Dave Sullivan
Northern News Services

Fort Smith (Nov 05/01) - A program running in Fort Smith aims to revive the Cree language.

"We're trying to bring awareness back," says Paula Anderson, recently hired by the South Slave Metis Council to spread Cree.

Paula Anderson organizes a Cree language program in Fort Smith and Hay River - Dave Sullivan/NNSL photo

The key, she says, is bringing the language to young people in school. In January she plans on making a pitch to the school board for Cree to be introduced into the curriculum. For now she has set up weekly conversational Cree night classes, with about 10 enroled so far. Territorial government funding for the program is only guaranteed until March. The course, called Bringing our Cree language back to life, is free.

"People tend to be able to understand the language but they can't speak it," Anderson says.

Not surprisingly, parents know the language better than their children.

According to 1996 figures, 685 NWT residents are Cree. Most live in Hay River and Fort Smith. The language is the mother tongue for 185, but just 30 speak Cree as their first language at home. Only 280 can hold a conversation in Cree.

The lessons were worthwhile for Edna Woodward, who took classes last year.

"There's a lot of things you forget if you don't practice," she said.

Woodward used to practice all the time with her mother, but she died two years ago.

"You do lose it. There are not as many Cree people and the ones who are left can't speak it."

Anderson, a 24 year-old Cree, grew up in a household where her native language was never spoken because "my father lost the language when he went to residential school."

Cree is an Algonquin language, with two dialects in the Northwest Territories. Fort Smith has a "bush" type of Cree and in Hay River, where classes are also being organized, the Cree tends to be a "plains" version, Anderson said.