The Cree are North American Indians who spoke an Algonquian language and once inhabited the forests south and west of the Hudson Bay and Lake Nipigon regions of Canada.  As hunters and prime suppliers of pelts, they were early drawn into the fur trade with the French and English.  By the mid-17th century, a series of western and northern migrations were underway that eventually saw Cree bands scattered from Lake Mistissani in northern Quebec to the foothills of the Canadian Rockies.

Their extensive migrations and fur trapping activities brought them into frequent conflict with their tribal neighbors.  Allied with the Assiniboin in Manitoba, they drove the Skisika and their allies from the Saskatchewan River valley.  Three groups evolved:  the Woodland Cree, the Swampy Cree, and the Plains Cree.  The Plains Cree existed as buffalo hunters on the northern plains.  

The Cree were the largest and most important tribe in Canada, and one of the largest north of Mexico.  Their wars were with the Sioux, Blackfeet, and northern Tinneh tribes.  With both French and English, they have generally been on friendly terms.  A great small pox epidemic in 1781 so far reduced their numbers that they retired south of Churchill River, which has remained the extreme limit of their claims in that direction.

In 1790, they were described as naturally generous, good-tempered, and honest.  Their weapons and utensils were fashioned from stone, bone, and horn.  They used the canoe of birch bark, and the tipi of buffalo skins.  They had no agriculture or pottery art, but their women were expert skin dressers and workers in porcupine quills.  For food, they depended upon fishing, hunting, and gathering wild roots and fruits.  Two pounds of dried buffalo meat was considered a sufficient day's rations for a man.  

Unlike other tribes, the Cree would bury their dead in the ground under a mound of stones.  The personal belongings of the deceased were buried with him or destroyed near the grave.  Polygamy was common, and a man might marry two sisters at once from the same family.  They sacrificed to a number of gods.  Their principal myths centered around a supernatural hero called "Wisukatcak."  They were also great believers in witchcraft. 

The Cree now number about 15,000, of whom two thirds are located upon reservations in Manitoba.