Thanks once again to Tyrone Tootoosis for posting this gem via Facebook. The narrator is his late mother-in-law Bernelda Wheeler; first person Cree language comments are provided by elder Danny Musqua, and late elders Gordon Oakes and Jimmy Myo.
This piece provides history, culture and language all in one, with a beautiful collection of contemporary (2002) and archival photographs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhwZQdaPdo0#t=95
Transcribing the Cree content in SRO would be a great exercise for some student (the English translation is provided as subtitles): Who is willing to try?
As for those famous words in Cree, here is the whole piece straight from the mouth of elder Jim Kâ-Nîpitêhtêw, from the book Ana kâ-pimwêwêhahk okakêskihkêmowina [electronic resource] = The counselling speeches of Jim Kâ-Nîpitêhtêw /edited, translated and with a glossary by Freda Ahenskew & H.C. Wolfart. Winnipeg : University of Manitoba Press, 1998. Pages 112/113. (Available from Amazon).
“hâw, êkos êkwa, êwak ôma k-ês-âsotamâkok, kâkike, iskoyikohk pîsim ka-pimohtêt, iskoyikohk sîpiy ka-pimiciwahk, iskoyikoh maskosiya kê-sâkikihki, êkospî isko ka-pimohtêmakan ôma k-ês-âsotamâtân.”
“Indeed, thus now the promises which I have made to you, forever, so long as the sun shall cross the sky, so long as the rivers shall run so long as the grass shall grow, that is how long these promises I have made to you will last.”
