Cree Narrative: Expressing the Personal Meanings of Events (Volume 197)

by Richard J. Preston

Based primarily on the oral accounts of John Blackned, Cree Narrative offers a detailed account of traditional Cree society. The result is an integrated picture of Cree thought, feelings, and beliefs relating to living on and with the land. For this expanded reissue of his pioneering work in cognitive anthropology, Richard Preston has added four new chapters. He contextualizes his original research and provides historical and social context for the Waskaganish area during the time of his fieldwork in the 1960s. He also includes a biography of John Blackned and a new selection of Blackned's stories that vividly portray Cree experience at the end of the fur trade period in the early nineteen hundreds. To step into the sensibility of another culture and portray it wisely and with love is a rare accomplishment. Richard Preston achieved this in the original edition of Cree Narrative, published in a limited fashion by Canada's National Museum of Man in 1975, and continues it here.

350 pages, Hardcover

First published August 6, 2002

About the author

Richard Joseph Preston

Reviews

[T.R. Ormond · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very special book. In fact, it is more like three books. Each one is distinct and worth reading.

The first and shortest recounts Preston's travels to Waskaganish and fieldwork there in the late 1960s. It reveals a way of life that has since changed dramatically and sheds light on how Cree culture integrated outsiders at the time. This first section includes a biography of John Blackned, the source of most of the Cree narratives that later appear in the book. It also offers a description of the construction of the kwashapshigan (i.e. the "conjuring tent" depicted on the book's cover), and the subsequent performance of a Mistabeo conjuring.

The second and third "books" or sections are intertwined. They combine the presentation of John Blackned's and others' stories with Preston's anthropological analysis. For some, only the stories will be of interest. These are amazing tales about survival, agency, and self-control in a challenging and sometimes life-threatening environment. I won't share any details of these stories. Rather, I'll let you discover them for yourself. I will say, however, that Preston leaves no room for doubt: the people of Eeeyou Istchee are distinct and their culture is directly connected to the land and its characteristics.

Preston's anthropological analysis is also very interesting. He approaches the subject matter with an appropriate effort to maintain his intellectual humility: that is, he tries to avoid imposing western ideas on Cree culture. This is a difficult and perhaps impossible task. But he always keeps it in mind. For example, in his discussion of the Mistabeo or "attending spirit" he is quick to point out how the Euro-centric emphasis on materialism, empiricism, rationalism, and science can only lead to skepticism. These western mentalities, though valuable, are incomplete, and prevent us from appreciating the Cree mentality exhibited in the phenomenon of the Mistabeo.

Preston describes the Cree mentality as "contingent," a worldview in which the individual has "only a partial grasp of their situation, and that things do look different from different perspectives" (158). This problem of contingency, and how it informs the Cree notion of autonomy in a challenging ecological environment, makes up much of the remainder of Preston's analysis. It makes for very rich reading. His work not only sheds light on what distinguishes Cree culture, it also suggests how valuable that culture ought to be to modern society.

For anyone reading about the Eeyouch, this book is compulsory reading.

[JB · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was very fortunate to have my pal Eli from the Cree Nation of Waswanipi recommend this book as containing a lot of oral history well-told (by John Blackned, and I think a few others?) and well-translated (often by the legendary Gerti Murdoch, whom I was lucky to get to interview at the Waskaganish Justice Centre opening in 2012, a few years before her death). This is an academic book of anthropology, and very much so: if you were not familiar with the Eeyouch of Eeyou Istchee you might read it for its theory about the people, their beliefs, and the way they tell stories. Notably, it's very GOOD on that end: written in 1975, this book doesn't look down on Crees or condescend to them. Like Boyce Richardson's Strangers Devoir the Land (from the same year, I think?) it begins by understanding that Cree society is intricate, massively developed on an interpersonal and psychological sense, and possessed of a complexity especially hard for settlers to understand because it differs so widely from European patterns of thinking. So that's a great start.

Where the book really shines, however, is in its long sections of traditional stories (often told by John Blackned), both true and mythical. I was impressed to hear a version of The Wolverine and the Giant Skunk told 40 years ago--both similar and different from the way I've heard it today. As well, the exploration of the Shaking Tent ceremony could have been handled with Eurocentric sceptical scorn, but instead Preston approaches it without judgment, seeking only to examine and learn. He does a good job and I'm glad: the fact that in 2015 (when I got this) a young Cree fellow was recommending this as a source for a survey of some traditional knowledge is high praise indeed.

I wasn't as interested in the academic aspects, but this book can be a lot of things for a lot of people, so hopefully that was useful to anthropologists as well--though what I'd hope the most they'd take away from this is a respect for the broad and nuanced culture and traditions of the good people of Eeyou Istchee.

[Robert · Rating 2 out of 5]

perhaps a bit heavy on the anthro-speak for my liking