The Assiniboine or Assiniboin people ( when
singular, Assiniboines / Assiniboins when plural; Ojibwe: Asiniibwaan, "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 First Nations/Native American people originally
from the Northern Great Plains of North America. Today, they are centred in
present-day Saskatchewan. They have also populated parts of Alberta and southwestern Manitoba in
Canada, and nort
hern Montana and western North Dakota in the United States. They were
well known throughout much of the late 18th and early 19th century, and were members
of the Iron Confederacy with the Cree. Images of Assiniboine people were painted by 19th-century
artists such as Karl Bodmer and George Catlin. The Europeans and Americans adopted names that
other tribes used for the Assiniboine; they did not until later learn the tribe's autonym, their
name for themselves. In Siouan, they traditionally c
alled themselves the Hohe Nakota. With the
widespread adoption of English, however, many now use the name that became common in English. The
English adopted Assiniboine, used by the Canadian French colonists. It was a transliteration into
French phonetics of what they heard the Ojibwe use as a term for these western people.
The Ojibwe name is asinii-bwaan (stone Sioux). The word Assiniboine has its origin as
follows: They are an offspring of the Sioux, In the war of 1812 a number of these S
ioux
fought against a number of Chippewas, and took a good many of the latter prisoners.
They tied these prisoners to a stake upon a large rock and burned them to death. Since
that time they have been called Assini Boines, which, in the Chippewa language, means burnt rock. 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 believed that the name
was de
rived from the Ojibway term assin, stone, and the French bouillir, to boil,
but such an etymology is very unlikely. The Assiniboine, along with the Stoney of Alberta,
share a common ancestry with the Sioux nation. While it was formerly believed that the
Assiniboine originated among the Yanktonai division of the Dakota Sioux, linguistic
analysis indicates that the Assiniboine and Stoney together form a group coordinate with
that of the Santee,Lakota, and Yankon-Yanktonai, and that they are n
o more related to one
of these subdivisions than another. The separation of the Assiniboine from the Sioux must
have occurred at some time prior to 1640, as Paul Le Jeune names them along with the "Naduessi"
(Sioux) in his Jesuit Relations of that year. The Assiniboine and Sioux were both gradually
pushed westward onto the plains from the woodlands of Minnesota by the Ojibwe, who had acquired
firearms from their French allies. Later, the Assiniboine acquired horses via
raiding and trading
with neighboring tribes of Plains Indians such as the
Crow and the Sioux on their south. The Assiniboine eventually developed into a
large and powerful people with a horse and warrior culture, they used the horse to hunt
the vast numbers of bison that lived within and outside their territory. At the height of
their power,the Assiniboine dominated territory ranging from the North Saskatchewan River in
the north to the Missouri River in the south, and including portions of modern-day
Saskatc
hewan, Alberta, and Manitoba, Canada; and North Dakota and
Montana, United States of America. 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 to 1755", and Alexander Henry the younger "1800s" confirmed
that the Assiniboine held a vast territory across the northern plains, including into the
United
States (which achieved independence in 1776 but did not acquire the plains until
1803 in the Louisiana Purchase from France.) The Assiniboine became reliable and important
trading partners and middlemen for fur traders and other Indians, particularly the British Hudson's
Bay Company and North West Company, operating in western Canada in a vast area known then
as Rupert's Land. During the later 18th century and early 19th century,south of the border
in what became Montana and the Dakota terr
itories, 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 resulted
in Native Americans contracting Eurasian infectious diseases that were endemic among
the Europeans. They suffered epidemics with high mortality, most notably smallpox among
the Assiniboine. The Assiniboine population crashed from around 10,000 people in the
late 18th century to around 2600 by 1890. The Lewis and Clark Expedition was mounted by
the United States in 1804 to1806 to explore the Louisiana Territory, newly acquired from
France. The expedition's journals mention the Assiniboine, whom the party heard about while
returning from Fort Clatsop down the Missouri River
. These explorers did not encounter
or come in direct contact with the tribe. Noted European and American painters
traveled with traders, explorers, and expeditions for the opportunity
to paint the West and its Native American peoples. Among those
who encountered and painted the Assiniboine from life were painters Karl
Bodmer, Paul Kane, and George Catlin. The Assiniboine signed the Treaty
of Fort Laramie (1851). In 1885, some Assiniboine scouts aided the
Canadian North West Field Force t
rack down Cree renegades who were participating
in the Second Riel Rebellion of Métis. In 1857, a group of Sioux warriors,
including Sitting Bull, attacked an Assiniboine camp, they had killed all except
an 11-year-old boy who was still fighting against the raiders with his child-sized bow.
Some Sioux warriors threatened to kill him, but before they could, he turned to Sitting
Bull and wrapped his arms around his waist and said "please brother don't kill me!".
Sitting Bull stopped his warr
iors and said, "This boy is too brave to die! I take him as my
brother." While living with the Lakota they gave him the name Little Assiniboine and later changed
it to Stays Back, because of his unwillingness to return to the Assiniboine. Sitting Bull later
changed it to Jumping Bull after his father, who had been dealing with a toothache throughout
the day when a war party of Crows attacked them, jumped on his horse chasing after the raiders
and was killed by a Crow Chief. Sitting Bull was
not in camp and upon his return learned
of his fathers fate. In his anger he went after the Crows and killed their Chief,
when he returned he pointed at Stays Back and said "from now on your name is Jumping
Bull!". Jumping Bull stayed loyal to Sitting Bull and later died alongside him at Standing
Rock in 1890 while attempting to defend him. The Assiniboine were a major part of an alliance
of northern Plains Indian nations known as the Iron Confederacy,or Nēhiyaw-Pwat, as it is known
in Pl
ains Cree, beginning prior to 1692 until the late nineteenth century. The Iron Confederacy
were allies in the fur trade, particularly with the Hudson's Bay Company. The Assiniboine and the
Cree being important intermediaries in the Great Plains trading networks. Members included the
Assiniboine,Stoney, the Plains and Woodland Cree, Saulteaux, as well as Métis, and
individual Iroquois people who traveled west as employees for the fur traders. Loosely associated
for military shelter against t
he Blackfoot and to ensure safe access, to the prairies for the
bison hunt were Plateau tribes such as Bitterroot Salish, Kutenai, Sekani, Secwepemc, and Nez
Perce. Other Indian peoples on the northern plains, such as the Gros Ventre, were
occasionally part of the confederacy. The confederacy became the dominant force
on the northern plains. It posed a major threat to Indian nations not associated
with it, such as the Shoshone and Crow further south. Their most mighty and most
dangerous en
emy, however, were their former trading partner the Blackfoot Confederacy.
The kindred Sioux peoples and their allies, the Arapaho and Cheyenne, were also
enemies. The Iron Confederacy also attacked European-American settlements on
the Plains. The eventual decline of the fur trade and overhunting of the bison herds by
Canadian and American hunters, which destroyed the Confederacy nations' most important food
source, led to the defeat and breaking up of the confederacy. It engaged in militar
y action
with Canada during the North-West Rebellion. Traditionally the Assiniboine were
semi-nomadic people. During the warmer months, they followed and hunted the herds
of plains bison. Women, as life-givers, have had primary responsibility for the survival
and welfare of the families (and future of the tribe). Women usually gathered and cultivated
plants,used plants and herbs to treat illnesses, cared for the young and the elderly,
made all the clothing and instruments, and processed an
d cured meat and skins
from the game. The women processed and preserved the meat for winter, and used
hides, tendons, and horns for clothing, bedding, tools, cord and other items. Every
part of the animal was used by the people. The men hunted, traded and made war 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. Assiniboine, Stoney (as well as Lakota and
Dakota) girls w
ere encouraged to learn to ride, hunt and fight. Though fighting in war
has mostly been left to the boys and men, occasionally women have fought
as well – both in battles and in defense of the home – especially if
the tribe was severely threatened. They worked with the Mandan, Hidatsa,
and Arikara tribes. The Sun god and Thunder god were considered
the most important manifestations of the Great Spirit. The Assiniboine people participated
in the sun dance like other Plains Native peoples. T
hey also took guidance from
personal visions in vision quests. The figure of Iktome from the Assiniboine creation
myth is one of the most famous creator-trickster characters of Native American mythology. In the
myth Ikotme sends some animals searching to find land beneath the depths of the primeval
sea. This is an "earth-diver" style of creation myth resembling similar stories
of the Anishinabe and Ojibwe peoples. The only animal who succeeds is the muskrat who
floats to the surface dead.
Ikotme uses the earth the muskrat was clutching in his dead
hands to create land. Unlike other creators, Ikotme is amoral. Ikotme kills a frog
who challenges his plans to create an endless winter but eventually yields and
shortens the length to seven months. He creates horses and humans out of dirt and
teaches the Assinibone how to steal horses. Some of the elements in modern versions of the
myth include elements that are later additions such as the presence of horses which were
introduced
to North America by the Spanish.
Comments