Sacred Stories of the Sweet Grass Cree

John Steckley teaches human studies at Hunter College in Toronto.

In 1925, during five weeks of Saskatchewan summer, Leonard Bloomfield, a
Yale University linguistics professor who would have a profound impact
on the study of Algonquian languages, collected 36 stories from five
monolingual Plains Cree speakers.

The decision, more than 60 years afterwards, to reprint the book
without revisions was ill considered. While Bloomfield wanted simply to
record traditional stories, given current priorities this material
should have been made more accessible both to Cree working to maintain
their linguistic and broader cultural heritage and to others wishing to
learn from this heritage.

Each story is presented first in Cree, then in English, but not enough
connections are made between the two versions for these stories to be
useful to those learning the Cree language. Paragraphs are not numbered
and matched; key terms are not highlighted; there are no English glosses
for the Cree words.

There is also no introductory chapter to give the reader suitable
background knowledge of Cree culture. Although there are 12 stories
about Wisahketchak and three about Wihtikow, readers are not told who or
what they are. Information that could have formed the basis for an
introduction, and that is critical for an understanding of some of the
stories, is buried in footnotes in the Cree section. The opportunity to
make these stories accessible to young Cree, and to others who want to
learn what they teach, has been missed.