Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Canadian Aboriginal syllabics" in English language version.
Reports from the late nineteenth century say that virtually every adult Cree speaker was literate; even allowing for some exaggeration, Cree may have had one of the highest literacy rates in the world at the time.
Some shamans affirmed that they had visited the land of the dead. One claimed that he had brought back the Cree syllabic writing form the spirit world. This system was actually invented by James Evans, a missionary. Fine-day gave this version of the event:— A Wood Cree named Badger-call died and then became alive again. While he was dead he was given the characters of the syllabary and told that with them he could write Cree. Strike-him-on-the-back learned this writing from Badger-call. He made a feast and announced that he would teach it to anyone who wanted to learn. That is how I learned it. Badger-call also taught the writing to the missionaries. When the writing was given to Badger-call he was told 'They [the missionaries] will change the script and will say that the writing belongs to them. But only those who know Cree will be able to read it.' That is how we know that the writing does not belong to the whites, for it can be read only by those who know the Cree language.
