Don Cunningham describes growing up where his father worked in the bush with horses and only speaking Cree. Only white people spoke English then. His father hauled freight for the Hudson’s Bay Company in northern Alberta and his grandfather was a translator and interpreter between First Nations, the federal government, and white people and in signing of treaty 8. Some in his family were called half-breeds then. His grandmother was very fluent in Cree and one of his grandfathers was French from Quebec but he died brewing whisky. His family is musical.