Essential Song: Three Decades of Northern Cree Music

3. Song and Survival

3 Song and Survival Imagine growing up on a northern reserve at the turn of the twentieth century. You do not see solid old buildings, iron fences, or monuments to past heroes. No sweeping changes are forecast for your village—no new factories or housing developments —just the forest, rivers, and animals that renew themselves in the same fashion year after year. Your family does not write personal memoirs, keep photograph albums, or even keep strict watch over its personal belongings, but your relatives do tell and retell the oral narratives that help you to know your origins and ancestors. On a winter night, you and your family talk quietly, sitting on the fragrant pine boughs covering the ground. All eyes are fixed on the fire in the centre of the migiwap (tent). Your grandparents, mother and father, two sisters, and the adopted son of a deceased friend are satisfied and warm after a meal of roast bear meat, powdered fish preserved in goose oil, freshly baked bannock, and warm tea. At this time, your grandfather, reclining on his side, picks up a drum beater made from a sturdy stick wound with tanned hide. He begins to beat softly on the drum hung by a leather cord from a pole of the migiwap. Tonight is joyous because a bear has been killed. The old hunter’s voice merges with the loud vibrations of the drum, and the buzzing sound of the fetal caribou bones stretched across the open side of the drum never fails to give you a shiver of delight. You understand few of the words in the song, but you know that your grandfather is thanking the bear for giving himself to the family. Before singing again, your grandfather says the following: Song 14 I’m going to sing about the bear About the man who lives with a bear And follows the bear around 47 The bear lives off berries The man asks the bear for berries It’s about the man and the bear (Pepabano 1982) [ In this chapter, we read about the hunting songs, their meaning, and their music as described by the six James Bay Cree elders profiled earlier. To understand the hunting songs, one must remember that obtaining enough food was a constant challenge for the Cree. Despite the large populations of each animal species in the north, there is low species diversity, and the populations are subject to extreme fluctuation. This affects their predators, both human and animal. For example, once each decade the rabbit population will almost vanish, causing severe depopulation of the lynx and making times tough for humans too. While not a major food source of the Cree, the rabbit fills in when large game is not captured. Elders recall how, before government transfer payments, people experienced periods of privation, even starvation: Here is another incident I remember from when I was very young. There were five families living with us in the bush at that time. They only had two small ptarmigans. That’s to give you an example of how food was very scarce. (Robert Bearskin 1982) To find, capture, and consume their prey, Cree hunters traditionally used all their physical and sensory abilities. Knowledge of hunting tools and hunting practices was important too, in order to make best use of the snares, deadfalls, bow and arrow, crossbow, spear, bird bola, and fishing nets. Traditionally , food storage was not widely practised because of the difficulty of transporting meat (usually smoked so as to be lighter) and of travelling to distant caches; moreover, the Cree preferred fresh meat (Brightman 2002, 360). The preferred strategy for most kinds of food used to be to follow the animals. Robert Blackned of Chisasibi described both strategies to me: In those days, a lot of people went deep inland They moved camp regularly When the snow began to melt in the spring We would go to a different camp again This would be our fish camp Where we know the fish would be plenty 48 Song and Survival We wouldn’t waste any of the fish We would smoke it, dry it, save it for future use. Some of the smoked fish would be left there If you came back during the summer You would find your fish in good condition (Blackned 1984) Although physical strength and exertion is necessary, capturing a wild animal also requires knowledge, thought, and fortitude...