Scope and Contents

Truman Michelson's field notes on the Cree of James Bay and Hudson Bay in Canada. The materials, consisting primarily of texts and linguistic notes and some ethnological notes, were collected as part of Michelson's efforts to make a linguistic map of the area. The coverage of the notes is thus expansive and includes the Cree of Moose River, Rupert House, East Main, Albany River, English River, Severn Island, Weenusk, Waswanipi, Great Whale River, and Fort George. The texts are mostly stories from Frank Ricard and Harvey Smallboy, written in Moose Cree syllabic and phonetic text with English translations. There is also a story from Emily Trapper written in Rupert House Cree syllabary and translated into Moose Cree and English. Michelson worked closely with William Allan, who provided a great deal of linguistic and ethnological information and translated most of the Cree texts into English.

Local Numbers

NAA MS 3394

Local Note

Title changed from "Texts Summer of 1935" 5/30/2014.

Other Archival Materials

Manuscript 3395 contains typescripts of the English translations of the Cree texts, while Manuscript 3415 contains additional phonetic transcriptions.