The Cree today reside in a wide range from northern Quebec and Ontario from the Prairies. They speak many Algonquian languages due to the number of people and how many lived in different areas. Cree cultures often call for respect for living and non-living things and believed that everything had a purpose; this culture is best known for their use of animals for food and clothing. Their religion was based on relations with animals and other spirits that would appear in dreams. People would show respect by showing no interference allowing them to be responsible for their own actions. The Cree were nomadic people but traditionally resided around the north and west of Lake Superior, in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and the Northwest Territories. In the late 1600s the Cree were settled in the northern parts of the boreal forest which extended as far as Lake Superior. The lives of the Cree changed greatly when they started coming in contact more frequently having settled near the Hudson Bay Company. By the 1680s the Cree became well established fur traders and while being feared by many nations they accepted their new neighbours, the Europeans. The Cree started becoming dependent on the fur trades to provide food. The Cree began moving west towards the Great Slave Lake and Lake Athabasca and a small shift the south near Montana and Alberta due to the fur trading growing towards the center of Canada.
Their traditional way of life was about using the lands resource for nothing went to waste. They lived in teepees or wigwams depending on where they lived and the climate of the area. The Cree gathered food by hunting moose, caribou, geese, duck and fish which they preserved by drying over fire. They travelled in the summer by canoe and by winter they would use snowshoes and toboggans. The Cree social structure was based on a link system that is strengthen through relationships found in the language, customs and traditions. Each individual in the