Sacred Stories of Sweet Grass Cree

Description

“Sacred Stories of the Sweet Grass Cree,” first published in 1930, is once again available, allowing readers to enjoy these wonderful Native stories that have been passed down from generation to generation.

These stories concern the time when the earth was not in its present, definitive state, and tell of the origins of the world, its people, and the creatures that eventually took the shape of present-day animals. The collection includes stories such as “The Birth of Wisahketchahk” and the “Origin of Mankind, The Origins of Horses, Why the Dead are Buried, Thunderbird and Winter,” and many others.

In 1925, Leonard Bloomfield, a linguistics professor at Yale University, spent five weeks on the Sweet Grass Reservation near Battleford, Saskatchewan, recording stories told to him by members of the tribe. The storytellers — none of whom spoke English — included Coming-Day, an extemely articulate blind old man who was said to know more traditional stories than any other member of the band; Adam Sakewew, a gifted storyteller; Maggie Achenam, a middle-aged woman full of interesting lore; and others. The stories, dictated to Bloomfield in Cree, are presented in the book in the original Cree and in English translations.

A valuable treasury of traditional stories from the Sweet Grass Cree, this collection provides insights into the language, culture, and sacred teachings of some of North America’s First Nations.