A husband and wife Cree language team are on the White Bear First Nation this afternoon giving students some specialized Cree language tools.
Arok Wolvengrey and his wife Jean Okimasis are language professors at the First Nations University and they are giving the students CDs that contain the White Bear dialect of Cree.
Wolvengrey says these tools are important because the Cree language is endangered in all of its dialects.
“It is very difficult to find people younger than middle aged who know the language and speak it well, so my wife and I have been involved in many efforts to help people’s efforts to reclaim their language,” says Wolvengrey.
Jean Okimasis grew up in White Bear and is the voice on the CDs.
The CDs will be accompanied with language booklets.
Arok says the CDs and booklets are a part of the Algonquian Linguistics Atlas, which is aiming to collect Cree dialects from across the country.
“There is materials like this on the Atlas website as well and there are Woods Cree dialects there, so we are hoping this resource can be a useful tool for Cree speakers across the country,” says Wolvengrey.