Assiniboine people
 |
| Full Moon, an Assiniboine woman |
| Total population |
|---|
| 35,000[1] |
| Regions with significant populations |
 Canada ( Saskatchewan) United States ( Montana) |
| Languages |
| Religion |
|
traditional tribal religion, Sun Dance, |
| Related ethnic groups |
The Assiniboine or Assiniboin people (pron.: /əˈsɪnɨbɔɪnz/; 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 Siouan Native American/First Nations people originally from the Northern Great Plains of the United States and Canada. Today, they are center in present-day Saskatchewan 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.
Contents |
Language [edit]
Assiniboine is a Mississippi Valley Siouan language, in the Western Siouan language family. About 150 people today speak the Assiniboine language[1] 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 Nakóda, a distant, but not mutually intelligible, variant of the Sioux language.[2]
Related peoples [edit]
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[3] 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.
Lifestyle [edit]
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
Names [edit]
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 see this as a confusion between "-boine" and French "bouillir", to boil[4]
Subgroups [edit]
- Aegitina (‘Camp Moves to the Kill’)
- Bizebina (‘Gophers’)
- Cepahubi (‘Large Organs’)
- Canhdada (‘Moldy People’)
- Canhewincasta (‘Wooded-Mountain People’ or ‘Wood Mountain People’ - ‘People Who live around Wood Mountain’)
- Canknuhabi (‘Ones That Carry Their Wood’)
- Hudesabina (‘Red Bottom’ or ‘Red Root’, split off from the Wadopabina in 1844)
- Hebina (Ye Xa Yabine, ‘Rock Mountain People’, often called Strong Wood or Thickwood Assiniboine, later a core band of the Mountain Stoney-Nakoda)
- Huhumasmibi (‘Bone Cleaners’)
- Huhuganebabi (‘Bone Chippers’)
- Hen atonwaabina (‘Little Rock Mountain People’)
- Inyantonwanbina (‘Stone People’ or ‘Rock People’, later known as Nakoda (Stoney))
- Inninaonbi (‘Quiet People’)
- Insaombi (‘The Ones Who Stay Alone’, also known as Cypress Hills Assiniboine[5])
- Indogahwincasta (‘East People’)
- Minisose Swnkeebi (‘Missouri River Dog Band’)
- Minisatonwanbi (‘Red Water People’)
- Osnibi (‘People of the Cold’)
- Ptegabina (‘Swamp People’)
- Sunkcebi (‘Dog Band’)
- Sahiyaiyeskabi (‘Plains Cree-Speakers’, also known as Cree-Assiniboine / Young Dogs)
- Snugabi (‘Contrary People’)
- Sihabi (‘Foot People’)
- Tanidabi (‘Buffalo Hip’)
- Tokanbi (‘Strangers’)
- Tanzinapebina (‘Owners of Sharp Knives’)
- Unskaha (‘Roamers’)
- Wadopabina (‘Canoe Paddlers’)
- Wadopahnatonwan (‘Canoe Paddlerrs Who Live on the Prairie’)
- Wiciyabina (‘Ones That Go to the Dance’)
- Waziyamwincasta (‘People of the North’)
- Wasinazinyabi (‘Fat Smokers’)
- Wokpanbi (‘Meat Bag’)[6]
Present day [edit]
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 [edit]
- Fort Peck Tribes (about 11,786 Hudesabina, Wadopabina, Wadopahnatonwan, Sahiyaiyeskabi, Inyantonwanbina and Fat Horse Band of the Assiniboine,[7] 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)[8]
- Fort Belknap Indian Community (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)[9]
Saskatchewan, Canada [edit]
- Carry the Kettle Nakoda First Nation (the reserve Carry the Kettle Nakoda First Nation #76, including the adjacent reserves Assiniboine #76, 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)[10]
- 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)[11]
- 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)[12]
- 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 (Anishinabe) only 170 are living on reserve grounds)[13]
- Pheasant Rump Nakota First Nation (reserve: Treaty Four Reserve Grounds #77, Tribal Headquarters are located in Kisby, about 333 Assiniboine, Salteaux (Anishinabe) and Cree)[14]
Namesakes [edit]
Canada Steamship Lines named one of their new ships the CSL Assiniboine.[15]
Gallery [edit]
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Two young Assiniboine boys.
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A skin lodge of an Assiniboine chief.
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Tomb platforms of Assiniboine in trees.
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Assiniboine in Montana, 1890-1891.
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An Assiniboine man named Cloud Man.
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Assiniboine baby carrier.
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Two Assiniboine warriors, painted by Karl Bodmer.
,_c._1885_-_Royal_Ontario_Museum_-_DSC00283.JPG)
Notable Assiniboine people [edit]
- Hank Adams (b. 1943), indigenous rights activist
- 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
- Georgia Wettlin Larsen, singer
- Wi-jún-jon (1796–1872), chief
- William S. Yellow Robe, Jr. (b. 1950), playwright, author, poet
See also [edit]
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Assiniboine |
Notes [edit]
- ^ a b c "Assiniboine." Ethnologue. Retrieved 30 March 2013.
- ^ Ullrich, Jan (2008). New Lakota Dictionary (Incorporating the Dakota Dialects of Yankton-Yanktonai and Santee-Sisseton). Lakota Language Consortium. pp. 2–6. ISBN 0-9761082-9-1.
- ^ for a report on the long-established blunder of misnaming “Nakota” the Yanktonai people, see the article Nakota
- ^ George Bryce, Trans. Roy. Soc. Canada, Section II, 1892
- ^ POLITICAL STRUCTURE AND STATUS AMONG THE ASSINIBOINE INDIANS
- ^ James L. Long, William Standing: Land of Nakoda: The Story of the Assiniboine Indians, Riverbend Publishing 2004, ISBN 978-1-931832-35-9
- ^ History of the Fort Peck Reservation
- ^ Fort Peck Tribes
- ^ Fort Belknap Indian Community
- ^ Carry the Kettle First Nation
- ^ FIRST NATION CONNECTIVITY PROFILE - 2003
- ^ White Bear First Nation
- ^ Ocean Man First Nation
- ^ Pheasant Rump Nakota Nation
- ^ Great Lakes and Seaway Shipping (2005). "CSL Assiniboine". Retrieved 2007-05-02.
Further reading [edit]
- 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.
