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One night, a family of moose was sitting in the lodge. As they sat around the fire, a strange thing happened. A pipe came floating in through the door. Sweet-smelling smoke came from the long pipe and it circled the lodge, passing close to each of the Moose People. The old bull moose saw the pipe but said nothing, and it passed him by. The cow moose said nothing, and the pipe passed her by also. So it passed by each of the Moose People until it reached the youngest of the young bull moose near the door of the lodge.
"You have come to me," he said to the pipe. Then he reached out and took the pipe and started to smoke it.
"My son," the old moose said, "you have killed us. This is a pipe from the human beings. They are smoking this pipe now and asking for success in their hunt. Now, tomorrow, they will find us. Now, because you smoked their pipe, they will be able to get us."
"I am not afraid," said the young bull moose. "I can run faster than any of those people. They cannot catch me." But the old bull moose said nothing more.
When the morning came, the Moose People left their lodge. They went across the land looking for food. But as soon as they reached the edge of the forest, they caught the scent of the hunters. It was the time of the year when there is a thin crust on the snow and the moose found it hard to move quickly.
"These human hunters will catch us," said the old cow moose. "Their feet are feathered like those of the grouse. They can walk on top of the snow."
When the Moose People began to run as the hunters followed them. The young bull moose who had taken the pipe ran off from the others. He was still sure he could outrun the hunters. But the hunters were on snowshoes, and the young mooseユs feet sank into the snow. They followed him until he tired, and then they killed him. After they had killed him, they thanked him for smoking their pipe and giving himself to them so they could survive. They treated his body with care, and they soothed his spirit.
That night, the young bull moose woke up in his lodge among his people. Next to his bed was a present given him by the human hunters. He showed it to all of the others.
"You see," he said. "It was not a bad thing for me to accept the long pipe the human people sent to us. Those hunters treated me with respect. It is right for us to allow the human beings to catch us."
And so it is to this day. Those hunters who show respect to the moose are always the ones who are successful when they hunt.
Adapted from The Native Stories from Keepers of the Animals, by Joseph Bruchac
About the Cree
The Cree is the largest native group in Canada, with a membership of about 200,000. They have dozens of self-governing nations, and their language is spoken by over 45,000 people, who live in a territory extending east from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean in the southern third of Canada.
Their major dialects are Western/Plains Cree, Northern/Woodlands Cree, Central/Swampy Cree, Moose Cree, and Eastern Cree. The Cree are bound with their culture and language as a tribe, but as they live in such a broad territory it is difficult to explain their history as one fixed story. Fortunately they have weathered European colonization better than any other Native American tribe. As for the origin of the word "Cree", there are various opinions: it comes from the French name for the tribe "Kristenaux", French word for "Christian" or an Algonquian word for "first people." The Cree people call themselves Ayisiniwok for "true men" in their language.
About Home of the Snowsnake
Cree stories of this website were gathered by Dennis MacAuley. The website has the English version and the Cree version, and also has references about the Cree language itself. There are PDF files on grammar, phrases and convenient links about the language. The owner of this website, Dennis was born and raised in La Ronge Saskatchewan, and now lives in British Columbia, western Canada. He says that he produced the Snowsnake to revive his language.
English
Copyright by Joseph Bruchac
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