INDIAN TRIBES OF THE UPPER MISSOURI
By Edwin T. Denig
THE ASSINIBOIN[2]
History
Origin.—But little traditionary can be stated by these Indians as authentic of their origin which would be entitled to record in history, though many singular and fabulous tales are told concerning it. As a portion of people, however, once inhabiting another district and being incorporated with another nation, their history presents a connected and credible chain of circumstances. The Assiniboin were once a part of the great Sioux or Dacotah Nation, residing on the tributary streams of the Mississippi; say, the head of the Des Moines, St. Peters, and other rivers. This is evident, as their language with but little variation is the same, and also but a few years back there lived a very old chief, known to all of us as Le Gros François, though his Indian name was Wah-he´ Muzza or the “Iron Arrow-point,” who recollected perfectly the time of their separation from the Sioux, which, according to his data, must have been about the year 1760.[3] He stated that when Lewis and Clark came up the Missouri in 1805 his band of about 60 lodges (called Les Gens des Roches) had after a severe war made peace with the Sioux, who at that time resided on the Missouri, and that he saw the expedition referred to near White Earth River, these being the first body of whites ever seen by them, although they were accustomed to be dealt with by the fur traders of the Mississippi. After their first separation from the Sioux they moved northward, making a peace with the Cree and Chippewa, took possession of an uninhabited country on or near the Saskatchewan and Assiniboin Rivers, in which district some 250 or 300 lodges still reside. Some time after the expedition of Lewis and Clark, or at least after the year 1777, the rest of the Assiniboin, at that time about 1,200 lodges, migrated toward the Missouri, and as soon as they found superior advantages regarding game and trade, made the latter country their home. One principal incident in their history which they have every reason to remember and by which many of the foregoing data are ascertained is a visitation of the smallpox in 1780 (see Mackenzie’s travels), when they occupied the British territory. Even yet there are two or three Indians living who are marked by the disease of that period and which greatly thinned their population, though owing to their being separated through an immense district, some bands entirely escaped. Upon the whole it does not appear to have been as destructive as the same disease on the Missouri in 1838, which I will have occasion to mention in its proper place in these pages and which reduced them from 1,200 lodges to about 400 lodges.
Name and Geographical Position.—The name of the Assiniboin among themselves is Da-co-tah, same as the Sioux, which means “our people.” By the Sioux they are called Ho´-hai or “Fish-eaters,” perhaps from the fact that they lived principally on fish while on the British grounds, as most of those Indians do. By the Cree and Chippewa they are called As-see-nee-poi-tuc or Stone Indians; hence the English name of Assiniboin arises. As has been stated, at the earliest date known they roved about the head of St. Peters, Des Moines, Lac du Diable, and Lac qui Parle; and they were then joined with the Sioux Indians, who inhabited and claimed all the lands between the Mississippi and the Missouri as low down as Big Sioux River and as high up as the head of Rivier à Jacques, thence northward toward Lac du Diable, other bands of Sioux (Teton) residing west of the Missouri. The number of Assiniboin when they separated must have been at least 1,500 lodges, averaging six souls to a lodge [or about 9,000 persons]. Their migration has been referred to and the extent of land they occupied in the British territory on the Saskatchewan, etc., was very large, but at present their habitat is entirely different, and it may be as well to state it here. The northern Assiniboin, 250 or 300 lodges, rove the country from the west banks of the Saskatchewan, Assiniboin, and Red Rivers in a westward direction to the Woody Mountains north and west among small spurs of the Rocky Mountains east of the Missouri, and among chains of small lakes through this immense region. Occasionally making peace with some of the northern bands of Blackfeet enables them to come a little farther west and deal with those Indians, but, these “peaces” being of short duration, they are for the most part limited to the prairies east and north of the Blackfeet range. The rest of the Assiniboin, say 500 to 520 lodges [who may be called the Southern Assiniboin], occupy the following district, viz., commencing at the mouth of the White Earth River on the east, extending up that river to its head, thence northwest along the Couteau de Prairie, or Divide, as far as the Cyprus Mountains on the North Fork of the Milk River, thence down Milk River to its junction with the Missouri River, thence down the Missouri River to the mouth of White Earth River, or the starting point. Formerly they inhabited a portion of country on the south side of the Missouri River along the Yellowstone River, but of late years, having met with great losses by Blackfeet, Sioux, and Crow war parties, they have been obliged to abandon this region and now they never go there. As before remarked, the Assiniboin still numbered 1,000 to 1,200 lodges, trading on the Missouri until the year 1838, when the smallpox reduced their numbers to less than 400 lodges. Also, being surrounded by large and hostile tribes, war has had its share in their destruction, though now they are increasing slowly.
Ancient and Modern Habitat.—Before proceeding further it would be well to state and bear in mind that of all the Indians now residing on the Missouri River the Assiniboin appear to have made the least progress toward acquiring civilized ideas or knowledge of any kind. Superstitious, lazy, and indisposed to thought, they make no attempt to improve themselves in any way. Neither are they anxious that others should teach them; consequently they are far behind the other tribes even as regards their own savage manner of life. This will receive further explanation. They do not think the Great Spirit created them on or for a particular portion of country, but that he made the whole prairie for the sole use of the Indian, and the Indian to suit the prairie, giving among other reasons the fact that the buffalo is so well adapted to their wants as to meat and clothing, even for their lodges and bowstrings. To the Indian is allotted legs to run, eyes to see far, bravery, instinct, watchfulness, and other capacities not developed in the same degree in the whites. The Indian, therefore, occupies any section of prairie where game is plentiful and he can protect himself from enemies. With regard to any other kind of right than that of possession and ability to defend, besides the general right granted by the Great Spirit, they have not the most distant idea. The Assiniboin conquered nothing to come into possession of their habitat, they had their difficulties with surrounding tribes and still have, as others have, and continue as they commenced, fighting and hunting alternately. Their first interview with Europeans (now spoken of) was when the traders of the Mississippi pushed their traffic as far as their camps, and from whom they obtained firearms, woolen clothing, utensils, etc. Afterwards these supplies were had from the Hudson Bay Co. and, latterly, from the Americans on the Missouri River. There is every reason to believe that the introduction of ardent spirits among them was coeval, if not antecedent, to that of any other article of trade. Before the trade was opened with them by the whites they say they used knives made of the hump rib of the buffalo, hatchets made of flint stone, mallets of the same, cooking utensils of clay and wood, bones for awls, and sinew for thread, all of which articles can yet be found among them. They made with these rude tools their bows and arrows, pointing the latter with stone, and, as game was abundant, hunted them on foot or threw them into pens built for the purpose, which method they continue to use to this day. In this way they had no difficulty in supporting themselves, and so contend that they have gained nothing by intimacy with the whites but diseases which kill them off in numbers and wants which they are unable at all times to gratify. They have never sold lands by treaty, and the only treaty (with the exception of that at Laramie, 1851) was made by them through an Indian agent of the United States named Wilson, at the Mandan village in 1825. But this was merely an amicable alliance for the protection of American traders and an inducement held out to the Indians to leave off trading at the Hudson Bay Co.‘s posts and establish themselves on the Missouri, without, however, any remuneration on the part of the United States.
Vestiges of Early Tradition.—They have no creditable tradition of the Mosaic account of the creation or deluge, neither of their ancestors having lived in other lands nor knowledge of foreign quadrupeds nor any idea of whites or other races occupying the country before the Indians. It is easy to perceive in converse with them that whites have from time to time endeavored to explain the Mosaic account of the creation and deluge, together with other scriptural records, but instead of comprehending the same they have mixed with their own superstitions and childish notions in so many various and nonsensical forms that none is worthy of record.
They have no name for America, neither do they know of its extent, for the most part believing that the lands occupied by themselves and the surrounding tribes compose the greatest part of the world, and certainly contain the greatest reputed number of people. It vexes and grieves them to be told of large tracts of land elsewhere, and they do not or will not believe the whites to be as human as they are.
There is nothing in this subject any Assiniboin could either comprehend or answer, except that there is a mound about 50 miles above the mouth of the Yellowstone on the west side and near the Missouri consisting of an immense pile of elk horns, covering an area of about an acre of ground, and in height about 30 feet. We have frequently inquired of these and the surrounding nations as to its origin, but it was raised previous to the knowledge or even tradition of any tribe now living in these parts. From the state of decay the horns are in it must be very ancient.