Little Plains Cree Book for Children, A

“nēhiyawēwin awāsi-masinahikanis: A Little Plains Cree Book for Children: A Reference for Teaching the Plains Cree Language”
by Patricia Deiter, Allen J. (A.J.) Felix and Elmer Ballantyne
Plains Cree Translations by Elmer Ballantyne, Inez Deiter, May Desnomie, Allen J. (A.J.) Felix and Joslyn Wuttunee
Published by YNWP
Review by Shelley A. Leedahl
$74.95 ISBN 9781778690044

I recently reviewed awāsi-nēhiyawēwin masinahikanis: A Little Plains Cree Colouring Book—Plains Cree People, by Saskatchewan’s Patricia Deiter, Allen J. (A.J.) Felix, and Elmer Ballantyne. The colouring book complements the learned trio’s reference guide for teaching the Plains Cree language, nēhiyawēwin awāsi-masinahikanis—A Little Plains Cree Book for Children, which I have also now read and learned from. “Plains Cree is spoken in 43 First Nations communities in Saskatchewan alone,” and the authors hope is that they, “as Plains Cree people, will still have [their] language for [their] future generations”.

In her opening acknowledgements, Deiter (White Buffalo Woman)—a “non-fluent Plains Cree speaker” and English teacher—extends gratitude to the six Elders who “provided the majority of Plains Cree translations” for the reference guide, including her mother, Inez Deiter, “who provides ongoing support for [her daughter’s] efforts to restore the Cree language to our youth”.

The reference book follows the themes established in the Saskatchewan Curriculum Guide for Kindergarten to Grade 12 on Aboriginal Languages, with a focus on “Useful noun categories, phrases, and some basic rules for the Plains Cree language,” and an enhanced e-book edition’s also available. The writers encourage supplementing this resource book with “components of Cree language programs, including Plains Cree values and laws, the history of Plains Cree people and local history, as well as songs, games, dances, and arts and crafts”. Adding other teaching materials like flash cards makes learning even more fun for children, and it’s recommended. Repetition of words is highly important when a child’s learning vocabulary and phrases.

Though “The best path to fluency in the Plains Cree language is immersion,” the authors write that “learning one word, one phrase, and one sentence at a time is a good place to start” … as someone who has been studying Spanish since the mid-1980s, I agree!

The guide begins with instruction on the sound system. “The Plains Cree alphabet consists of 14 consonants and 7 vowels,” and among the vowels there are both short and long vowels, the latter indicated by a line (called a macron) over the letter, ie: nīpin (summer) and kōna (snow). It’s interesting to me that the months of the year are all described by a corresponding type of moon, ie: February is The Eagle Moon (mikisiwi-pīsim), June is The Hatching Moon (pāskāwihowi-pīsim), and October is The Migrating Moon (pimihāwi-pīsim).

As with the colouring book, information’s included on the extended kinship system of the Plains Cree, which is “an example of culture and language being intertwined”. Grandparents, for example, “are anyone your parents refer to as an aunt or uncle”.

The themes of the guide’s twenty-five lessons are wide-ranging. Lesson 7, for example, is “Morning Routine” (kīkisēpāw tahki pēyakwan ka-tōtamihk). Lesson 15 is titled “Let’s make soup,” (osihtātahk mihcimāpoy) and Lesson 20 is called ‘Picking Berries” (mawisowin). The final lesson is “The Future of Plains Cree” (tanisi ōma nika nehiyawewin), and one of the sample sentences is kisīhtonīnaw nēhiyāwēwin: (“We are holding on to our language.”) Well done.

THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE OR FROM WWW.SKBOOKS.COM