The Cree are one of the largest groups of First Nations/Native Americans in North America, with 200,000 members living in Canada.

In Canada, the major proportion of Cree live north and west of Lake Superior, in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and the Northwest Territories, although 15,000 live in eastern Quebec.

In the United States, this Algonquian-speaking people lived historically from Lake Superior westward.

Today, they live mostly in Montana, where they share a reservation with the Ojibwe (Chippewa).

The documented westward migration over historic time has been strongly associated with their roles as middle men and hunters in the North American Fur Trade.