peepeekisis ātayōhkēwina = Sacred Stories of Peepeekisis Cree Nation

Eleanor Brass, born on the Peepeekisis Reserve in Southern Saskatchewan, spent much her life collecting and recording these Cree legends from her community as part of her effort to foster friendships and understanding between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. Brass passed away in 1992. These stories were originally published in 1978 (and republished in 1982) in her book Medicine Boy and Other Cree Tales and have been brought back to life by her niece Patricia Dieter. This new publication features the original, y-dialect Plains Cree translations for every story done by Inez Dieter, Solomon Ratt, and Darryl Chamakese, as well as beautiful illustrations from Dieter’s student Aleigha Agecoutay.

peepeekisis ātayōhkēwina = Sacred Stories of Peepeekisis Cree Nation features 25 stories and legends that range in length from a half a page to six pages. Some of the stories relate to one another, such as “Wesuketchuk” and the corresponding Wesuketchuk creation stories, while others are stand-alone, like “A Strange Dialect” and “The White Buffalo”. The stories are fairly easy to read aloud, simple to understand, and they teach many lessons. However, some of the longer stories might not hold the attention of younger students in Kindergarten or Grade 1. The extremely powerful aspect of these stories is that they have been passed down orally for so many years and painstakingly collected, recorded, translated into English, and then translated back to their original language. This remarkable history of the stories opens many doors to discuss oral storytelling, traditional cultures and beliefs, loss of history, traditions, and language, creation and teaching stories, among other topics.

The other highlight of peepeekisis ātayōhkēwina = Sacred Stories of Peepeekisis Cree Nation is the vibrant illustrations by Agecoutay. Agecoutay also lives on the Peepeekisis First Nation, which is on Treaty 4 territory. She is a Plains Cree visual artist and is inspired by all good forces in the universe and provided by the Creator. Her artistic influences include her grandfather, Robert Bellegarde, Indigenous artist Alex Janvier, and Métis artist Christi Belcourt. There is one illustration for every story, some of which allow for previewing and prediction opportunities and some of which are beautiful complements. Most of the illustrations are vivid, bright paintings done with acrylics and watercolours while others are captivating in their stark simplicity. Agecoutay does a remarkable job capturing the essence of each story while showcasing traditional Indigenous artistic styles.

One obvious downfall to this book is the loss of the oral storytelling experience, and the stories are sometimes somewhat awkward in their reading. There is also the occasional story that does not seem connected to other ones, and sometimes the relevance of the story (or the reason for its inclusion) is not clear and leaves more questions than were answered. An additional awkward aspect of this book is the pronunciation of traditional words for non-Cree speaking readers. A translation guide is included at the end of the book, which (with enough practice) will help someone to read the Cree version of the story. However, in-text phonetics (after the relevant word) would have been a welcome addition to prevent mispronunciation and improve fluency while reading aloud. Despite these minor issues, the importance and quality of this book are not impacted, and it is much needed within Saskatchewan and all of Canada.

peepeekisis ātayōhkēwina = Sacred Stories of Peepeekisis Cree Nation is a significant book that should be included, at the very least, in school libraries. Classroom and home libraries would also benefit from the addition of this book as it preserves and shares traditional Cree stories and provides a doorway into cultural understanding and meaningful conversations.