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So, you bring up Cree slavery and at first I was really surprised because the Cree lived in hunter-gatherer bands of exactly the sort that I thought never took

So, you bring up Cree slavery and at first I was really surprised because the Cree lived in hunter-gatherer bands of exactly the sort that I thought never took slaves. But I did some quick research on the internet and the only thing I could find about Cree slaves was them taking slaves in raids and then immediately turning around and selling the slaves to other, settled groups. So they took slaves but didn't keep them. Or perhaps you meant the Creek instead of the Cree? They certainly took and kept slaves but they were a settled agricultural group of the sort you'd expect could have slavery.

mirimir 7y ago
No, I just happened to remember reading about Slavey Lake. But it is my impression that some Native American groups did engage in slavery. As did many in Africa, even before they started dealing with Arabs and Europeans. So it's arguably not a stretch that early humans engaged in slavery. Indeed, I recall reading that the male breeding population was substantially smaller than the female breeding population for a while. I can't find the source, but it was maybe 10-50 kyr BP.