Cree Indians
An important Algonquian tribe, formerly ranging
throughout what are now the provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan, and
north-eastwards to Hudson Bay. First mentioned in Jesuit Relations,
1640, 1661, and 1667, and in the early journals of the Hudson's Bay
Company. They formed an alliance with the Assiniboines, formerly of
Siouan stock, and carried their raids against hostile tribes westwards
to the Rocky Mountains, and north to the Mackenzie River. In 1776 they
numbered about 15,000, but were reduced by smallpox in 1786, and again
in 1838. By the end of the nineteenth century they had again regained
their former numbers. =Bib.=: Hodge, Handbook of American Indians;
Harmon, Journal; Mackenzie, Voyages.