Cree Food, pass the buffalo please!

Before fur traders and explorers made contact with the Cree, the Cree had a large population that covered much of central Canada. The Cree can be broken down into two main groups. The Plains Cree and the Bush or Woodland Cree. Both groups played key roles in the fur trade, but they lived in different regions and led very different lives.

The Plains Cree inhabited the Plains of what are now Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba . They depended on the Buffalo for food just as the plains Indians of US did. Using horses they would follow the buffalo herds and kill the buffalo as they were need for their food, clothing, materials for their tepees, and many other things. They would dry the meat and then pound it into little pieces. Then fat and sometimes dried berries were added and it was allowed to harden into cakes. The final product was called pemmican. Pemmican is a highly nutritious food that can keep for a very long time. A farmer in southern Manitoba once uncovered several hundred pounds of pemmican wrapped in buffalo hides and buried in his field. The pemmican was well over 100 years old, and it was still edible!

The plains Cree not only made pemmican for themselves, they also traded pemmican to the fur traders. One of the main reasons that Cumberland House became a center for the fur trade is that it was located close to the plains, so that pemmican from the plains could be brought in to feed the voyageurs!

The Woodland Cree did not have the buffalo to depend on, so they had to hunt for moose, Bear, Caribou, Elk, rabbit, beaver, and other animals for their food. They also collected berries, set nets for fish, and collected wild rice. The Woodland Cree had to work harder for their food and had a much more varied diet.