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C R E E L I T E R A C Y IN F O R M A L E D U C A T I O N : A P R O B L E M IN E D U C A T I O N A L I N N O V A T I O N

John Murdoch Cree Way Centre

More than 140 years ago, a zealous missionary of the Wesleyan Methodist sect printed a syllabary and some hymns on a crudely fashioned press at Norway House, Manitoba. These first efforts in what has come to be called Cree syllables were taken into the bush by families who traded at Norway House. Within one year these hymns and the skills to read and write them had spread family to family as far east as Moose Factory in present day northern Ontario (Barnley ms). Within a few years, the majority of Crees were liter­ate from the Quebec-Labrador penninsula to the Rocky Mountains. The missionary credited with their invention, James Evans, drew from principles of Pittman-Taylor shorthand, the Cherokee sylla­bary, and, as Cree elders believe, from traditional beadwork designs (Murdoch 1981). What this researcher is most concerned with are the factors which motivated this innovation and contributed to its rapid spread and internalization by Crees.

Critics of the continued use of the syllabary propose in its stead Roman orthographies which are remarkably similar to one commis­sioned by the Wesleyan Methodist Canadian Conference of 1836, and, ironically, designed by the same James Evans during the ear­liest years of his career among the Ojibwas of Upper Canada (Mur­doch 1981). It is the belief of this researcher that Evans was very much impressed with the obstacles posed for his work by the nomad­ic lifestyle of the Indians north of Lake Superior, and later within the Hudson's Bay Territory. The Ojibwa with w h o m he had lived and had had the greatest part of his Indian experience were easier to re­gard as having already succumbed to the onslaught of Euro-Canadian civilization. But the Indians who lived further north and west were clearly within their own domain, capable of eluding the forces of "civilization" indefinitely. Given his experience with Ojibwa, like Cree a member of the Algonquian family of languages, and his know­ledge of both Cherokee syllabics and Pittman-Taylor shorthand, it seems probable that he perceived the basic criteria that would have to be met by a writing system for such nomadic people: 1) The system must be easily learned, more easily than Hurlburt was able to report of the Roman orthography at Fort William (Mac­lean 1890:134), without the aids of classrooms, trained teachers, or even paper. Hurlburt accompanied Evans on his Lake Superior ex­pedition.

24 John Murdoch

2) The length of time must not exceed the period of time most nomadic Indians can afford to visit the post or each other.

3) The system must suit the character of the Algonquian languages, already appreciated in Evans' Speller Interpretor of 1837.

Having already reduced early Roman orthographies to a minimal phonetic system such as printed in N e w York in 1837 (Evans 1837), the next logical step might be seen as that taken by Pittman in a sim­ilar evolution of shorthand—to a phonological popular style, not based on the arbitrary letters of the R o m a n alphabet.

In 1838, Evans (ms) wrote in confidence to his brother Ephraim, a high official in the Wesleyan order:

The Indians here can never become farmers, they must hunt forever. I should like your opinion on the propriety of the London Wesleyan Missionary Commit­tee taking charge of all such Missions as may be established above Sault Ste Marie, they could through the Hudson's Bay Company carry on this work for about half we do it in Canada. The School must be established so as to take the children and teach them to read and write before they are twelve years old, for they must remain hunters, the Children must be boarded or they will be absent 8 months out of twelve—and consequently our labour would be useless.

This letter was written before Evans had really become acquainted with the Hudson's Bay Company's policies. His idea of a boarding school was never well received by the Company. Nevertheless, his letter does demonstrate his appreciation of the constraints which efforts toward literacy would face. » Syllabics was accepted because of its fit with nomadic adaptive strategies, and became sufficiently internalized with Cree values to survive to present times. Today the socio-ecological adaptive stra­tegies may have changed somewhat, but identification of syllabics with Cree values persists. -This persistent identification is too often overlooked or underestimated by educators and social scientists. For example, at Cross Lake, Manitoba, a bilingual project was launched largely on the initiative of the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs. Information was given; however, little consulta­tion was done with community members. The programme replaced syllabics in the school with a R o m a n orthography. N o w , ten years later, the project has proven a success in a number of ways, but the orthography is still considered a problem by the Cree teachers and community members. In fact, as a result of a door-to-door survey conducted in June, 1981, some 95 percent would prefet that sylla­bics be used.

Montagnais, who have long identified with a R o m a n orthography introduced by the Jesuits, believe syllabics to be odd. Cree, w h o have always used syllabics, consider Roman as odd. The Inuit of the east-

Cree Literacy 25

ern Baffin Region and northern Quebec use a syllabary derived from the Cree syllabary, while the Labrador Inuit use a Moravian Roman orthography. Each group considers the orthography with which it identifies as being normal while all others are odd. This ethnocen-trism is not unlike the Euro-Canadian attachment to Roman ortho­graphy and the corresponding regard for syllabics as odd.

The interest of Euro-Canadian educators and social scientists in Cree literacy is usually too limited and temporary to accomplish the scale of culture change which would be required to displace Cree syllabics with a R o m a n orthography. Even if one generation were persuaded or coerced into accepting such a change, that change could hardly be considered permanent. James Evans with zealous and persistent efforts succeeded in converting many Upper Canada Ojib­was to a life of farming, but by the end of the 185O's, or about one generation later, the young people preferred hunting to farming and would not accept the authority of the band council (Graham 1971: 35). Continuing efforts by Euro-Canadians to promote Cree culture change based on Euro-Canadian values of progress or improvement are more likely than not to undermine Cree initiative and participa­tion in culture changes critical to socio-ecological adaptation. At least one generation of Crees has been through federal and provin­cial education systems which were programmed to induce culture change based on Euro-Canadian values of progress and improvement. As a result, Cree literacy has sharply declined. Children were re­moved from the milieu where syllabics were learned easily and in­formally, and no formal programme compensated for that loss.

It seems a paradox that the same system which was so easily learned from untrained family teachers with the crudest of mater­ials and methods appears very difficult to teach in a classroom. How­ever, there are some issues overlooked in this comparison of informal and formal learning contexts.

First, motivation is usually stronger and more sustained in the in­formal or family setting because, aside from any educational mean­ing, the engagement of a student with an elder has important person­al significance for both. The atmosphere is intimate, supportive, and not subject to exams, failures or any of the usual constraints of a classroom. Literacy achieved in a traditional Cree setting has value at least as a positive means of engaging with one's family or with a community of families. s In a formal setting, the manner in which syllabics is now taught, motivation is not as often carried into the learning situation by the student. Largely, this is because learning activities are teacher rather than student initiated and directed. If there were curriculum mater­ials which promoted student interest, this factor might be compen-

26 John Murdoch

sated for. O n the contrary, few Cree programmes have many mater­ials of any kind. As a result, these classes are often characterized by discipline problems and poor student achievement.

Secondly, the kind of efficiency demanded of Cree literacy when it first spread was an efficiency of learning. More simply, it had to be taught by impromptu rather than qualified teachers, or even had to be self-taught. A person writing had virtually unlimited time to convert his words to syllabics. The reader had generous amounts of time to decipher often idiosyncratic spelling. Most letters and mess­ages passed among a limited number of correspondents who, in time, would easily recognize each other's style. The only printed texts were usually religious materials which were carried about as prized possessions to be read often. If a person were ever expected to read fluently and aloud from these texts, it would most often be in uni­son with others where one w h o knew a piece by heart could easily disguise any difficulty he might have in reading.

Today, however, a different kind of efficiency is asked of Cree literacy. ̂ While an efficiency of learning is still useful, it has become more important that the Cree language be more easily written and read. The same conditions of literacy which have evolved for French and English over the last century are now expected of Cree if it is to enjoy the status of a working language. The main obstacle to fluent readers and writers of Cree is a habit of reading one syllable at a time rather than a word at a time. This habit is the result of a spelling system idiosyncratic to the point where no two writers write the same words the same way, and as a result, syllables are the only con­stant or c o m m o n feature. Moreover, impromptu rather than quali­fied teachers usually lack the sophistication to develop word attack skills and word recognition skills. The problems n o w experienced with Cree literacy are not caused by some weakness of the syllabic system but rather by the demands of a changing socio-ecological system. The traditional scale of Cree literacy and literacy learning are at present maladapted to current Cree needs. This type of cul­ture lag is characteristic of those systems undergoing rapid social

. .and ecological changes. Remedial measures will need to address" ^the two main issues—motivation, and efficiency of reading and writing. There must be activities and materials to teach Cree liter­acy capable of engaging Cree interests. Care must be taken that the values, tastes, and personal meanings upon which Cree motivations depend be identified and employed, rather than motivation be deter­mined as Euro-Canadians believe it should be. For example, as a child matures to become more Cree-enculturated, one might expect him to be less motivated by recognition in front of his peers. In fact, he might be discouraged from achieving under such conditions, in keep-

Cree Literacy 27

ing with a Cree value for modesty in self-expression. The Cree Way Project, and n o w the Cree Way Centre, have attempted to incorpor­ate a certain degree of motivation by relying on artists, storytellers, writers, etc., w h o are of significance in a Cree milieu. For example, a basic reader has been composed of Cree folk tales, told, illustrated, and even reproduced by persons known to young Cree readers. The seatwork or follow-up activities are in a format already proven to appeal to the students, such as cross-word and other types of puzzles.

In order to achieve an efficiency of reading and writing, a certain degree of standardization of spelling (not to be confused with stan­dardization of speech) must be innovated. The Cree instructors of the James Bay Territory began to show an interest in such an inno­vation in response to pressure from students. When any instructor spelled the same word in more than one way the students usually questioned the practice. Over the period of four or five years since the Cree Language Programme began (1971 at Paint Hills, 1972 in most other communities), most instructors' spellings evolved reason­ably consistent, each instructor considered separately. However, a more general consistency among most instructors had not developed. This problem of spelling standardization finally received attention when Dr. Marguerite MacKenzie was hired by Don Meloche of the Cree School Board to animate and organize the compilation of a dic­tionary. Relying on instructors and others responsibly involved in the Cree Language Programme, Dr. MacKenzie assembled an extensive dictionary, in excess of 1,000 pages, including more than 10,000 words, with spellings based on a consensus of instructors. While some work to refine and add to this convention or dictionary remains, it is still a large step toward reading and writing efficiency.

The fluency of Cree readers and writers must also be supported by a programme of word recognition and word attack skills. Most Cree instructors have merely formalized the only methodology they know—a purely phonetic approach which emphasizes reading syll­ables and ignores reading whole words or parts of words. The regular morphemic character of Cree makes the language particularly amen­able to word analysis or word attack skills. It is all too often for­gotten that similar changes were required in French and English teaching methodology before a similar efficiency was reached in support of those languages.

In conclusion then, Cree syllabics, synonymous with Cree liter­acy, was an innovation sufficiently internalized with Cree values to survive more than 140 years with little external support. N o w with the Cree lifestyle undergoing rapid changes, so must Cree literacy and literacy learning. If the latter is not adapted to new realities it will disappear. Euro-Canadian educators could provide invaluable

28 John Murdoch

assistance to adaptive efforts which have already begun by suggest­ing an inventory of instrumental techniques or methods. From this

~ inventory might be drawn those which are capable of supporting Cree values, tastes, and ideology. Sociolinguists might provide a kind of conscience to assure that curriculum materials are consis­

. tent with Cree cognitive structures. Anthropologists might offer such studies as an ethnography of the classroom to assure that the

· Cree Language Pr9gramme is not undermined by culturally dissonant methods and content .

REFERENCES

Barnley, Rev. George ms Journal Entry for Oct 6, 1842. Public Archives of Canada, Manu­

scripts Division. MG 24 J 40, Microfilm Reel A-20.

Evans, James 1837 Speller and Interpretor (Ojibwa). New York: D. Fanshaw .

ms Letter of James Evans to Ephraim Evans, Michipicoten River, Oct. 15, 18 38. Special Collections, Box 4 7 34, Letter 71. Lawson M em­orial Library , University of Western Ontario.

Graham, Elizabeth 1975 Medicine Man to Missionary : Missionaries as Agents of Change

Among the Indians of Southern Ontario, 1784-1867. Toronto: Peter Martin .

MacLean, John 1890 James Evans: Inventor of the Syllabic System of the Cree Language."'

Toronto: William Briggs .

Murdoch, John 1981 Syllabics : a Successful Educational Innovation. M.Ed. thesis,

University of Manitoba . ·