Plains Cree language

And you kind of have these neighbors go across the country.

But, you know, somebody who's speaking, you know, Cree, you know, Plains Cree in Alberta, for example, will have, you know, a lot of trouble understanding Innu or Naskapi, for example, that are spoken in northern Quebec and Labrador.

They are that distinct.

Yes, certainly.

Inuainum, that's another one.

Inuktitut North Baffin.

Mishif Cree, Mikma, Oji Cree, and Plains Cree.

Did I get it? Yes.

And then I went, oh, welcome to the world.

And I called them the coyote howlers, which means howlers in Plains Cree.

And they became what we would define as the witches.

But they're not the witches.

So that to me is an Indigenous dramaturgy process, right? So that's, and really working with language, working with knowledge, knowledge keepers, working with elders, and bringing really the cosmology forward.

I will talk about Darlene Auger, Dr. Darlene Auger.

She's the one who did, she's Woodland Cree, but she was with a partner for a long time who was Plains Cree.

So she's fluent in both Plains and Woodland Cree.

It's wonderful to see all of you here.

Uh, my given name is White Wolf, and I'm from Thunder Child First Nations, and I'm Plains Cree.

And in the language, I also shared that I don't speak the language fluently, but I'm doing my best to learn from our elders.

A bit of my story is, uh, my grandparents were part of the residential school system.

Reconciliation, well, I call it reconcili-action.

Um, I'm a- actively working towards making connections with people, Indigenous and non-Indigenous people every day.

One of the good friends of mine who's on our board is Plains Cree as well as you, Michael, and, uh, I've learned a lot from her.

I've learned a lot from the youth.

It's called Omoskasinnawak.

And then in Cree, in Plains Cree, that means walking in their shoes and moccasins.

And I am team lead and I go out to community schools.

And then I approach like the...

Yeah, so it's still a little preliminary.

Yeah, so it's, and I can say the name.

I asked my aunties who are Plains Cree syllabics and the language transcribers, and it is called Koyesk Hematiswin, and it means transform your life.

So I'm there to help you transform your life because you need to want to do it as well.

I thought it was gonna be more of an action-based place, but it, it, what it turned out to be was more of a healing place.

Sakawe Nobiss is a Plains Cree and Saulteaux citizen of the George Gordon First Nation in Saskatchewan, Canada.

She lives in Iowa.

A landowner had offered up an old Christmas tree farm gone feral.