Editing Cree (section)

== Identity and ethnicity ==

=== In Canada ===
[[File:Cree Indian (HS85-10-13885) edit.jpg|thumb|Cree Indian, taken by G. E. Fleming, 1903]]

The Cree are the largest group of [[First Nations in Canada|First Nations]] in Canada, with 220,000 members and 135 registered bands.<ref name="cangeo">{{cite web|url=http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/magazine/ND05/indepth/justthefacts.asp|title=Source|website=canadiangeographic.ca|publisher=[[Canadian Geographic]]|access-date=28 October 2005|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060414053717/http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/magazine/ND05/indepth/justthefacts.asp|archive-date=14 April 2006|url-status=dead}}</ref> Together, their reserve lands are the largest of any First Nations group in the country.<ref name="cangeo" /> The largest Cree band and the second largest First Nations Band in Canada after the Six Nations [[Iroquois]] is the [[Lac La Ronge First Nation|Lac La Ronge Band]] in northern Saskatchewan.

Given the traditional Cree acceptance of mixed marriages, it is acknowledged by academics that all bands are ultimately of mixed heritage and multilingualism and multiculturalism was the norm. In the West, mixed bands of Cree, Saulteaux, Métis, and Assiniboine, all partners in the [[Iron Confederacy]], are the norm. However, in recent years, as indigenous languages have declined across western Canada where there were once three languages spoken on a given reserve, there may now only be one. This has led to a simplification of identity, and it has become "fashionable" for bands in many parts of Saskatchewan to identify as "Plains Cree" at the expense of a mixed Cree-Salteaux history. There is also a tendency for bands to recategorize themselves as "Plains Cree" instead of Woods Cree or Swampy Cree. Neal McLeod argues this is partly due to the dominant culture's fascination with [[Plains Indian]] culture as well as the greater degree of written [[standardization (linguistics)|standardization]] and [[prestige (linguistics)|prestige]] Plains Cree enjoys over other Cree dialects.<ref name="brandonu" />

The [[Métis people (Canada)|Métis]]<ref>{{cite web |title=The Métis |website=Canada's First People |access-date=27 October 2019 |url=http://firstpeoplesofcanada.com/fp_metis/fp_metis1.html}}</ref> (from the French, {{lang|fr|Métis}} – of mixed ancestry) are people of mixed ancestry, such as Cree  and French, English, or [[Scottish people|Scottish]] heritage. According to [[Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada]], the Métis were historically the children of French fur traders and Cree women or, from unions of English or Scottish traders and Cree, Northwestern Ojibwe, or northern [[Dene]] women ([[Anglo-Métis]]). The Métis National Council defines a Métis as "a person who self-identifies as Métis, is distinct from other Aboriginal peoples, is of historic Métis Nation Ancestry and who is accepted by the Métis Nation".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.metisnation.ca/index.php/who-are-the-metis/citizenship|title=Métis Nation Citizenship|publisher=Métis National Council|access-date=27 October 2019|archive-date=7 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191207012218/https://www.metisnation.ca/index.php/who-are-the-metis/citizenship|url-status=dead}}</ref>
<gallery widths="140px" heights="200px" class="center">
File:Group of Crees (HS85-10-27756).jpg|Group of Cree people
File:Merasty women and girls - Cree - The Pas Manitoba 1942.jpg|Merasty women and girls, Cree, The Pas, [[Manitoba]], 1942
File:Chief King of the Wind (HS85-10-27755).jpg|[[Tribal chief|Chief]] King of the Wind
File:Chief Thundercloud (HS85-10-27757).jpg|[[Tribal chief|Chief]] Thundercloud
File:Chief Duckhunter (HS85-10-27759).jpg|[[Tribal chief|Chief]] Duckhunter
File:Edward S. Curtis Collection People 095.jpg|Cree girl (1928)
File:Woman of the Snake tribe and woman of the Cree tribe 0066v.jpg|alt=|Illustration of a Snake woman (left) and a Cree woman (right), c. 1840–1843, [[Karl Bodmer]]
</gallery>

=== In the United States ===
In the past, Cree lived in northern Minnesota, North Dakota, and Montana. Today, American Cree are mostly enrolled in the [[federally recognized]] [[Chippewa Cree Indians of the Rocky Boy's Reservation]]. Others are enrolled as "Landless Cree" on the [[Fort Peck Indian Reservation]] and as "Landless Cree" and "Rocky Boy Cree" on the [[Fort Belknap Indian Reservation]], all in [[Montana]]. The Chippewa Cree share the reservation with the [[Pembina Band of Chippewa Indians]], who form the Chippewa ([[Ojibwa]]) part of the Chippewa Cree tribe. On the other reservations, the Cree minority share the reservation with the [[Assiniboine people|Assiniboine]], [[Gros Ventre]], and [[Sioux]] tribes. Historically, the southern limits of the Cree territory in Montana were the [[Missouri River]] and the [[Milk River (Alberta–Montana)|Milk River]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Cree |website=Crystalinks.com |url=http://www.crystalinks.com/cree.html}}</ref>