THE CREE people of North America are a proud race whose culture demands a deep respect for their ancestors, and now they are looking for a way to pay homage to that inheritance.
Not surprisingly, the desire to trace roots is a vital part of that process for the Cree who live on both sides of the Canadian-US border between Hudson Bay and Lake Superior.
More surprising though is the fact that for many of them, the search for those origins will begin 5000 miles away in Stromness, in Orkney.
Surnames like Isbister, Linklater, Marwick, Sabiston, Corrigal and Flett, reveal much about the large contingent of native North Americans - mainly Cree and Spokane - who are set to make the pilgrimage to retrace their Norse roots during the Orkney Homecoming, a week-long pre-Millennium event scheduled for June 1999.
A good starting point in tracing the three centuries of migration which have led to many native Americans claiming Viking bloodlines, is Hudson Bay, Canada, where many Orcadians went to work at the end of the 17th century.
Kathleen Hogarth, the guiding light on the Scottish side of the Orkney Homecoming project, travelled half-way across the world to do her own homework on those links in Winnipeg, Manitoba, the town with arguably the highest number of Orkney descendants anywhere in the world.
Ms Hogarth said: ''It all started when the Hudson Bay Company was founded by Royal Charter back in 1670. They dealt in furs, and most of the trappers were Cree living along the Red River.
''The company undoubtedly had Scottish roots and Orcadians had a good reputation for being hard-working, and that suited the company management's way of doing things.
''The importing of Orcadian labour started more or less straight away. They were expert boatmen, and most spent their time up and down the Red River trading with native Americans.
''By the mid-18th century around three-quarters of the Hudson Bay workforce was from Orkney, and Stromness in particular. Orcadians brought their home reared boat-making skills with them. The Canadian York boat is a misnamed copy of the Orkney Yole vessel.''
About 1000 people from all over Canada and the northern USA are interested in making the trip to trace their roots next year and around 20% of those are native Americans of Orkney descent.
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