum of Northland School Division, prepared under Mary Cardinal-Collins. We sought Cree plant lore from various published sources, especially Bro. Frederick Leach’s publication 60 Years with Indians and Letters on Lake Winnipeg. We referred to A Dictionary of the Cree Language, an Anglican publication of Reverend E.A. Watkins, edited by Ven. R. Faries. Finally, it will be clear that we were much assisted by the publications of David Pentland, H. Christoph Wolfart, C.D. Ellis and Freda Ahenakew. Our sincere appreciation for the assistance we have received from these sources.
A dictionary of this sort is not just a collection of words and their meanings, but represents something of what the community it serves requires. Hence, we have incorporated suggestions from a wide variety of Alberta bands for making the dictionary more usable for their members. Sister Nancy had originally hoped to include all new words in a supplementary section. We have had to abandon this idea. Instead, what words we thought helpful, though not yet accepted widely by Cree speakers, or words that reflect recent English influence, or idiomatic Cree that did not appear connected directly to traditional Cree usage are now found in the supplemental section—New Terms— of the English-Cree dictionary.
We have paid special attention throughout to terms that are commonly used in government, court and social institutions, and because Cree has no concept of swearing an oath have included a Cree statement of commitment before the court in the Appendices. We have also provided appendices on kinship terms, months and numbers.
Word and meaning contributions have been made by many people, including Harold Cardinal of Sucker Creek, Julia Cardinal of Saddle Lake, Ray Cardinal of Saddle Lake, Sage Cardinal of Edmonton, Dehlia Gray of Edmonton, Rose Hilbach of Hobbema, Emily Hunter of Goodfish Lake, Billy Joe Laboucan of Peace River, Albert Lightening of Hobbema, Walter Lightening of Hobbema, Nicole Martell of Waterhen Lake, Emilia Noskiye of Peace River, Verna Sorenson of Lake Eden, Cheryl Sheldon of Kinuso and William Yellowknee of Slave Lake. Many of them talked to other Cree speakers during the many years of this project, so quite likely over 100 Cree people have had input into this process.
Cree students at the University of Alberta in Edmonton worked diligently on the final stages of the English-Cree section of the dictionary, juggling academic schedules with the demands of the project. Nicole Martell worked for many months, adding parts of speech, clarifying meanings and extensively cross-checking against the Cree-English dictionary as well as other countless tasks. Sage Cardinal contributed her extensive knowledge of the Cree language by clearing up inconsistencies in family relationships, word meanings, numbers, alphabetization, and adding parts of speech. Lorna L’Hirondelle’s deep knowledge of Cree grammar and eye for detail, always invaluable skills for working on a dictionary, were much appreciated. Nancy Modeste expanded her knowledge of Cree as she worked on adding parts of speech. Ray Cardinal’s historical knowledge and expertise in Plains Cree added greatly to balancing the mix of dialects and clarifying many word meanings. Also, Ray’s understanding of Cree grammar made it possible to add parts of speech to many phrases, to aid the user in understanding how a phrase should be used. Finally, we hope that the youngest participants in the project, two-year-old, Gabriella Cardinal, and newborn, Corey Cardinal Jr., follow their grandfather’s (Harold Cardinal) and mother’s (Nicole Martell) deep commitment to their language and become part of the next generation of Cree scholars.
The project has also undergone many changes in format, from words written in scribblers during Sister Nancy’s time, to typed recipe cards, to several computer software systems. Over the years many students at the University of Alberta, including my children—Richard, Jane and Kimberly, worked at inputting data. In addition, the people who have worked on inputting material numbers in the teens, including many students hired during summers on the effective STEP program. During the last two years, Mary Mahoney-Robson, editor, worked with the Cree students and Karen Chow at the University of Alberta Press, and with Shauna Babiuk, Tracy Menzies, Jeffrey Miles and Michael Poulin at Duval House Publishing, on the final stages of the project. These people have almost performed miracles in bringing the text into publishable shape. Further back in time, Judith Sprigings worked in a permanent part-time manner on the inputting as well as funding development; she provided us with skills beyond the call of duty. If the text is relatively consistent and free of typos, we happily ascribe accolades to this wonderful group of people.
We were pleased when Jane Ash Poitras agreed to allow us to use one of her paintings for the cover. Alan Brownoff at the University of Alberta Press designed the text and the cover.
We express our deepest appreciation for all those who have assisted us, even if your name does not appear here. We have received much from all these enthusiastic participants.
Throughout the many years of this undertaking, we have had the support and goodwill of Religious Studies of the University of Alberta, and its administrative assistant, Lois Larson, without whose assistance the project would have faltered. During this prolonged period, a number of organizations have supported this venture, including various government agencies, institutions and organizations; we have placed their names on a separate page as a special recognition for their contributions. Our deepest gratitude to them.
Like many Aboriginal languages in Canada, Cree is losing ground rapidly. This is tragic, since Cree was probably the first lingua franca of Canada, and most likely much early communication between explorers, fur traders, settlers and missionaries was carried on in Cree. Thus the Cree people have contributed significantly to our common life together, much of it unheralded and unrecognized. It is not easy to translate one’s religious, cultural and social realities into another idiom; the existence of this book is testimony to the abilities of the Cree people to transform their intellectual world and to incorporate into it a wholly different scheme of understanding. In a small way, then, Alberta Elders’ Cree Dictionary/alperta ohci kehtehayak nehiyaw otwestamâkewasinahikan demonstrates the amazing achievement of Alberta’s Cree people in the last hundred plus years. Thus, apart from the very ordinary value of providing the right word for the right idea, we hope this dictionary will contribute to stemming the tide of the loss of Cree, providing another resource for the preservation and expansion of a rich part of our Alberta cultural heritage, and demonstrating the impressive intellectual resources of the Cree people. If some of these are accomplished, it will indeed be like a Hudson’s Bay blanket used for many years as a measurement of quality and pride—it will benefit everyone who has the joy of using it. When eventually a better version is produced, it will be because Cree has moved towards its rightful place as a valuable language for all Canadians.
Okistatowân (Dr. Earle H. Waugh)
Project Director & Editor
