Dr. Jean L. Okimāsis (born Jean Lillian Littlechief) is a

Cree The Cree, or nehinaw (, ), are a Indigenous peoples of the Americas, North American Indigenous people, numbering more than 350,000 in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations in Canada, First Nations. They live prim ...

linguist who has worked on teaching and documenting the

Plains Cree language Plains Cree (endonym: ; alternatively: "language of the prairie people") is a dialect of the Algonquian languages, Algonquian language, Cree language, Cree, which is the most populous Indigenous languages of Canada, Canadian indigenous lan ...

Career

In 1982, Okimāsis started work on

Cree language Cree ( ; also known as Cree–Montagnais language, Montagnais–Naskapi language, Naskapi) is a dialect continuum of Algonquian languages spoken by approximately 86,475 people across Canada in 2021, from the Northwest Territories to Alberta to ...

programs at the

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the ...

Indian Federated college (now the

First Nations University of Canada The First Nations University of Canada (abbreviated as FNUniv) is a post-secondary institution and federated college of the University of Regina, based in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. FNUniv operates three campuses within the province, ...

). She published a textbook, workbook, and teaching grammar of the Cree language called ''Cree, Language of the Plains'', which is
publicly available
under a

Creative commons license A Creative Commons (CC) license is one of several public copyright licenses that enable the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted "work". A CC license is used when an author wants to give other people the right to share, use, and bu ...

. Okimāsis has been instrumental in developing and promoting the use of the standard Roman orthography for writing the Cree language. In 2008, she cowrote ''How to Spell it in Cree (The Standard Roman Orthography)'' with Arok Wolvengrey.

Recognition

Okimāsis received the

YWCA The Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) is a nonprofit organization with a focus on empowerment, leadership, and rights of women, young women, and girls in more than 100 countries. The World office is currently based in Geneva, Swit ...

Woman of Distinction Award in 2000, and an honorary doctorate from the

University of Regina The University of Regina is a public university located in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. Founded in 1911 as a private denominational high school of the Methodist Church of Canada, it began an association with the University of Saskatchewan as a j ...

in 2005. In 2019, a park was named after Okimāsis in Regina.

References

Bibliography

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External links

Jean Okimāsis
on the

Press
''Cree: Language of the Plains / nēhiyawēwin: paskwāwi-pīkiskwēwin''
1938 births Living people Linguists from Canada Women linguists University of Regina alumni Linguists of Algic languages {{Canada-linguist-stub

Career

Recognition

See also

References

Bibliography

External links