INDIAN TRIBES OF THE MISSOURI VALLEY. 235 
that but little can be extracted worthy to be considered of historical value. In regard to 
the Crees, all appears obscure farther back than 1760.* At any rate, events said to have 
happened prior to that period, narrated by different persons, differ so materially as to be 
unworthy of note. From 1760 down to the present time the history of the Crees can be 
traced with a fair degree of certainty. 
So much has already been written in regard to the literature of the Cree language with 
its cognate Algonkin dialects, that I have thought it unnecessary to present a resumé of 
its bibliography at this time, but pass on at once to a sketch of this nation, condensed from 
information obtained from some of the most intelligent men of the tribe. I will, however, 
call attention to a rare workt on the Cree language, by Mr. Joseph Howse, which I re- 
gard as a very important contribution to Indian philology. It appears to be a thorough 
and philosophical analysis of the grammatical structure of the language, with copious 
illustrations from the Chippewa, which show the close affinity of the former to the latter. 
The Cree nation was originally a portion of the Chippewa, as the similarity of language 
proves; and even now they are so mingled with the latter people as with difficulty to be 
considered a distinct tribe, further than a slight difference in language and their local 
position. ‘Their name for the tribe in their own tongue is Né-a-ya-6g, which means, 
“those who speak the same tongue.” ‘They are called by the Assiniboins Shi-é-ya, by 
the Dakotas Shi-e-4-la, and by other neighboring tribes, as the Crows, Blackfeet, and 
Gros Ventres of the prairie, nearly the same, only differing a little in the pronunciation 
of the word Shi-é-ya. This word has very nearly the same signification among the Assi- 
niboins as that of Né-a-ya-dg among the Crees. Indeed, the word Shi-é-ya being Assini- 
boin, could have no other meaning as a derivation among other tribes, except as an 
appellation of the native Cree, received from the Dakotas and Assiniboins where it 
originated. 
Prior to the year 1700 the Crees say they inhabited a district much farther north than 
at present. ‘Their range at that time was along the borders of Slave and Athabasca Lakes, 
* Since writing the above I have had access to an interesting collection of voyages, recently published under 
the editorial direction of Mr. J. G. Shea, of New York. In the account of Le Sueur’s voyage up the Mississippi, 
1699-1700, there is an allusion to the Crees and Assiniboins. Le Sueur seems to have been an Indian trader, 
and had erected a trading post on the Mankato, or Blue Earth River, a tributary of the St. Peter’s River. These 
tribes are called by him Christinaux and Assinipoils, and he remarks that they “live above the fort on the east, 
more than eighty leagues up the Mississippi.” We are thus able to ascertain very nearly the geographical location 
of these two tribes more than one hundred and sixty years ago. The Indians themselves, however, can give no 
definite information of their movements farther back than the period mentioned in the text. 
+ A Grammar of the Cree Language, with which is combined an analysis of the Chippewa Dialect, by Joseph 
Howse, Hsq., F.R G.S., twenty years a resident in Prince Rupert’s Land, in the service of the Hon. Hudson’s 
Bay Company; pp. 324. London, 1844. 
