Quebec landscape complete with geese.
How we perceive a landscape can make a difference in its value. Through the eyes of the Cree people, the natural landscape is valued by how it contributes to their traditional life way. According to the Cree Cultural Center in Montreal, the Cree have both a physical and a spiritual relationship to the landscape.
The Beginning
Boreal forest in winter.
The origin of the Cree people lies in the tundra and subarctic Boreal forests of northern Quebec, a cold, harsh landscape. According to Concordia University in Montreal, the value of this landscape was based not on its habitability, but on its resources. The Cree were hunters and trappers. From the beginning, although they lived in harmony with nature, they were a nomadic people. The animal species present, the geographical features of the landscape, and the limits set by the seasons on their activities meant survival. They moved on when the resources of the landscape failed to meet their needs, leaving behind little evidence of their occupancy.
A New Landscape
The wetlands at James Bay, Quebec.
Gradually, the Cree drifted southward to occupy the forests and wetlands east of James Bay. There they saw opportunity to broaden their landscape. The Cree had no word for "ecosystem" but they were beginning to understand the concept of it. In the wetlands around James Bay they discovered new resources. Good management of this new landscape was essential to their evolving culture. Wild rice and root vegetables that grew in the marshes, fish, migrating geese and other water fowl became staples in their diet. According to studies done by both Concordia University and the University of Arizona, the James Bay Cree cleared trees and brush in the coastal forests to facilitate in the hunt for game, and give more room for wild berries to grow. They built dikes to extend the habitat of water fowl, and made weirs to catch fish.
Across the Prairies
Herd of bison.
The traditional Cree landscape changed again with the arrival of Europeans in James Bay in the 1600s. The Cree recognized the inevitability of change and responded to it with their usual resilience. According to the Cree Grand Council, many of the James Bay Cree eventually participated in the fur industry as trappers, and traded with the Europeans for goods that had not been available to them ever before. Others, who had become accustomed to the wetlands, sought a similar landscape along the marshes of the Hudson Bay. Some of the people, dissatisfied with the intrusion of outsiders, chose to migrate from Quebec across the prairies of southern Canada to Alberta, overflowing into Montana, where they become known as the Plains Cree.
The Cree Concept
Cree woman at home.
The Cree connected with this wide, open landscape. They acquired horses and hunted bison. There was less variety in their diet, but the bison meat was nourishing, and the hides were useful in many ways. No part of the bison was wasted. Lacking the bark available in their forest landscape, the Cree used the bison hides to cover their wigwams, and substituted prairie turnips for rice. Our modern concept of "landscape" is aesthetic -- the artistry of nature. According to information from The National Library of Canada, the Cree refer to the landscape as their "garden," but it is composed of their interconnectedness with the plants, animals and terrestrial physical features, and the "Great Spirit" -- a complex concept not unlike ecological system, with all parts working in unison.
