Folklife
Table of Contents
From the Heart and Hand
Cree Language Writing Project/Cree Syllabic Characters:
Ed Rock/Merle Tendoy Sr.
I plan to teach my children Cree syllabic so they will also preserve it and be better speakers.
- Merle Tendoy
Many of the Cree who live at Rocky Boy are descendants of people originally located further north and east who came west with the fur trade. These people were pushed out of Canada after the Riel Rebellion, when Metis people, the descendants of Indian and white people who intermarried during early European exploration and colonization, tried to assert their rights to sovereignty in Canada. These refugees, led by Chief Little Bear, wandered the state for years until finally, in 1916, together with Rocky Boy's homeless band of Chippewa from the region of what is now North Dakota, they were granted a reserve by Congress in north central Montana.
After Indian peoples surrendered to the superior numbers of the expanding American frontier, they were further subjected to (sometimes) well-intentioned efforts to change their whole way of life. The speaking of native languages was actively suppressed, particularly through the boarding schools, often run by religious orders. Children were separated from their parents and other relatives, sent to these schools to learn English—as well as the customs of the people who had conquered them. Often they were severely punished for speaking their own languages.
Preserving the language of a people is vital to the continuation of their knowledge, traditions, arts and religious customs. Without the specific framework that the original language provides, it is difficult to express precisely—and with richness of detail and imagery—the information that has been handed down from generation to generation. Despite the wanderings and hardships the Plains Cree have endured, they have managed to hold onto their language, and they also possess a system for writing it down. Accounts differ as to who invented this system. Some say it was developed by an English missionary who was intent on converting the Cree in the Hudson Bay territories. However, according to Cree sources on the Rocky Boy's Reservation, these symbols were given to a very good man by the spirits, who instructed him to write them on white birch bark. As with many other languages, however, Cree is being spoken by fewer and fewer people as English continues to displace all native languages. Whatever its origin, the Cree are fortunate to have this tool to preserve their language.
Ed Rock was a respected elder and native speaker of Cree who lived on the Montana's Rocky Boy's Reservation. Merle Tendoy is a younger Cree speaker who is a well-respected powwow announcer and singer. Both men worked in reservation schools as cultural teachers. For 10 weeks in 1993 and 1994, Ed and Merle met so Merle could learn the syllabic system developed for writing Cree and solidify and strengthen his knowledge of the language.
