Assiniboine

For other uses, see Assiniboine (disambiguation).

Assiniboine

Full Moon, an Assiniboine woman
Total population
(3,500)
Regions with significant populations
Canada (Saskatchewan) United States (Montana)
Languages
Assiniboine, English
Religion
traditional tribal religion, Sun Dance, Native American Church, Christianity
Related ethnic groups
Dakota, Stoney

The Assiniboine or Assiniboin people (/əˈsɪnᵻbɔɪn/ when singular, /əˈsɪnᵻbɔɪnz/ when plural; Ojibwe: Asinaan, "stone Sioux"; also in plural Assiniboine or Assiniboin), also known as the Hohe and known by the endonym Nakota (or Nakoda or Nakona), are a Sioux First Nations/Native American people originally from the Northern Great Plains of North America. Today, they are centered in present-day Saskatchewan, but they have also populated parts of Alberta, southwestern Manitoba, northern Montana and western North Dakota. They were well known throughout much of the late 18th and early 19th century. Images of Assiniboine people were painted by such 19th-century artists as Karl Bodmer and George Catlin.

Names

The Europeans and Americans adopted names that other tribes used for the Assiniboine; only later learning the self-appellation of this tribe, or autonym. In Siouan, they traditionally called themselves the Hohe Nakota. With the widespread adoption of English, however, many now use the English name. The English borrowed Assiniboine from earlier French colonists, who had adapted it from what they heard from the Ojibwe. They called the people in Ojibwe asinii-bwaan (stone Sioux). The Cree called them asinîpwâta (asinîpwâta ᐊᓯᓃᐹᐧᑕ NA sg, asinîpwâtak ᐊᓯᓃᐹᐧᑕᐠ NA pl). In the same way, Assnipwan comes from the word asinîpwâta in the western Cree dialects, from asiniy ᐊᓯᓂᐩ NA – "rock, stone" – and pwâta ᐹᐧᑕ NA – "enemy, Sioux". Early French traders in the west were often familiar with Algonquian languages. They transliterated many Cree or Ojibwe exonyms for other western Canadian indigenous peoples during the early colonial era. The English referred to the Assiniboine by adopting terms from the French spelled using English phonetics.

Other tribes associated "stone" with the Assiniboine because they primarily cooked with heated stones. They dropped hot stones into water to heat it to boiling for cooking meat. Some writers saw this as the association of the Ojibway term "Assin", stone, and the French "bouillir", to boil, but such an etymology is very unlikely

Language

Assiniboine is a Mississippi Valley Siouan language, in the Western Siouan language family. About 150 people today speak the Assiniboine language or A' M̆oqazh, most are over 40 years old. The majority of the Assiniboine today speaks only American English. The 2000 census showed 3,946 tribal members who lived in the United States.

Assiniboines are closely linked by language to the Stoney First Nations people of Alberta. The latter two tribes speak varieties of Nakota, a distant, but not mutually intelligible, variant of the Sioux language.

Related peoples

Assiniboine man, Montana, ca. 1890–1891

Assiniboine man (left) with Yankton Dakota man (right)

The Assiniboine have many similarities to the Lakota Sioux in culture and language. They are considered to have separated from the central sub-group of the Sioux nation. Scholars believe that the Assiniboine broke away from Yanktonai Dakota in the 16th century.

The Assiniboine were close allies and trading partners of the Cree, engaging in wars together against the Atsina (Gros Ventre). Together they later fought the Blackfoot. A Great Plains people, they generally went no further north than the North Saskatchewan River. They purchased a great deal of European trade goods from the Hudson's Bay Company through Cree middlemen.

History

Early History

The Assiniboine were originally part of the Great Sioux Nation which was made up of Eastern Dakota or Santee, Western Dakota or Yanktonai, and the Lakota or Teton Sioux. The Sioux were pushed gradually westward onto the plains from the woodlands of Minnesota by the Ojibwe people who acquired guns earlier from their French allies. Specifically the Assiniboine were part of the Yanktonai Sioux but split off around 1640 and headed north where they developed into a powerful and distinct people. Before horses were introduced to the Assiniboine they used domestic dogs as a pack animal to carry their belongings and pull their travois. The Assiniboine acquired horses by raiding and trading with neighboring plains nations such as the Crow and Sioux living further south who obtained horses earlier. The Assiniboine eventually developed into a large and powerful people with a horse and warrior culture centered on the vast numbers of bison that lived within and outside their territory. Assiniboine territory at the height of their power stretched from the North Saskatchewan River in the north to the Missouri River in the south and included portions of modern day Saskatchewan, Alberta, Manitoba, North Dakota, and Montana.

Contact with Europeans & Fur Trade

See also: North American fur trade

The first person of European descent to describe the Assiniboine was an employee of the Hudson's Bay Company named Henry Kelsey in the 1690s. Later explorers and traders Jean Baptiste de La Vérendrye and his sons (1730s), Anthony Henday (1754–55), and Alexander Henry the younger (1800s) confirmed that the Assiniboine held a vast territory across the northern plains including into the United States. The Assiniboine became reliable and important trading partners and middlemen for fur traders and other Indians, particularly the Hudson's Bay Company and North West Company operating in western Canada in a vast area known then as Rupert's Land. During the 1780s south of the border in mostly Montana and the Dakota territories the Assiniboine traded with the American Fur Company and the competing Rocky Mountain Fur Company. The Assiniboine obtained guns, ammunition, metal tomahawks, metal pots, wool blankets, wool coats, wool leggings, and glass beads as well as other goods from the fur traders in exchange for furs. Beaver furs and bison hides were the most commonly traded furs. Increased contact with Europeans caused widespread epidemics of European infectious diseases most notably smallpox among the Assiniboine. The Assiniboine population crashed from around 10,000 people in the late 18th century to only around 2600 by 1890. Painters traveling with traders, explorers, and expeditions that encountered and painted the Assiniboine from life include Karl Bodmer, Paul Kane, and George Catlin.

The Iron Confederacy

Main article: Iron Confederacy

The Assiniboine were a major part of an alliance of northern plains Indian nations known as the Iron Confederacy or Nehiyaw-Pwat as it is known in Plains Cree. The Iron Confederacy revolved around the fur trade particularly with the Hudson's Bay Company and included the Assiniboine as well as the Plains Cree, Saulteaux, Plains Ojibwe, Métis, and individual Iroquois people who traveled west as employees for the fur traders. Other Indian peoples on the northern plains such as the Gros Ventre were occasionally part of the confederacy. The confederacy became the dominate force on the northern plains and was a major threat to Indian nations and settlers not associated with it including the Shoshone and Crow further south. The eventual decline of the fur trade and the deliberate eradication of the bison herds by Canadian and American hunters led to the defeat and breaking of the confederacy which saw military action with Canada during the North-West Rebellion.

Lifestyle

Assiniboine Hunting Buffalo, 1851

Traditionally Assiniboine people were semi-nomadic. During the warmer months, they followed the herds of bison for hunting—preserving the meat for winter. They hunted on horseback using bow and arrows. The tribe is known for its excellent horsemanship. They first obtained horses by trading with the Blackfeet and the Gros Ventre tribes. They did a considerable amount of trading with European traders in the fur trade. They worked with the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara tribes.

The Lewis and Clark Expedition journals mention Assiniboines, as the party was returning from Fort Clatsop down the Missouri River; however, the explorers did not encounter or come in direct contact with the tribe.

Subgroups and Bands

Assiniboine Family, Montana, 1890–1891

Pigeon's Egg Head, painted by George Catlin

• Aegitina (‘Camp Moves to the Kill’)
• Bizebina, Bízebina (‘Gophers’ or 'Gopher People')
• Cepahubi (‘Large Organs’)
• Canhdada, Cąȟtáda (‘Moldy People’, lived around Battleford (Ogíciza Wakpá) and North Battleford - known as "The Battlefords" - as neighbors of the Waziyamwincasta Band; political once part of the Upstream People of Plains Cree - today known as Battleford Stoneys part of the Mosquito, Grizzly Bear's Head, Lean Man First Nations)
• Canhewincasta, Cą́ȟe wįcášta, Chan He Winchasta (‘Wooded-Mountain People’ or ‘Wood Mountain People’ – ‘People Who live around Wood Mountain’, lived in around today's Wood Mountain and in the adjoining Big Muddy Badlands to the southeast in southern Saskatchewan and northern Montana; close allies to the Insaombi (Cypress Hills Assiniboine) band in which territory they had their winter camps, the bands of chief Manitupotis (also known as Wankanto - Little Soldier) and Hunkajuka (Hum-ja-jin-sin, Inihan Kinyen - Little Chief) - together about 300 people with ca. 50 warriors - became on June 1, 1873 victims of the Cypress Hills Massacre where between 25 to 30 Assiniboine were killed by American Wolfers to take revenge for horse stealing Cree in Montana; this massacre led to the development of the North-West Mounted Police (NWMP), which would later become the famous Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP); once political part of the Downstream People of Plains Cree and close allies partly oft the Cree-Assiniboine / Young Dogs - today part of the Carry the Kettle Nakoda First Nation)
• Canknuhabi (‘Ones That Carry Their Wood’), Cątų́wąbi (‘Forest Villagers, Wood Villagers’)
• Hudesabina, Húdešana, Hudesanak (‘Red Bottom’ or ‘Red Root’, split off from the Wadopabina Band in 1844, lived between the Porcupine Creek and Milk River (Asą́bi wakpá, Wakpá jukʾána) area in northern Montana and southern Alberta, Canada; today one Assiniboine / Nakoda band of the Fort Peck Assiniboine & Sioux Tribes)
• Hebina, Ye Xa Yabine (‘Rock Mountain People’, often called Strong Wood Assiniboine or Thickwood Assiniboine, separated from the main body of the Assiniboine in the mid-18th century and moved further west and northwest deep into the forests and Rocky Mountains (In-yan-he-Tonga, į́yąȟetąga – ′great mountains′) to escape smallpox. Because they stayed aloof from the outside they developed a separate identity as Mountain Stoney-Nakoda; once political part of the Rocky / Mountain Cree of Plains Cree - today part of the Stoney Nakoda First Nation (Wesley First Nation, Chiniki First Nation, Bearspaw First Nation), some also reside together with other Assiniboine / Nakoda bands in Fort Belknap Indian Community. Some are part of the Aseniwuche Winewak Nation from Canada, not recognized by the government as a band.
• Hen atonwaabina (‘Little Rock Mountain People’, lived in the Little Rocky Mountains (or Little Rockies, į́yąȟe widána, į́yąȟewida; today: į́yąȟejusina) and the adjoining Plains in the Northeast of Montana; once political part of the Downstream People of Plains Cree and close allies of the Cree-Assiniboine / Young Dogs - today part of the Fort Belknap Indian Community)
• Huhumasmibi, Huhumasmlbi (‘Bone Cleaners’)
• Huhuganebabi (‘Bone Chippers’)
• Indogahwincasta (‘East People’)
• Inninaonbi, Ini'na u'mbi (‘Quiet People’)
• Insaombi, įšná ųbísʾa, Icna'umbisa (‘The Ones Who Stay Alone’, lived in Cypress Hills and adjoining Plains in southern Saskatchewan, Canada, therefore also known as Cypress Hills Assiniboine, close allies of the Canhewincasta band, which often wintered in the Cypress Hills - today part of Carry the Kettle Nakoda First Nation)
• Inyantonwanbina, Iyethkabi, Îyârhe Nakodabi, auch Mountain Village Band (‘Stone / Rock People’, ‘Mountain People’, to the end of the 18th century they had retreated deep into the Rocky Mountains (In-yan-he-Tonga, į́yąȟetąga – ′great mountains′) and developed a separate identity as Nakoda (Stoney) (į́yąȟe wįcášta); today one Assiniboine / Nakoda band of the Fort Peck Assiniboine & Sioux Tribes)
• Minisose Swnkeebi, Miníšoše Sunkcebi (‘Missouri River Dog Band’, lived between the Milk River and the Poplar River toward the Missouri River (Miníšoše) in the border region of Montana, Alberta and Saskatchewan; today one Assiniboine / Nakoda band of the Fort Peck Assiniboine & Sioux Tribes)
• Minisatonwanbi, Miníšatonwanbi (‘Red Water People’, lived along the Red River of the North in the vicinity of today's Winnipeg toward the south banks of Lake Winnipeg and Lake Manitoba in southern Manitoba)
• Osnibi, Osníbina (‘People of the Cold’, one band of Woodland Assiniboine from the North, were the weather is cold)
• Ptegabina, Psamnéwi, PwSymAWock (‘Swamp People’)
• Sahiyaiyeskabi, šahíya iyéskabina (‘Plains Cree-Speakers’, also known as Cree-Assiniboine / Young Dogs, built up from a number of bands of Plains Cree and Assiniboines, and later on an ever-growing number of joining Plains Ojibwe (Salteaux), which had in common that they lived and travelled in ethnically-mixed bands and camps and had switched to Plains Cree instead of their former mother tongue. Once political as Cree-Assiniboine / Young Dogs, part of the Downstream People of Plains Cree, today part of Little Black Bear First Nation, Piapot First Nation in Canada, and of the Landless Cree of the Fort Peck Assiniboine & Sioux Tribes and Landless Cree and Rocky Boy Cree of the Fort Belknap Indian Community. They identify today as Cree)
• Sihabi, Sihábi (‘Foot People’, also known as Foot Assiniboine, developed a separate identity as Wood Stoney-Nakoda - some as Mountain Stoney-Nakoda; as Wood Stoney-Nakoda once political part of the Beaver Hills Cree of the Upstream People of Plains Cree - today Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation and Paul First Nation, as Mountain Stoney-Nakoda they were part of the Rocky / Mountain Cree of Plains Cree - today's Wesley First Nation der Stoney Nakoda First Nation)
• Snugabi (‘Contrary People’)
• Sunkcebi, šųkcébina (‘Dog Band’, ‘Dog Penis Band’; once political part of the Calling River / Qu'Appelle Cree of Plains Cree - today part of White Bear First Nation, some part of Carry the Kettle Nakoda First Nation)
• Tanidabi, Tanį́debina, Tanin'tabin (‘Buffalo Hip’)
• Tokanbi, Toką́kna, Tokaribi (‘Strangers’)
• Tanzinapebina, Taminapebina (‘Owners of Sharp Knives’)
• Unskaha (‘Roamers’)
• Wadopabina, Wadópana (‘Canoe Paddlers’), the Cree called them Pimiskau Wi Iniwak - ‘paddling Assiniboines’, therefore in English often called Canoe Assiniboine, Paddling Assiniboine. Today one Assiniboine / Nakoda band of the Fort Peck Assiniboine & Sioux Tribes)
• Wadopahnatonwan, Wadópaȟna Tųwą, Wado Pahanda Tonwan (‘Canoe Paddlers Who Live on the Prairie’, split from the Wadopabina band to roam the plains, the European traders called them Watopachnato - Big Devils, because they were known as cunning traders and great warriors and horse thieves; today one Assiniboine / Nakoda band of the Fort Peck Assiniboine & Sioux Tribes and Fort Belknap Indian Community)
• Waką́hežabina, in English often called Little Girls Band and by the French as Gens des Feuilles; today one Assiniboine / Nakoda band of the Fort Peck Assiniboine & Sioux Tribes)
• Wasinazinyabi, Waci'azi hyabin (‘Fat Smokers’)
• Waziyamwincasta, Wazíyam Wįcášta, Waziya Winchasta, Wiyóhąbąm Nakóda (‘People of the North’; once political part of the Parklands Cree of the Upstream People of Plains Cree - today living on Indian reserve Mosquito#109 and known as Battleford Stoneys they are part of the Mosquito, Grizzly Bear's Head, Lean Man First Nations, some of them moved about 1839 into the USA and are today part of Nakoda / Assiniboine bands of the Fort Belknap Indian Community)
• Wiciyabina, Wichiyabina (‘Ones That Go to the Dance’, therefore often called for short Wįcį́jana - Girl Band; political once part of the Calling River / Qu'Appelle Cree of the Downstream People of Plains Cree - today one Assiniboine / Nakoda band of the Fort Peck Assiniboine & Sioux Tribes)
• Wokpanbi, Wókpąnbi (‘Meat Bag’)

Present day

Today, a substantial number of Assiniboine people live jointly with other tribes, like the Plains Cree, Saulteaux, Sioux and Gros Ventre, in several reservations in Canada and the United States. In Manitoba, the Assiniboine currently survive only as individuals, with no separate reserves.

Montana, United States

• Fort Peck (about 11,786 Hudesabina, Wadopabina, Wadopahnatonwan, Sahiyaiyeskabi, Inyantonwanbina and Fat Horse Band of the Assiniboine, Sisseton, Wahpeton, Yanktonai and Hunkpapa of the Sioux live together on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation near Fort Peck in NE Montana north of the Missouri River, ca. 8,518 km², Tribal Headquarters are located in Poplar, largest community on the reservation is the city of Wolf Point)
• Fort Belknap (of about 5,426 registered Assiniboine and Gros Ventre the majority live on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation – 505 of them off the reserve – in north central Montana, largest city is Fort Belknap Agency, ca. 2,626 km²)

In March 2012, these two reservations has received 63 American bison from Yellowstone National Park, to be released to a 2,100-acre game preserve 25 miles north of Poplar. There are many other bison herds outside Yellowstone, but this is one of the very few genetically pure ones, not cross-bred with cattle. Native Americans celebrated the move, which came over a century after bison were nearly wiped out by hunters and the government. The Assiniboine and Gros Ventre tribes at the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation will also receive a portion of this herd.

Saskatchewan, Canada

• Carry the Kettle Nakoda First Nation (the reserve Carry the Kettle Nakoda First Nation #76, also known as: 'Assiniboine #76', or Carry the Kettle #76-18,19,22, Treaty Four Reserve Grounds #77, includes ca. 350 km², in SE Saskatchewan, 80 km east of Regina and 18 km south of Sintaluta, of 2,387 registered Assiniboine only about 850 live on the reserve)
• Mosquito, Grizzly Bear's Head, Lean Man First Nations (also known as Battleford Stoneys) (includes the following reserves: Mosquito #109, Cold Eagle, Grizzly Bear`s Head #110 & Lean Man #111, Mosquito Grizzly Bear`s Head Lean Man Tle #1, Tribal Headquarters and Administration are 27 km south of Battleford, ca. 127 km², in 2003 there were about 1,119 registered Assiniboine)
• White Bear First Nation (reserves: White Bear #70 and Treaty Four Reserve Grounds #77 are located in SE corner of the Moose Mountain area of Saskatchewan, Tribal Headquarters are located 13 km north of Carlyle, ca. 172 km², about 1,990 Assiniboine, Saulteaux (Anishinaabe), Cree and Dakota)
• Ocean Man First Nation (reserves: Ocean Man #69, 69A-I, Treaty Four Reserve Grounds #77, Tribal Headquarters are located 19 km north of Stoughton, ca. 41 km², of 454 registered Assiniboine, Cree and Saulteaux (Anishinaabe) only 170 are living on reserve grounds)
• Pheasant Rump Nakota First Nation (reserve: Treaty Four Reserve Grounds #77, Tribal Headquarters are located in Kisbey, about 333 Assiniboine, Saulteaux (Anishinaabe) and Cree)

Namesakes

Canada Steamship Lines named one of their new ships the CSL Assiniboine.

Fort Assiniboine was a name given to a trading post opened in 1793 in Manitoba and in 1824 in Alberta

The Assiniboine River drains much of Saskatchewan and Manitoba into the Red River of the North, which in turn flows into the Arctic Ocean via Lake Winnipeg and the Nelson River.

Gallery

• 

  Two young Assiniboine boys.

• 

  A skin lodge of an Assiniboine chief.

• 

  Tomb platforms of Assiniboine in trees.

• 

  Assiniboine in Montana, 1890–1891.

• 

  An Assiniboine man named Cloud Man.

• 

  Assiniboine baby carrier.

• 

  Two Assiniboine warriors, painted by Karl Bodmer.

Notable Assiniboine people

• Hank Adams (b. 1943), indigenous rights activist
• Dolly Akers, Montana legislator
• Crazy Bear (Mah-To-Wit-Ko, 1785–1856), chief and negotiator
• Juanita Growing Thunder Fogarty (b. 1969), bead artist, quillworker, and regalia maker
• Roxy Gordon (1945–2000), poet, novelist, musician and activist
• Indigenous, Nakota blues band
• Georgia Wettlin Larsen, singer
• Wi-jún-jon (1796–1872), chief
• William S. Yellow Robe, Jr. (b. 1950), playwright, author, poet

See also

• Fort Peck Indian Reservation
• Fort Belknap Indian Reservation
• Wi-jún-jon
• Crazy Bear

Further reading

• Denig, Edwin Thompson, and J. N. B. Hewitt. The Assiniboine. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2000. ISBN 0-8061-3235-3
• Fort Belknap Curriculum Development Project. Assiniboine Memories Legends of the Nakota People. Harlem, Mont: Fort Belknap Education Dept, 1983.
• How the Summer Season Came And Other Assiniboine Indian Stories. Helena, Mont: Montana Historical Society Press, with the Fort Peck and Fort Belknap Tribes, 2003. ISBN 0-917298-94-2
• Kennedy, Dan, and James R. Stevens. Recollections of an Assiniboine Chief. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1972. ISBN 0-7710-4510-7
• Nighttraveller, Will, and Gerald Desnomie. Assiniboine Legends, Saskatoon: Saskatchewan Indian Cultural College, 1973.
• Nighttraveller, Will, and Gerald Desnomie. Assiniboine Legends, Saskatoon: Saskatchewan Indian Cultural College, 1973.
• Schilz, Thomas F. 1984. "Brandy and Beaver Pelts Assiniboine-European Trading Patterns, 1695–1805". Saskatchewan History. 37, no. 3.
• Writers' Program (Mont.), James Larpenteur Long, and Michael Stephen Kennedy. The Assiniboines From the Accounts of the Old Ones Told to First Boy (James Larpenter Long), The Civilization of the American Indian series. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1961.

External links

• Lewis & Clark Corps of Discovery encounters with Assiniboine
• "Assiniboine", Minnesota State University, Mankato emuseum
• Assiniboine Community College
• Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux History, University of Montana