ASSINIBOINE

The Assiniboine speak a Siouan dialect. Their name, pronounced uh-SIN-uh-boin, is from the CHIPPEWA (OJIBWAY) dialect of the Algonquian language and means “those who cook with stones.” This refers to stone-boiling, the practice of heating stones directly in a fire then placing them in water to make it boil for cooking. British explorers and traders also used the name Stoney for the tribe; it is still applied in Canada.

The Assiniboine lived as one people with the SIOUX (DAKOTA, LAKOTA, NAKOTA) in the Lake Superior region of what is now northern Minnesota and southwestern Ontario. The Assiniboine probably split off from the Sioux in the 1600s. They migrated westward onto the northern plains, first settling west of Lake Winnipeg in what is now the province of Manitoba. Some bands later moved farther west to the banks of the Assiniboine and Saskatchewan Rivers in what is now Saskatchewan. (The southern part of Saskatchewan was once known as Assiniboia.) The Assiniboine also lived at times in territory that is now Montana and North Dakota.

By the time non-Indians encountered them, the Assiniboine did not live in permanent villages. Rather, they were nomadic hunter-gatherers, moving their tipis when necessary to find more food. After they had acquired horses through trade with other Native Americans, they ranged over greater expanses in search of buffalo and wild plant foods. Some of the more northerly bands pursued moose, bear, beaver, and porcupine in the northern evergreen forests bordering the plains. The Assiniboine sometimes traded their meat and pelts with farming tribes for agricultural products. In postcontact times, the Assiniboine also bartered their furs with both the French and English in exchange for guns and other European trade goods.

Because of their typical Great Plains way of life, the Assiniboine are classified as PLAINS INDIANS. Like other tribes who became hunters on the plains, the Assiniboine gave up making pottery, which was too heavy and fragile on the trail. They instead began using buffalo-hide bags.

The Sun god and Thunder god were the most important manifestations of the Great Spirit for the Assini-boine. Like many Plains Indians, they participated in the Sun Dance. They also took guidance from personal visions, a practice known as the Vision Quest.

For part of their history, the Assiniboine were allied with the CREE (the Plains Cree) against the BLACKFEET and the Sioux. In a well-known incident, traditional tribal enemies became lifelong friends. In 1857, a group of Sioux warriors attacked a party of Assiniboine. Among the Sioux was Sitting Bull, who would later become one of the most famous of Indian leaders in the wars against the U. S. government for the plains. There was an 11-year-old boy among the Assiniboine named Jumping Bull. The young boy did not flee from the attacking Sioux but fought with his childsized bow. When Sioux warriors threatened to kill Jumping Bull, Sitting Bull ran in front of the youth and proclaimed, “This boy is too brave to die! I take him as my brother.”

Assiniboine shield with attached medicine bundle

Jumping Bull died along with Sitting Bull in 1890, trying to defend him.

Some Assiniboine worked as scouts for government forces. In 1885, Assiniboine scouts helped the Canadian North West Field Force track down renegade Cree who were participating in the Second Riel Rebellion of METIS.

In the 1870s, different bands of Assiniboine were settled on reservations in both the United States and

Canada. In Montana, the Assiniboine now share the Fort Belknap Reservation with the GROS VENTRE (atSINA), and the Fort Peck Reservation with the Sioux. In 2000, the Fort Peck Comprehensive Code of Justice was formulated to determine territory, government structure, and business transactions on the reservation. In Canada, Assiniboine bands hold a number of tracts of land in Saskatchewan and Alberta, some of which they share with the Sioux, Cree, and Chippewa.