The Orkney Isles are a long way from the woods and lakes of Saskatchewan, but for a group of native Americans of the Cree people a forthcoming journey to Scotland is also a journey home.

The Scottish Arts Council has given (pounds) 10,000 towards a fund that will see a group of Cree Indians from Canada visit Scotland and rediscover their links with the people of Orkney - a genetic link forged more than 200 years ago.

The 25 members of the Cree tribe will travel to the northern isles in September to explore their ''roots'' and celebrate them in a series of musical and artistic events.

It has been estimated that by the end of the eighteenth century more than two-thirds of the Hudson Bay Trading Company workforce in Canada were men from Orkney. The Orcadians married local women and Scottish blood entered the family trees of the Cree people across Canada.

In 1876, when Cree chiefs signed away 121,000 square miles of Canada to Britain in exchange for reserve lands, many had names that are more common in Scotland - Spence, Tait, Macdonald and Calder.

Kim Foden, the secretary of the Saskatchewan First Nations ''Coming Home'' Orkney Committee, became interested in the links between Orkney and the native peoples of Saskatchewan when she investigated the history of her own family.

An ancestor, Magnus Twatt, had left Orkney to work in Canada more than 100 years ago. Mrs Foden discovered that he had married a local Cree woman and she has travelled to the Sturgeon Lake area to meet her new, if distant, relatives.

She was made an honorary member of the tribe, then introduced to Mr Twatt's great- grandson, Harold Kingfisher, her distant cousin.

The Hudson's Bay Company administered a vast territory in Canada between 1670 and 1870, but the Scottish workers were banned from getting married, Mrs Foden said.

However, liaisons between Scottish fur traders with the Cree and other tribes are recorded as far back as the 1600s.

The children of these marriages were given the traditional family names of their fathers and were often fluent in Gaelic, Scots English and Cree.

Mrs Foden said that on her visits to the Cree reservations she had noticed people with lighter hair and skin - the genetic remnants of Scots who themselves originated in Scandinavia.

She said that the Cree and Orcadians share more than a bloodline - the Cree used to live off the land in sometimes harsh conditions, and the Orcadian men, used to making their living from the land or sea, would have felt a bond with their new friends.

Among the performers coming to Scotland will be Joseph Naytowhow, a well-known

storyteller in Canada. There will be concerts, workshops, about eight school visits, and outdoor displays of their culture. There will also be a musical performance by the Cree visitors and Orcadian musicians in St Magnus Cathedral.

Along with the grant from the SAC, the Canadian visitors are trying to raise more money to fund their trip across the Atlantic.

''It is a chance to explore the common heritage of our homes and listen to each other's music,'' Mrs Foden said. ''Although a lot of them may have Scottish blood, they are Cree, and call themselves Cree.

''They are taking a risk coming here. They are trusting

us that this will be a beneficial visit for them. If it is successful we can move on to other things, and hopefully it will be a foundation for the future.''

She added: ''The Cree have been badly treated over the years, but they believe discovering more about their past, such as events like this, helps them look forward to the future with more optimism.''