Cree is a surname which has several separate origins in England, Scotland and Ireland. It occurs in all those countries today and also in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States. It is of Medium Frequency in Scotland and Northern Ireland (using the benchmarks of the Guild of One-Name Studies) (Spathaky 1998).
Prior to 1989 a few people had already researched their individual Cree ancestry in the UK (notably Brigadier Hilary Cree in Devon and members of the Yorkshire and Glasgow Cree lines). Robert H Cree in the USA had spent a lifetime researching five Cree lines emanating from western Pennsylvania in the late 18th Century. Cree surname research started in earnest in the UK in 1989 with the publication by Trevor Cree of a booklet listing all Cree entries from the Indexes to Birth, Marriages and Deaths (1837-1980) for England and Wales (Cree 1988). Entries from the 1988 IGI (International Genealogical Index) were also included. The surname is registered with the Guild of One-Name Studies.
The Cree (historical autonym: Nēhiraw; French: cri) are one of the largest groups of First Nations in North America, with over 200,000 members living in Canada. The major proportion of Cree in Canada live north and west of Lake Superior, in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and the Northwest Territories. About 38,000 live in Quebec.
In the United States, this Algonquian-speaking people historically lived from Lake Superior westward. Today, they live mostly in Montana, where they share a reservation with the Ojibwe (Chippewa).
The documented westward migration over time has been strongly associated with their roles as traders and hunters in the North American Fur Trade.
The Cree are generally divided into eight groups based on dialect and region. These divisions do not necessarily represent ethnic sub-divisions within the larger ethnic group:
Cree is an Native American ethnic group.
Cree may also refer to:
Cree or Creegh (Irish: An Chríoch, meaning "The End") is a small village in West County Clare in Ireland. It is situated at a crossroads near the towns of Doonbeg and Cooraclare. The nearest large towns are Kilrush and Ennis which are 7 miles and 26 miles away respectively. The Central Statistics Office 2006 census puts the population of Cree and its townlands at 457. In recent years there have been the development of new houses near the Creegh River. In Dromheilly Cree there is a holy shrine located which every year in August has a week of masses that people from West Clare attend. Cree also has an involvement in The Rose Of Clare Festival every year as the festival parade takes place in the village.
Other nearby villages and small towns are Cooraclare, Doonbeg, Mullagh, Quilty, Kilmihil, Kilkee and Milltown Malbay.
In Cree the central point is the large Catholic Church. Cree is in the Cree/Cooraclare parish and in the diocese of Killaloe. There are also two pubs (Flynn's and Walsh's), a fast food restaurant, two primary schools Cree and Clohanbeg, community centre, one garage, one shop and a post office. Clean Ireland's bin services headquarters are located in Cree. There is also a guesthouse/bed & breakfast located in Cree.