Manuscript Collection T-10 00094 - Instructional Manuals on the Cree Language by Anne Anderson

Identity area

Reference code

CA OTUTF T-10 00094

Title

Instructional Manuals on the Cree Language by Anne Anderson

Date(s)

  • 1969 - 1972 (Creation)

Level of description

Manuscript Collection

Extent and medium

1 box (13 cm)

Context area

Name of creator

(1906-1997)

Biographical history

Dr. Anne Gairdner Calihoo Anderson (1906-1997) was a Métis Elder, cultural advocate and champion of the Cree language. Anne Anderson was born near St. Albert, Alberta in 1906 as Anne Calihoo Gairdner to William Gairdner and Elizabeth Calihoo, who was Métis. Anderson was the oldest daughter of ten siblings and grew up speaking Cree at home. She was educated in english at a nearby Grey Nuns convent before returning to work on the family farm after the death of her father in 1922. Anderson married, had children of her own and worked as a nurse’s aid throughout her adult life. In 1965, Anne’s mother, Elizabeth died and, on her deathbed, urged her daughter to teach and preserve the Cree language. While Anne had no formal training as a teacher or educator, she published her first Cree language manual in 1969 and would go on to write 93 books on the Cree language and Métis history before her death in 1997. She petitioned the Alberta school board to teach Cree in schools and taught language classes for sixteen years before opening the Dr. Anne Anderson Native Heritage and Cultural Centre in Edmonton in 1984. Anderson’s Centre provided Cree classes for children and adults, was a community hub for cultural events, boasted a library and museum, and also sold Indigenous and Métis arts and crafts. Anderson also organized programs to teach Cree at the University of Alberta, patients in local hospitals, inmates at the Fort Saskatchewan Correctional Centre and children and young adults in the fostercare system. Anderson published her books independently through her own organization, Cree Productions, and she is most well-known for her Cree-English dictionary, Dr. Anne Anderson’s Metis Cree Dictionary (1975, republished 1997) which translated 38,000 words into Cree. Anderson also wrote a history of the Métis in Alberta, The First Métis – A New Nation in 1985. Anderson received many accolades during her lifetime including the Alberta Achievement Award and a honourary Doctorate from the University of Alberta in 1975, the Order of Canada in 1979, and as a valued Elder in the Métis Nation. Anderson died in 1997.

Name of creator

Biographical history

Name of creator

Biographical history

Name of creator

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Archival history

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer

Purchase, 2013

Content and structure area

Scope and content

Collection contains nineteen Cree language instruction manuals written and independently published by Anne Anderson, which includes books designed for children at the elementary level as well as books written for older students and adults. The collection contains a small amount of archival material including two letters from Anne Anderson to James Fidelholtz, where she discusses her reasoning for choosing to teach Cree, “I being of Indian and white blood is doing this type of work as it concern the many different tribes. Only now after years of being looked down upon, we are looked upon as truly human beings.” As well as her qualifications in teaching, “If you are not Cree and if you do not speak the language, all the degrees in the world will not help. You need to have lived the life of an Indian and be fluent in the language and traditions to hold a degree in teaching this language.”
Also included in the collection are a collaborative book in Cree instruction produced by the Department of Education in Alberta in 1969, as well as four books written by Indigenous students attending Federal residential and day schools (Kingfisher Lake Indian Day School, Fort George Residential School, and Deer Lake Indian Day School), which were printed by the Department of Indian Affairs and the Education Division of Indian Affairs Branch of Indian Affairs and Northern Development.

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling

Accruals

System of arrangement

Conditions of access and use area

Conditions governing access

No restrictions on access.

Material may be requested in person at the Fisher Library Reference Desk, or in advance using our online stack retrieval request form: https://fisher.library.utoronto.ca/stack-retrieval-form

Conditions governing reproduction

Language of material

  • Cree
  • English

Script of material

    Language and script notes

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    Existence and location of originals

    Existence and location of copies

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    Description control area

    Description identifier

    Institution identifier

    Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto

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    Dates of creation revision deletion

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        Accession area