Eeyou - Eastern Cree : Our Dance Stories

Eeyou - Eastern Cree : Our Dance Stories

by Stan Louttit

Elders of Eeyou Istchee tell us that Eeyou peoples
made beautifully decorated hunting drums from cedar trees
and stretched caribou hide in order to drum,
sing and dance as a way of expressing their love,
gratefulness and happiness to the land and animals
that provided life for the Eeyou. Today, a few Elders
in some Eeyou communities still continue to make hunting drums,
but the drum's spiritual and religious meanings
are largely absent for modern Eeyou hunters.

From Eeyou oral tradition, what we know today
about traditional Eeyou dancing has been passed
down to us from the memories of Eeyou Elders
who heard stories while still in their youth.
These stories were usually told by parents,
grandparents or great-grandparents. One such story
passed down through many generations,
and related by an elderly Eeyou woman from Chisasibi, Quebec,
concerns a young hunter in a teepee who stood up
and began to sing with his small drum,
likely before or after a feast. He sang about
the women in the camp, of his respect and recognition
of the women who performed many difficult
and important duties in the camp.
For it was the women who kept the camp clean
and supplied with water, wood and other forest materials
while the hunters were out hunting.

The women cut wood, collected spruce boughs
for the flooring of the teepee, skinned and prepared the hides
of animals while cooking the meat for all the families to eat.
The young hunter knew this and sang his song to respect
his mother-in-law’s role as a woman, mother and provider.

~U-ne-ga-wa-ya~