The Assiniboin speak but one dialect, being radically the same as the Sioux; no other is incorporated in it, though some few can in addition speak Cree and others of the northern bands of Blackfeet, but no more than one interpreter is required in transacting any business with each or all of them. A person who can speak the Sioux language well could interpret for the Assiniboin, or vice versa.
There are many elderly persons capable of stating their traditions and willing to impart any information they are in possession of regarding their history; but what is heard from them in this respect is so mingled with fable and superstition as seldom to admit of its serving as a basis for truth or knowledge or for a correct representation of their past condition. They do not exhibit any chain of connected facts; and though these oral tales have been preserved entire, transmitted in their original form through successive generations, and may possibly have been the belief of their ancestors, yet at the present day are regarded more as a source of amusement than a medium of instruction or means of perpetuating their history. Too much error has been the result of depending for knowledge on these traditions by people who only understand them in their literal sense or have been badly interpreted. All facts among the nations with whom we profess an intimate acquaintance and minute knowledge farther than a century back are involved in obscurity, mingled with fable, or embodied in their superstitions.
The time when the tribe reached its present location was from 1804 to 1825, when the most of them might be considered as established on the waters of the Missouri, the boundaries of which have been pointed out, though in 1839, 60 lodges of Assiniboin came over from the British northern possessions and joined those of the Missouri, since which time they have resided together.
Intertribal Rank and Relations.—As to the question, what rank and relationship does the tribe bear to other tribes, we are not aware of any political scale of superiority or inferiority existing among any of the tribes along the Missouri; neither do their traditions point out or assign any such particular position to each other. Being well acquainted with the manners and customs of the Sioux, the Arikara, the Mandan, the Gros Ventres, the Crow, the Assiniboin, the Cree, and the Blackfeet tribes we can safely say that no such distinction exists that would receive the sanction of all parties. There is, however, this: Each nation has vanity enough to think itself superior to its neighbors, but all think the same, and the more ignorant they are the more obstinately they adhere to their own opinions. All tribes are pretty much independent of one another in their thoughts and actions, and, indeed with the exception of the Gros Ventres, the Mandan and the Arikara, who are stationary and live in a manner together, neighboring tribes usually are completely in the dark regarding one another’s government, not even knowing the names of the principal chiefs and warriors unless told them or recognizing them when pointed out. In all the above-mentioned tribes there is no such thing as pretensions to original rank. Rank is the growth of the present, as often acquired as lost. The greatest chief any of these tribes ever produced would become a mere toy, a butt, a ridicule, in a few days after he lost his eyes or sense of sight.
Neither has affinity of blood in this sense anything to do with rank as to succession. If the son for want of bravery or other qualifications can not equal or follow the steps of his father chief, he is nothing more than an ordinary Indian. There are consequently no discordant pretensions to original rank, though it may be a matter of dispute which of two or three chiefs ranks at present the highest, and in this case it would be immediately decided in council by the principal men. In fact the rank or standing of each Indian, be he chief or warrior, is so well known, and his character so well judged by the vox populi that he takes his place spontaneously. A higher step than his acts and past conduct confer, imprudently taken, would have the effect of injuring him in their eyes as a leader. Every chief, warrior, or brave carves his own way to fame, and if recognized as one by the general voice becomes popular and is supported; if not, he mixes with hundreds of others who are in the same situation, waiting an opportunity to rise. There is no relative rank among tribes bearing the name of uncle, grandfather, etc. The names of the different bands among themselves or the surrounding tribes have no such signification. There are, of course, affinities of blood and relationship among the Indians as well as among whites. People have their fathers, uncles, grandfathers, brothers-in-law, etc., but this personal or family relationship has nothing to do with the clanship, nor has it any bearing on other tribes. As to the relations above alluded to we will have occasion to refer to them under the head of tribal organization and government. Among eastern or southern tribes such distinctions may exist, but we can vouch they have no name nor interest in all the tribes mentioned in the beginning of this answer. To prevent misunderstanding, it should be observed that when we speak of a tribe we mean the whole group who speak that language. Different tribes are different groups. Portions of these groups or tribes are called gentes, and portions or societies of these gentes are designated as subgentes, and the next or most minute subdivision of gentes would be into families.
“Peaces” are made between wild tribes by the ceremony of smoking and exchanging presents of horses and other property; sometimes women. The advantages and disadvantages are well calculated on both sides before overtures for peace are made. It is a question of loss and gain and often takes years to accomplish. The Crows, a rich nation, five years ago, through the writer as the medium made peace with the Assiniboin after half a century of bloody warfare. Why? The Crows being a rich nation and the Assiniboin poor, how could the former gain? The points the Crows gained were these: First, liberty to hunt in the Assiniboin country unmolested and secure from the Blackfeet; second, two enemies less to contend with and from whom they need not guard their numerous herds of horses; third, the privilege of passing through the Assiniboin country to the Gros Ventres village in quest of corn. Now for the other party. The Crows having large herds of horses and the Assiniboin but few, the former give them a good many every year to preserve the peace. The Crows winter with the Assiniboin, run buffalo with their own horses, and give the latter plenty of meat and skins without the trouble of killing it. The Crows are superior warriors and the others have enough to contend with the Blackfeet. Again, one enemy less, and jointly the numerical force is so augmented as to make them formidable to all surrounding tribes, while separately they would prey upon each other. It is in this case evident the peace must last, there being sufficient inducements on both sides to keep it, although upon the whole any of their “peaces” are liable to sudden and violent interruptions and are not to be depended upon.
Magnitude and Resources of Territory a Cause of the Multiplication of Tribes.—There can be no doubt that magnitude and resources of territory are the principal causes of an increase of population. All roving tribes live by hunting, and scarcity of animals produces distress, famine, disease, and danger by forcing them to hunt in countries occupied by their enemies, when game is not found in their own. Such a state of things happened in this district in 1841, when during a total disappearance of buffalo and other game some of the Assiniboin and Cree were under the necessity of eating their own children, of leaving others to perish, and many men and women died from fatigue and exhaustion. Although the above position is evident, yet we do not see how it could multiply tribes, much less dialects. A large territory with much game might induce portions of other tribes not having these advantages to migrate, make peace with the residing nation, and perhaps increase in a greater ratio than they otherwise would have done, but the language would remain the same, neither would it produce a separate tribe, but only a portion of the tribe who migrated.
The Gros Ventres of the Prairie were once Arapaho and lived on the Arkansas. They have for a century past resided with the Blackfeet, yet have preserved their own language. True, by these means they learn to speak each other’s language, but they do not commingle and make a separate dialect of the two. The Assiniboin from the Sioux, the Cree from the Chippewa, the Crows from the Gros Ventres are three other cases of separation, and in each the language is so well preserved that they understand without any difficulty the people whence they emanated. The causes of these separations, whether feuds, family discords, or in quest of better hunting grounds, does not now appear. Most probably it was dissatisfaction of some sort. From all appearances we may reasonably expect to see ere long a portion of the Sioux occupying the large disputed territory south of the Missouri and along the Yellowstone, as game is becoming scarce in their district since white emigration through it and Indians are thronging there from St. Peters and elsewhere.
The Sioux regard the Mississippi as once their home, and it is very certain that nation came from thence, also the Cree and Assiniboin, and perhaps others. It does not appear that the track of migration pursued any direct course. From certain facts, similitude of language and customs, it would seem some nations traveled from south to north or northwest, such as the Gros Ventres of the Prairie who were once Arapaho. The Arikara speak the same as the Pawnee and must have migrated westward. The Blackfeet moved from north to southwest, and the Crows, Cree, and Assiniboin west and north. It is reasonable to believe they spread out over these immense plains from all points and at different times as circumstances favored or forced them. The habits of the prairie Indian differ essentially from the Indian of the forest, and those of stationary and cultivating habits from both. It is impossible for us now to state with any degree of certainty the time of their first location on these plains, or to point out any one general course of emigration pursued by them.