Ashtum Kinesayew - There's an App for that

There are an incredible wealth of online resources for the Cree language. There is even an APP for that. The Cree dictionary is at the APP store for Iphone. So that forced me to actually set up an Apple ID account. I tried in the past but became so frustrated with the signing in process I gave up. Then everytime I tried to finish the registration process, I always ran into hurdles and I would give up. I'm not technologically challenged in anyway. I just don't have much desire to further digitize my life. I feel my relationship with my Iphone is already unhealthy. So I tried a few times to download APPS that then required me to reset my Apple ID and then I wouldn't. I cannot remember what the APPs were that I wanted to download.

The thing is I didn't care enough to download APPs or iTunes or anything. After awhile I just ignored, denied or not allowed any requests to download any APP's.  Now, I've done it, I wanted to check out the Cree Dictionary APP and so I went through the rigamarole of resetting my Apple ID.  It was worth it. It's a pretty cool gadget. I called my Mom and check a few words. They didn't all match, but she said it was still a good thing. "People who speak Cree can figure out what words mean."

I told her that I was planning on smoking some fish. "The Sugar Shack is going to be a Smoke Shack for a couple of days." I asked her how to say Fish. "Geego", they say out here in Ojibway land, I'm thinking, I wonder how close the words are to each other. In Cree, we say "SeeSeeb" for duck, the Ojibways in this territory say, "Sheesheeb". Just like we say, "Soonyah" for money and they say "Zhoonya". In this case it wasn't that close. "Kinsayew", says mom. I repeat. She repeats. I repeat.
"That's it," she says.

She is reminded of a story with her granddaughters. "The twins were little. Their dad had taken them to Lockport to some fishing along the riverbank. I told them. "You have to call the fish." I said, "Ashtum Kinesayew." I through my fishing line in the water and sure enough, I got a fish. The rest of the afternoon, the twins would say, "Ashtum, Kinesayew", and cast their lines into the water."

After I get off the phone I check the APP. "Kinosêw".