All posts by Charlie Venne

My name is Charlie and I'v had stories in my head since I was a child and this website is an outlet for those stories.

ChatGPT for Cree and Story Telling

I recently made an account with OpenAI, so I could try out ChatGPT-4, it is a very interesting app. AI, of course, means Artificial Intelligence. Yes, it sounds like something out of a movie, but I am very curious about it because I have been hearing about it and how it is being used for evil. Well maybe not necessarily “evil,” but for lying and cheating, which many people find to be very bad (even evil). Anyway, I will be testing out some questions and give my honest opinion and whether it is good, bad or in between.

Question: hello in cree

ChatGPT Answer:

Hello in Cree can be expressed in different ways depending on the dialect of the Cree language. Here are some common greetings in Cree:

    • In the Plains Cree dialect: Tânisi (pronounced “tawn-ih-sih”)
    • In the Woods Cree dialect: Tânisi or Tân’si (pronounced “tawn-sih”)
    • In the Swampy Cree dialect: Tansi or Tântêh (pronounced “tawn-see” or “tahn-tay”)

All of these greetings can be used to say “hello” or “hi” in Cree.

This is interesting and a very good point in how words are expressed in different ways. So many times, I have translated a word on various Cree Facebook pages, only to have another fluent speaker from another area telling me that I am saying it wrong.

For instance, up here in La Ronge we say “pōsīs” for cat, while down south in Plains Cree, they say minōs. Which is fine and good because we are both from different areas. However, the other person will continue to say that I am completely wrong and that I should not be giving wrong translations for the learners. I did not engage because chances are, they may have never heard it said the way we say it up here. I did engage on another word many years ago and it fell on deaf ears that we are from different areas and have different dialects. It can get frustrating, just realize that they may have never heard about your dialect.

Now the real scary stuff, for story writers like me anyway. I posted a question that was the description of one of my many short stories, and it was eerily similar to what I wrote, only better. My short story is called THERE STOOD WOLF, it is a based-on wolf track images that I got permission to use for a story. The images inspired me to write it up.

Here is the story I wrote, but without the images:

The wolf had stood there, he had fallen behind the pack that he used to lead as their great leader. He had become weary about keeping up. He stood and looked out, listening for the sounds he grew up hearing. No howls, not even a whimper did he hear.

He clawed at the crusty ground. A dusty road made by the humans. A crime to his kind. A trail that was not natural.

The wolf scrapped at the road again. What was he trying to dig for? Had he become this mindless? He looked ahead again but knowing he would see them again, his pack.

He started trampling the soft warm road. It might be the end for him. The natural trails were getting too difficult to travel. His memory was getting too hazy. His senses were dimmed to blindness and became almost deaf.

On the side of the dusty road was stacked up logs and brush. Underneath were openings that had room for him. He had long forgotten the sounds of the pack. The last thing he remembered, was laying down underneath the huge stack of brush. His dreams of his glorious days past, faded into darkness.

That is the whole short story, now read the question below and the answer I was given by ChatGPT

Question: write a short narrative of an old wolf, left behind by his pack.

ChatGPT Answer:

Once a proud alpha of his pack, the old wolf now lay alone on the fringes of the forest. His once-mighty body was now frail, his teeth worn down with age, and his fur dull and matted. His once-strong legs trembled with the effort of standing, and he could feel the weight of his years upon him.

As he lay there, he thought back on his life, remembering the thrill of the hunt and the joy of running with his pack. He remembered the fierce battles they fought and the hunts they won. But as he lay there, he also remembered the day that everything changed.

The pack had been growing restless, and many of the younger wolves were chafing under his leadership. They wanted to explore new territories, to hunt new prey, and to break free from his strict rules. And so, one day, while he was sleeping, they left him behind.

At first, he had tried to follow them, but his old legs could not keep up. He howled and called out to them, but they did not come back. And so, he was left alone, forced to fend for himself in his old age.

Days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into months. The old wolf struggled to survive, but he refused to give up. He hunted small game, drank from streams, and sheltered in caves. He survived through sheer willpower and determination, refusing to let his age defeat him.

But as time went on, the old wolf grew weaker, and his thoughts turned to the pack he had lost. He wondered what had become of them, whether they were still alive and hunting together. He longed to see them again, to run with them and hunt with them one last time.

And so, one night, he summoned all his strength and set off in search of his pack. It was a long and difficult journey, but he did not falter. He traveled for days, following the scent of his old pack, until at last, he found them.

At first, the younger wolves did not recognize him, but as he drew closer, they saw the wisdom and strength in his eyes. They welcomed him back into the pack, and for a while, he was once again the alpha.

But he knew that his time was running out. He could feel the weight of his years upon him, and he knew that he would not be able to keep up with the pack much longer. And so, he made his peace with them, and with himself.

As he lay down to rest one final time, he knew that he had found what he had been looking for. He had found his pack, and he had found his place in the world. And though he was old and weak, he was content, knowing that he had lived a full and wild life, and that he would always be remembered as the alpha of the pack.

And there it is, while it has a happy ending, mine was sad. The ChatGPT story is actually pretty good and would make a great beginning story to continue on to my story. I see great things from ChatGPT when it comes to story telling/writing. While it would not be fair to submit such stories to magazine and book publishers, I can very well use AI generated stories on this website. I can edit to my liking but still it would be a time saver and provide more content for my readers.

So, is it good or bad? The good: it is awesome for answering questions on math and science. It is also great for general questions that you may want to read about, without having to click so many links like you would get from Google or other search engines.

The bad: it makes it way too easy for students to cheat on an essay. I realize there are AI checker apps out there, but as a former teacher, I would probably not take too much time checking each and every one of my students work. I guess that if it was suspicious and based on the student and the content, I would take the time.

Another bad thing is the cheaters that would send AI generated articles or stories to publishers and to story writing contests. That would be greatly frowned upon by writers who do all the work themselves to write great work, and then get beaten by dishonest ChatGPT users.

I would say that it is between good and bad. It will depend on the person using it. Anything can be used for either, but this app is still at an early phase, time will tell.

There is so much more to explore. I enjoyed the app and checked out a few more things that I was curious about and the answers are a good read. Create your own account and try it out yourself.

https://chat.openai.com/auth/login?next=%2F%3Fmodel%3Dtext-davinci-002-render

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Image by Alexandra_Koch from Pixabay

 

Rabbit Snaring with nimosōm

I went for a walk along a groomed trail today and felt a bit of nostalgia from the way the trees looked along the path. nimosōm used to take me out rabbit snaring at the trapline when I was a boy. I remember I would feel a bit of uneasiness, but he would always have his .22 with him. I did not know at the time that a .22 would not be very effective on a bear, wolf, or very much else for that matter. It was good enough for me at the time, and it made me feel better.

I remember the trails we would follow would be along the muskeg. The trees would be small evergreen trees that looked ready to die. There would be the odd dead black popular tree with its dead branches and birch trees that had seen their better days. I used to see these dead trees and think, that would be a good spot for an owl to land and look for our rabbits hanging off our snares. We lost many rabbits to predators and one time, nimosōm shot a lynx that was eating one of our rabbits (NIMOSŌM SHOOTS THE RABBIT THIEF).

pisiw – lynx

In the early fall, we would use a canoe along the shore of the lake and get to the area where we walked to in the winter. It was all so fascinating to me. At almost every area we came upon, nimosōm would have a story about what happened to him and/or other people. He would have such a hearty laugh, I remember how his shoulders would bounce as he laughed at his stories. I heard from some people that his stories were rarely true, but I did not care, I loved to hear them. I wish I could hear one now.

nimosōm – my grandfather

ōhō – owl

mahkīsīs – fox

pisiw – lynx

wāpos – rabbit

Cree Vowel Sounds in Moose

There is a significant difference in Cree sounds when you use a macron, a bar above a letter (ō), or a circumflex, a hat above a letter (ô). Both make a long vowel sound, as in moose. I usually use a macron because that is what I learned in high school.

Moose sounds very much like our Cree word, mōswa. The word is actually much closer to the Ojibwe word “mooz,” except they use a nasalised “oo” sound.

In the meme, you see a moose kissing another moose. Now if the moose could talk, one of them could say, nīcimos, which means my boyfriend or girlfriend (romantic partner). In CreEnglish, nīci mōs or nīci moose, means, my fellow moose. The proper Woodland Cree word, would be nīci mōswa. Listen to the audio, and you will notice how it is sounded out.

Woodland Cree word – nīcimos – my boyfriend/girlfriend

CreEnglish word – nīci-mōs or nīci-moose – my fellow moose

Woodland Cree word – nīci-mōswa – my fellow moose

There is an excellent article from our friends at the Cree Literacy Network called “Reading Plains Cree in SRO,” I encourage you to check it out. It presents information on all the consonants and vowels used in the Cree language. The article has many examples and even audio by Solomon Ratt, audio is always very helpful for the learners. I have referred to this great website many times over the years.

I thought it would be an interesting article to discuss the vowels we use in SRO. Okay, let’s be honest, I just wanted to show off the moose meme. Feel free to share the article or download the meme and then share. Thank you.


mōswak ocīmitōwak – Moose are kissing

nīcimos – my boyfriend/girlfriend

nīci mōs or nīci moose – my fellow moose

mōswa – one moose

mōswak – more than one moose

onīcāniw – cow moose (female)

nōsīs – cow moose (female with a calf)

iyāpīw – bull moose (male)


Welcome to the Ojibwe People’s Dictionary – https://ojibwe.lib.umn.edu/

Cree Literacy Network – https://creeliteracy.org/

MOOSE IN WOODLAND CREE – PAINTING BY MOLLY RATT – https://firstnationstories.com/?p=2124


Female moose Image by Dan Grignon from Pixabay
Male moose Image by Kate Baucherel from Pixabay

Article about Pretendians – What they Said

isi kākī itwīcik – What they said

When I posted my article about Pretendians, two weeks ago, I noticed many responses that were agreeable and understandable. However, there were many negative misunderstandings about what I meant by the term. I tried answering some comments to clear things up and made several attempts to straighten out some confusion. It seemed that some people did not want to comprehend and just wanted to disagree with someone. I thought that maybe they were upset with something or someone else and took it out on my article. Although that seemed a bit far-fetched, it could be true for a few people.

My main focus was on Joseph Boyden, and his book: Three Day Road. I wrote how completely duped I was into believing Boyden was of Indigenous ancestry. Not only myself, but my instructor and classmates as well (although I have not mentioned it to them, maybe they read the article). I enjoyed the book very much and maybe that should be important, but he is not a real “Indian.” He made himself out to be one and he benefited greatly from doing so.

Authors like Drew Hayden Taylor and Tomson Highway wrote many great works that I still have stored away (somewhere). Their styles inspired me to write many stories that I share on this website with many, many more in the backburner. I still follow Taylor to this day on Twitter (@TheDHTaylor), and he even responded to a couple of comments of mine (that was awesome).

Another author I follow is Jason EagleSpeaker on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/eaglespeaker/). He often posts funny and intriguing posts that many people react to. His graphic novels look great, and he has a sample of one of his works on his page, I encourage you to check it out.

The topic was discussed on a Facebook page called Indigenous Circle on CTV, and I posted the link to my article on the comments. An admin from the page responded to my comment and posted his opinion with his real-life experience:

Nelson Bird from Indigenous Circle on CTV

That is very interesting Charlie. So many of us have stories and experiences similar to yours; that is – believing what we hope to be true only to find out the opposite. I was once the target of a few people accusing me of being a ‘pretendian’ before that term was even a thing. I wrote an opinion piece (post) about some Indigenous protestors who attempted to assault a white opiniated radio host. They were right in condemning him, but I didn’t agree with their tactics,…then they turned on me. They accused me of not being a ‘real Indian’ and having never lived on a reserve. Wrong on both counts. I grew up on my reserve and I am full status, and have never denied my heritage. Their false accusations did not go far at all, as everyone who knows me, knows my cultural history. My point is that there are many who claim falsely to be Indigenous, and they should be called out….but people should also do their homework and not accuse someone simply because they are angry, upset, or jealous. My opinion only.

I will be going to go through some of the misunderstandings of my previous article, in this article. It will be without revealing or exposing the commentators of my previous article, by paraphrasing their comments. So here it goes.

COMMENT: I have a friend who is white and appreciates Indigenous culture and language:

This I understand completely because I have friends who are also white and also appreciate my culture. While comment is way off the topic of my Pretendians article, it could be just a comment to show that not every culture aware non-native is trying to be an “Indian.”

COMMENT: Our rights need to be protected.

Yes, our rights as Indigenous people need to be protected. This may be a comment on how Pretendians are infringing and appropriating our culture and benefiting financially.

COMMENT: What about white people who are involved with the Indigenous community.

I am very proud to see how the non-Indigenous people have come together with us in the town I live in. We have a Tri-Community of La Ronge, Air Ronge and our reserves as one. Many programs and events are geared toward coming together and working together. I, myself have been involved through the live -streaming I do for some of the events for the folks at home. We also have many white people who work with us in our reserves.

COMMENT: I am Indigenous, but I look white, and I have been targeted by both sides.

This an unfortunate occurrence that is dealt with by many people on and off the rez. Fortunately, it does not seem as bad as it used to be, at least it appears that way. I am sure there are many different stories these days because who knows what happens behind close doors.

The terms “apple” and “potato” came up on some comments. However, that is another topic for another time, because it has nothing to do with the article. Many Indigenous people choose to live a very different lifestyle than usual and that is their business. I have no grievances about it, nor should anybody else.

I was not able to embed the article on my WordPress site, so I used images to display the Facebook page: Indigenous Circle on CTV

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‘Pretendians’ – nīhithiwihkānak (Fake Crees)

nīhithiwihkānak – people pretending to be Cree

I recently read a couple of posts on LinkedIn by Jason EagleSpeaker that have inspired me to write about the same topic.


And this one:

These posts reminded me of Grey Owl, and how he had portrayed himself as a First Nation. I heard that he lived at Prince Albert National Park. A group of people were talking about it in my Native Studies 10 class, they mentioned that they visited Grey Owl’s Cabin near Waskesiu Lake.

Although he died in 1938, I had only heard a mention, or two, of Grey Owl. After the discussion in my class, it turns out that he was not even an Indian. He was an Englishmen from Hastings. About six-years after I learned all of this, a film was released in 1999, starring Pierce Brosnan (Yes, James Bond). It was simply titled: “Grey Owl.” I enjoyed it and I kind of knew how it was going to go, so that was no surprise. The real surprise, was James Bond trotting around, looking so Indigenous. It was actually pretty cool.

So, the exposé of Grey Owl, not being an actual Indigenous man, was not shocking to me, because his existence was from a previous time, and it was well known. He does have an interesting story and if you are interested, please find links below this article.

The first unexpected revelation to me, was that of a professional wrestler named: Chief Jay Strongbow. He wrestled in, what is now known as WWE, during the 70s and 80s. By the time I learned he was an Italian American, I already accepted that pro-rasslin’ was scripted. Like a theatrical play, there are “actors” pretending to fight and presenting all kinds of drama for the fans. I was disappointed, but not “shocked.” On a side note, I was very happy to learn that Chief Wahoo McDaniel and Tatanka were real “Indians” and not Pretendians. I have read an article where Ultimate Warrior was asked if he was portraying a Native American, but that concept was squashed by Warrior himself.

The first real shock to me on the revelation of a Pretendian, was the author of Three Day Road, Joseph Boyden. When my university class used his book for assignments and discussion, there was no doubt in my mind that he was an Indigenous man. My class covered the entire book, and we had great discussions over the characters and of Indigenous men in world war history.

I enjoyed the book and was fascinated by the tale of Xavier and Elijah, two young Cree men who volunteered to go to war and became snipers. Boyden, I imagined, was a great First Nations man who was successfully presenting Indigenous people as having great potential. While Indigenous people do have great potential, the farce of Boyden really pissed me off. Why did he not just represent himself as what he was? I do not feel it is wrong to be inspired by another nationality, however, honesty is very important in these matters. Might he actually be Indigenous? Hmm, maybe he should have mentioned it at the beginning and had been forthright about his heritage. Instead, many of us foolishly assumed he was First Nation because of the books.

Anyway, there have been other reveals in the past few years and I am not really surprised, especially by people involved in the entertainment industry and politics. A prominent author of many popular Indigenous books would seem to be of First Nation ancestry, but I guess we all learned our lesson. If anything, it has made me question anyone, who “claims” to have Native blood in their ancestry. So, thank you for that Mr. Boyden.

EAGLESPEAKER PUBLISHING – https://www.eaglespeaker.com/

Eaglespeaker.com on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/eaglespeakerpublishing/

Jason EagleSpeaker on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/eaglespeaker/


Chief Jay Strongbow (Wiki) – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_Jay_Strongbow

Grey Owl – https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0128239/?ref_=tt_mv_close

Grey Owl (Wiki) – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_Owl_(film)

Joseph Boyden’s Apology and the Strange History of ‘Pretendians’ – https://www.vice.com/en/article/yppmdv/joseph-boydens-apology-and-the-strange-history-of-pretendians

Author Joseph Boyden’s shape-shifting Indigenous identity – https://www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/author-joseph-boydens-shape-shifting-indigenous-identity/

MĀSIHKĪWIN – WRESTLING, WAHOO MCDANIEL – https://firstnationstories.com/?p=3277

TATANKA – MĀSIHKĪWIN – WRESTLING – https://firstnationstories.com/?p=3290

I have agreed to: LinkedIn Embed Terms of Use

nikīsikām – My Day

I used to go to my hometown of Hall Lake regularly before COVID. I did not like to travel much at the time but seeing my family would be worth it. My mom would be happy to see me and while we do not do the hug thing, it was nice to be in her presence. The meals she cooked were always great and reminded me of when I was growing up in the house. My dad was home too and I do not always know how to act or behave around him because growing up, he would almost always be up north working. I am grateful they are doing well.

Lately, I have been going to Hall Lake once a month (I missed last month), to drive my parents to La Ronge to do some major shopping. We always take my niece MJ, who my parents are raising. She likes to talk and is never at a loss for words. Almost annoyingly so, she will bring up many topics about people and lifestyles. I humour her sometimes and have these discussions, but I only go so far.

Last year, I build an entire computer tower for her, as she paid for all the parts, piece by piece. I made sure to order quality parts for her, as I wanted her to have a quality workstation for her interests in digital art. She does quite well, and she is very talented. I am so proud of her.

I travelled to Hall lake today, to drop off my wife at our daughter’s house. She wanted to stay there for the weekend. It was good to see the kids doing well, however, my granddaughter was not home. I did see her outside a friends house while driving and we waved at each other. I wish I had had change to give her, but I did not have any. She loves going to store to buy candy, like other children do. She is such a little sweetheart, even when she doesn’t act like a little sweetheart.

I picked up my oldest son to go for a cruise. I enjoy these rides with my son and the discussions we have. There is always some laughter from our stories, and I am glad to have such a great relationship with him.

Here at home, I am with my daughters. They are great friends, but they would never admit it. I love them very much and hope they find themselves someday. For now, they can be my babies, even though they are both teenagers. I am sure that my main purpose to them, is keep their computers in tip top shape, and to open jars that are too hard to open. Never mind the bills I pay; they are worth every penny I need to spend to make sure they are okay and doing well.

Thank you taking the time to read this impromptu article, I am grateful to you all – kinanāskomitināwāw.

nikīsikām – My Day

kinanāskomitināwāw – I am grateful to you all

 

tânisi Song by Brian McDonald – audio clips

The first time I heard of Brian McDonald was in 2005 when he and others developed an immersion school in Onion Lake. I was working as a web developer for the Gift of Language and Culture website, based in La Ronge. The first song I ever heard from Mr. McDonald was tânisi, it was, and still is, a very popular Cree song. It is one of the best Cree songs I have heard, right up there with many Winston Wuttunee tunes and Carl Quin.

There is a GoFundMe page organized by Belinda Daniels that states:

This action for fundraising is for Brian MacDonald; for all the years, his songs were used by family members, teachers, schools, the community & artists across the Cree country.

It is a very worthy cause and I happily donated what I could to help out Brian McDonald for all his contributions to the Cree music universe.

Link to GoFundMe page: https://gofund.me/2ad596d2

I have typed out the lyrics of the song, tanisi, line-by-line, and included audio clips for whoever wants to practice saying the phrases. I took the lyrics from our dear friends from the Cree Literacy Network and added them to my website. Be sure to check out their great Cree website: https://creeliteracy.org/

tānisi Song: Brian MacDonald

Hello! – tānisi!

How are you? – tānisi kiya?

I am fine. – namōya nānitaw.

Come on in. – pihtikwē.

Sit down. – API.

Have some tea. – maskihkiwāpoy minihkwê.

It’s nice that you’ve come to visit. – tāpwê miywāsin ê-pê-kiyokawiyan.

Where have you been? – tānitê ê-kî-itohtêyan?

Please tell me what you’ve been doing. – mahti ācimo kîkway ê-osihtāyan

Please tell me a story. – mahti ācimostawin.

I am trying out a new microphone but it is not the greatest. I have a new mic in mind and I might purchase it in the next month or so. Check out the link, maybe you can use one too. If you have a suggestion, please email me at cv2k@hotmail.com. Thank you for visiting.

Fifine USB Recording Microphone – Amazon.ca

Supporting Links:

tânisi Song: Brian MacDonald

 

Cree Songs CD by Brian MacDonald (Plains Cree Y)

https://www.ammsa.com/publications/saskatchewan-sage/first-nations-partner-support-language-learning

Kihew Waciston Cree Immersion School

Bethany the Girl Ghost (cīpay iskwīsis) – Introduces her Friends VIDEO

I made a video clip for Halloween. A ghost girl named Bethany introduces her friends to us in Woodland Cree.

Animation is very time-consuming but the end product is fun to watch. Thank goodness there are multiple online sources for images, video, and audio. All I need to do is put it all together using Adobe Animate and Movavi Video Suite. I have older versions of the software here at home, but they work just fine. If I had the time, I would contract out my services for cheap animation. Who knows, maybe I can make time, it is fun stuff to produce.

The idea for this animation, came to me a bit late and too close to Halloween. I want to make more animations and cannot wait until my inspirations entice me to put in the effort.

Devil – maci-manitow

Witch – maci-nōcokwīsīs

Zombie – miyaw kā-pimohtīpathik

Clown – mōhcohkān

Vampire – akahkway

Bat – apahkwācīs

Many of the Cree terms come from one of my favourite Cree websites: https://itwewina.altlab.app/

Images were supplied by PIXABAY.COM – FREE!!!

Ghost Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay

Bat Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay

Background Image by Syaibatul Hamdi from Pixabay

Zombie Image by Amanda Elizabeth from Pixabay

Devil Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay

Witch Image by GraphicMama-team from Pixabay

Mummy Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay

Dracula Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay

Clown Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay

Tree moon Video by Joe Hackney from Pixabay

Cree Commentary – 70 Days without Alcohol


I have been sober for a total of 70 days. 10 weeks without a drop of alcohol. It has been very difficult for me, considering I used to drink every weekend. It may have been more difficult if I had drunk every day. I am happy to be where I am right now and I hope it stays that way.

My health has improved and so has my weight training. I walk more often, except for a few days when my knee was sore, but that is bound to happen when you have not been active regularly. My muscle memory is improving every week, so much so that I am going to have to watch myself and not get injured.

I have not started any intense exercise such as jogging, but I do go on a stationary bike sometimes. I would like to save my knees for when I am older, I am currently 48 years of age and I have seen too many of our middle-aged friends and family members with bad knees. I did have a bit of a scare last week but my knee is much better now. I hyperextended it by tossing and turning, of all things. Who knows, maybe I weakened it by going too hard on the stationary bike or by walking too fast.

 

Weight training Image by Pexels from Pixabay