The Orders of the Dreamed: George Nelson on Cree and Northern Objiwa Religion and Myth, 1823

by Jennifer S. H. Brown

The Orders of the Dreamed

226 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 1990

Reviews

[Karissa Cherae]

A few quotes to describe the book:
"It is unwise to make up ones mind too soon about any object of perception; it may have hidden attributes and could later reveal itself to be quite different."

"In the vision itself, as in waking life, Algonquins recognize the possibility of discontinuities between individual perception and the underlying and perhaps objectively more valid inner characteristics of objects and events."
Both from Nelson himself.

It comes from a time before the missions, treaties, reserves, and residential schools which brought such drastic discontinuities into native communities and such disruptions of their cultural heritages. It reaches back to a more open time, so it appears, of trust and sharing and conversations between some native people and a rather unusual person who cared about what they were saying and listened as well as he could.

Nelson views Indian culture as "savage," he judges, belittles, and thereby reduces the rich, intricate, and multi-faceted aspects of Indian world views, religions, and mythologies to "witchcraft," "sorcery," "conjuring," "shamanism," and so forth.

The last two are from others' views on Nelson's writings and make up a fair and interesting take on his journal/letters.

I'd rate it a 5/5 if I understood the big words a bit better haha. The last three sections of the book also helped to shape the stories up better.

[Dan Robert]

This is a reproduction of George Nelson’s notes from Lac La Ronge between December 1819 and June 1823. Nelson was a fur trader who through his long trapping and clerking career had befriended many of the Natives in the area where he worked, learning their ways and languages. The original 60-page document sees print for the first time in this book, framed by an Introduction of the man’s history and followed by a scholarly comparison of other known sources of Native area folklore and beliefs. Following this are two separate essays that reveal much in their contrast. The first, On Nelson’s Text, by Stan Cuthand, a Cree who grew up near North Battleford, Saskatchewan, relates his own dual existence where he was forced into the white man’s schools and of the tales of his people he learned through the years. He summarizes his view as such in the conclusion:

Today, there are many elders who are trying to bring back Indian religion and the want to emphasize the harmony of man and nature. Nelson’s text shows a starker reality. That harmony is the ideal we all strive for, but the struggle to attain harmony is what many of these stories are about. The struggle and even the horrible conflict between good and bad make some of the best stories. I don’t want to see our history on Cree mythology romanticized. George Nelson’s text is like a voice out of the past reminding us of our spiritual history (p. 197-8)

Contrast this favourable reading with even the title of Emma Larocque’s essay, On the Ethics of Publishing Historical Documents and one finds the absurdity of a Cree man recognizing the validity of what George Nelson wrote for what it was, and a (most likely) European / White’s endless handwringing and questioning of whether or not this historical document should just be buried and forgotten because its very content is so laden with “pollutants” that there are grave doubts it can be of any value whatsoever. This is the worst sort of academic Political Correctness unconsciously promulgating the very kind of paternalistic condescension Emma Larocque spends so much time pontificating against while making sure to shoot down all the straw men that too much academia produces in an effort to justify its own narrow views of what everyone else should be allowed to see.

This is why I will most likely never get an accredited university degree. I want to deal with life as it is and see what can be learned, rather than picking and choosing among the whole only those elements that fit the prejudices of the times and those who think they old the intellectual high ground because of all the scholarly accolades they fall all over themselves awarding.

[Luke Sayese]

This book is mainly composed from the journals and collected writings of George Nelson during the mid-1800s. As somebody who is Swampy Northern Cree, I was looking for a resource that will help me learn more about traditional Cree world views, ways of life, and belief systems before the onslaught of full Europeanization programs from the Canadian and American governments. While George Nelson himself was a Euro-Canadian, he was probably a lot more sympathetic and understanding towards the Cree and Ojibway. The Native people were his friends and business partners, and you can tell that he legitimately wanted to know their way of life and what they believed. While there are passages where he makes a distinctive dichotomy of 'civilized' European society as opposed to the 'pagan' lifestyle, it is nevertheless an important primary resource for those wanting to know more about the Cree and Ojibway in Manitoba during this time. There is also some much needed academic commentary after the primary texts which provides nuance, criticism, and context to Nelson's letters which is just as valuable as Nelson's letters themselves.

[Tim Weakley]

Pretty much see Mr Robert's review of this book. My own views marched in step with his. The part I enjoyed the most was the Cuthand essay, and definitely the least was the diatribe by Larocque.

[Elyse T.]

Nelson offers a unique view to the Cree and Northern Ojibwa universe, as one of the only primary resources of the period to approach the subject with an open perspective.