The Counselling Speeches of Jim Kâ-Nîpitêhtêw : ana kâ-pimwêwêhahk okakêskihkêmowina (Cree)

401 Pages·1998·4.606 MB·English, Cree

by  Jim Kâ-Nîpitêhtêw, Freda Ahenakew, H.C. Wolfart

Publications of the Algonquian Text Society
Collection de la Societe d'edition de textes algonquiens
H.C. Wolfart, General Editor
ana ka-pimwewehahk okakeskihkemowina
The Counselling Speeches of Jim Ka-Nipitehtew
wdskahikaniwyiniw-dcimowina
<l-"b" Abo-A-i^o-o <rjA-Q_
Stories of the House People
Told by Peter Vandall and Joe Douquette.
Edited, translated and with a glossary by Freda Ahenakew, 1987.
The Dog's Children: Anishinaabe Texts Told by Angeline Williams
Edited and translated by Leonard Bloomfield. Newly edited and
with a glossary by John D. Nichols, 1991.
kinehiyawiwininaw nehiyawewin
PVAVA-A-o-o-O VAVV-A-5
The Cree Language is Our Identity:
The La Ronge Lectures of Sarah Whitecalf
Edited, translated and with a glossary by H.C. Wolfart and Freda Ahenakew,
1993.
atalohkana nesta tipdcimowina
Cree Legends and Narratives
from the West Coast of James Bay
Told by Simeon Scott et al.
Text and translation edited and with a glossary by C. Douglas Ellis, 1995.
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ana ka-pimwewehahk
okakeskihkemowina
The Counselling speeches
of Jim Ka-Nipitehtew
Edited, translated and with a glossary by
Freda Ahenakew & H.C. Wolfart
The University of Manitoba Press
1998
© The University of Manitoba Press 1998
Winnipeg, Manitoba R3T 2N2
Printed in Canada
Design and typography: Norman Schmidt and Arden C. Ogg
Syllabic typography: John D. Nichols and Arden C. Ogg
Printed on acid-free paper. <*>
All royalties from the sale of this book
revert to the Society's Publication Fund.
The publication of this volume was made possible through the
support of the Cree Language Project, University of Manitoba,
and the Saskatchewan Indian Cultural College in Saskatoon.
The publisher gratefully acknowledges the support provided to
its publishing program by the Canada Council for the Arts, the
Department of Canadian Heritage, the Manitoba Arts Council
and the Manitoba Department of Culture, Heritage and Citizen-
ship. This book has been published with the help of a grant from
the Humanities and Social Sciences Federation of Canada, using
funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research
Council of Canada.
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Ka-Nipitehtew, Jim, d. 1996
Ana ka-pimwewehahk okakeskihkemowina = The counselling
speeches of Jim Ka-Nipitehtew
(Publications of the Algonquian Text Society)
Text in Cree (roman orthography and syllables) and
in English translation.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-88755-648-5
1. Cree language - Texts. 2. Cree Indians - Religion. 3. Cree
Indians - History. 4. Cree language - Dictionaries - English.
I. Ahenakew, Freda, 1932-. II. Wolfart, H.C., 1943-. III.
Algonquian Text Society. IV. Title. V. Title: The counselling
speeches of Jim Ka-Nipitehtew. VI. Series.
PM989.K36 A65 1998 497'.3 C98-920162-7
Contents
Preface vii
1
1 3
2 8
3 13
4 22
5 27
6 29
7 36
8 43
cma kd-pimwewehahk okakeskihkemowina 45
The Counselling Speeches of Jim Ka-Nipitehtew
1 Counselling the Young 46
2 Spiritual Help 58
3 Leaving a Legacy 68
4 Leading Our Children Astray 88
5 The Testimony of the Pipestem 100
6 The Pipestem and the Making of Treaty Six 106
7 The Meaning of Rituals 120
8 Profaning the Sacred 134
Commentary and Notes 139
H.C. Wolf art
Linguistic Form 143
Literary Form 150
Documentary Form 166
Contractual and Sacramental Form 185
Notes 198
References 231
Cree-English Glossary 239
English Index to the Glossary 277
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Preface
The kakeskihkemowina or 'counselling discourses' which make
up this collection of Plains Cree texts were given between 1987
and 1989, while the speaker was senior member of the Council
of Elders at the Saskatchewan Indian Cultural College in Sas-
katoon and Freda Ahenakew the Director of the Saskatchewan
Indian Languages Institute.
They were all delivered on public occasions - at the College
itself, at a retreat held by the College on Thunderchild's Reserve
and, above all, at the Saskatchewan Indian Languages Institute
- by kd-pimwewehahk, known in English as Jim Ka-Nipitehtew
or simply (but affectionately and respectfully) as 'Old Jim'.
A widely respected orator from wihcekaskosiwi-sdkahikanihk
'at Onion Lake' and a monolingual speaker of Cree,
kd-pimwewehahk was almost ninety years old at the time
of his death on 20 August 1996.
As public speeches, these formal discourses of exhortation
and explanation were first of all addressed to a live audience of
fellow elders, chiefs, College and Institute staff and visitors.
At the same time, however, the speaker intended the recordings
that were being made to be preserved for future educational use:
ewak dm ohci, nawac e-miywdsik kikway ka-nakatamahk,
k-apacihtat, tdpiskoc omatowihk [gesture] ka-nitohtahk,
ekota k-oh-kiskisohtot osk-dya. (2-6)
'That is why it is better that we should leave behind good
things for them to use, for example, that they might listen
on this kind {points to the audio-recorder] and that the
young might thereby remind one another.'
Together with the audio- and video-recordings, he obviously saw
the written record as an important part of the collective effort at
preservation and documentation:
[...], mdka ka-nehiyawastek anim dcimowin, [...] (5-3)
'[...], but that this story will be written down in Cree, [...]'
ewak ohci k-dh-nandskomoydn ewak dma e-wi-isihcikdtamihk,
k-dti-kiskinowdsohtahk dmis isi kiwdhkdmdkaninaw, ewak
dma tanis e-itwemakahk, ewak dma 'oskiciy' k-esiyihkatek.
(5-2)
'That is why I give thanks that this [audio-recording] is being
arranged, so that our relatives might learn by hearing about
it in this way what this 'pipestem', as it is called, means.'
The historical and ritual passages which form part of these
sermons demand proper attention to authenticity and authority,
while the ritual material, in addition, must always be treated
with propriety and respect:
a, ewak dma kd-wi-tdhkdtamdn, matwdn ci kwayask
nika-ki-isi-tdhkdten tanis e-ki-itdcimostawit
kd-ki-oydhtdwiydn, [...] (6-1)
'Well, this which I am about to discuss, I wonder if I will
be able to discuss it with proper faithfulness, just as my
late father had told me the story about it, [...]'
"pitane, ekd kikway pdstdhdtotamdn," nititeyihten man
ewak dm dyimdtamdni. (5-5)
' "I wish that I might not commit any sacrilege," I usually
think when I talk about this.'
As the speaker stresses time and again, the most urgent task
at the present time is the effort not to let the thread of trans-
mission break:
mekwdc kikway kehte-aya kiseyiniw, ndtikwew kikway
e-kiskeyihtahk, ekos isi ka-wihtamawdt ka-kdsispohtemakahk
ewako. ekd ekosi totamihko, mestohtetwdwi kehte-ayak,
peyakwan iskotew e-dstawek, ekos dma k-esi-kitimdkan
kinehiydwiwininaw. [...] ewak ohci mdna mistahi
ninandskomdw ayisiyiniw kd-ndhte-kiskeyihtahk. (7-14)
viii
'While the elders, the old men and the old women, still know
something, they should tell them [the young] in this manner
so that it might be handed down. If this is not done, then
our Cree culture will be miserable once the old people are all
gone, like a fire that has gone out. [...] I am very grateful,
therefore, when a person wants to know.'
Above all, then, we in turn are grateful to the late
kd-pimwewehahk for his permission to record and publish his
texts. We also thank all those at the Saskatchewan Indian
Cultural College and the Saskatchewan Indian Languages
Institute who provided support and technical assistance,
especially of course Alec Greyeyes and Ted Whitecalf. It is
a pleasure, finally, to acknowledge the formal support of the
Saskatchewan Indian Cultural College and its President,
Linda Pelly-Landrie, for the publication of this book.
Thanks are also due to Arden C. Ogg, who helped construct
the English Index to the Glossary and once again printed the
syllabics designed by John D. Nichols, and to the Social Sciences
and Humanities Research Council of Canada, without whose
support the laborious task of transcribing, analysing and editing
the audio-recordings and preparing the translation and the
glossary would have taken even longer. The essay on the texts
was written while the author held a Killam Research Fellowship.
For their advice and encouragement, last but not least, we are
indebted to all our colleagues in the Cree Language Project at
the University of Manitoba.
IX