The Counselling Speeches of Jim Ka-Nipitehtew

Freda Ahenakew, H.C. Wolfart, Freda Ahenakew, H.C. Wolfart

• Publisher: University of Manitoba Press
• Year: 2007
• Print ISBN: 9780887556487
• eBook ISBN: 9780887550454
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Languages
• Index: Social Sciences

Jim Ka-Nipitehtew was a respected Cree Elder from Onion Lake, Saskatchewan, who spoke only Cree and provided these original counselling discourses. The book offers the speeches in Cree syllabics and in Roman Orthography as well as an English translation and commentary. The Elder offers guidance for First Nations people in these eight speeches that cover the proper performance of ceremonies, words of encouragement for youth, information about collecting medicinal plants, directions for proper behaviour of men toward women, proper preparations for the Pipe ceremony, the role of the Pipestem in the Making of Treaty 6, the importance of tobacco, and examples of improper ritual behaviour in ceremonies. One of the most important speeches is the narrative of the Cree record for the treaty negotiations that took place in the summer of 1876. It was originally transmitted by Jim Ka-Nipitehtew's father directly to him and the authors comment on this remarkable chain of transmission. The book contains a Cree-English and an English-Cree Glossary. This is an important resource for Cree linguistics as well as those interested in understanding the Cree perspective of Treaty 6.

English Index to the Glossary

This is a selective index of the English glosses which correspond to each Cree stem. Thus it is merely a rough guide to the entries in the glossary and should not be confused with the English-Cree part of a bilingual dictionary.

It often takes several English words or phrases to capture the meaning of a single Cree stem, e.g.,

itakihtê– VII be counted thus, cost so much; be held in such esteem.

In its literal sense, this stem appears under COUNT and COST (while no effort has been made also to include stems of this type under headwords like THUS, SO, SUCH); in its transferred sense, it is indexed under ESTEEM. A single Cree stem may thus give rise to several entries in the English index.

Conversely, the entries listed under a single headword are arranged simply in alphabetical order; no attempt has been made to group them semantically (e.g., ‘sound a beat upon s.o. (e.g., drum)’ vs ‘beat s.o., overcome s.o.’ under BEAT) or syntactically (e.g., under DOCTOR, the noun for ‘doctor, physician’ vs the verb glossed ‘doctor s.o., heal s.o.’).

Although the headwords themselves may be ambiguous, the individual entries which are listed under them are fully identified by stem, stem-class code and an explicit gloss. The distinction between headword and cited entry emphasises the fact that this is not a dictionary but merely an index.

Index

ABANDON

wêpin– VTA throw s.o. away; abandon s.o. (e.g., child)

wêpinikâtê– VII be thrown away, be abandoned, be discarded

ABLE

kaskihtâ– VAI be able to do (it), be competent at (it)

kî IPV able to

ABODE

wîki– VAI live, dwell, have one’s abode

ABOUT

papâ IPV go about

papâmi IPV about, around, here and there

papâmiha– VAI fly about

papâmipahtâ– VAI run about

papâmitisah– VTI chase s.t. about

ABOVE

ispimihk IPC high up, up above

ABOVE ALL

mêmohci IPC in particular, above all; exactly, precisely

ABUNDANCE

minahikoskâ– VII be a spruce thicket, be an abundance of spruce

ABUSIVE

kakwâtakih– VTA make s.o. suffer, be mean to s.o., be abusive to s.o.

ACCOMPANY

wîcêw– VTA accompany s.o., join s.o.

ACCOMPLISH

miyoniskêhkât– VTI accomplish s.t. by the work of one’s hands

miyopit– VTI carry s.t. off well, accomplish s.t.

ACCOUNT

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Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Preface
• ana kâ-pimwêwêhahk okakêskihkêmowina The Counselling Speeches of Jim Kâ-Nîpitêhtêw
• Commentary and Notes
• Cree-English Glossary
• English Index to the Glossary