Fort Smith (Aug 28/06) - For the past five years, Fort Smith's Paula Anderson has worked to save the Cree language.

She is the NWT Cree language co-ordinator with the NWT Metis Nation.

"Hopefully we'll get new speakers," Anderson said of her efforts. "Hopefully people will take an interest in the language and learn it."

However, she added, "It's going to take a long time."

Anderson said roughly 200 people in the NWT can speak Cree, mainly in Fort Smith and Hay River. It is the smallest Aboriginal language group in the territories.

Children are not learning the language at home, she noted, "Most speakers are over the age of 50."

Anderson gets a lot of satisfaction from the work she does.

"It's definitely important to preserve the language, because with the language comes culture."

Her focus is to develop language material for schools and community members.

Anderson, 29, is from Gordon First Nation in Saskatchewan.

On her home reserve of about 1,000 people, only a few are fluent in Cree.

"You hear it during ceremonies and that's it," she said. "I was always aware there was no Cree."

However, she did take lessons in elementary school to learn basics, like counting in Cree.

Her father also spoke a bit of Cree at home, even though he lost a lot of the language in residential school.

Anderson applied for the language co-ordinator's job while working as a swimming pool manager and lifeguard in Inuvik.

"I figured it would be a way to learn Cree and get an experience in the language," she explained.

At the time, she was just out of the First Nations University of Canada in Regina, where she studied aboriginal fine arts.

In the past five years, her knowledge of Cree has grown and her goal is to become fluent.

"I could probably do a simple conversation," she said. "I understand more than I can speak."

Aside from her full-time role as language co-ordinator, she has a part-time job as a childcare worker and is taking distance education university courses for a business degree.

Anderson has seen positive steps in preserving Cree in the NWT.

The language was taught for the first time in Fort Smith schools last year, and lessons for students in Hay River will begin this year.

"I think it's the first step and hopefully the kids can take the language home," she said, adding that may help parents and grandparents remember the language.

Among the projects Anderson has worked on have been three illustrated story books for children, a Bush Cree dictionary, an activity book for youngsters, and a Cree/Chipewyan/English cookbook.

An upcoming project will be five illustrated books for pre-school children based on the adventures of Fort Smith trapper Pi Kennedy.

Most of the material is in Bush Cree, a dialect of Fort Smith and northern Alberta and Saskatchewan. Plains Cree, which is spoken in the Hay River area, has a lot of material available from the South.

"Bush Cree and Plains Cree speakers can understand each other," Anderson said. "There are just slight differences."