The following material is a mock-up of a tentative OED entry ASSINIBOINE. The published entry may differ in many respects from the one presented here.

Drafted by Alan H. Hartley 


Assiniboine (snbon), n. & a. Forms: a. 16 Asinipour. 16 Asenipoete, 16 Assinaepoet,16-17 (19) Senipoett, 17 Sin(n)epoet, Seni-Poit, Sineapoit, Assinney Poet, Assinne(e) Poet, Assinipoiet, 18 Assinepoet . 16 Assenipoulac, 17 Assinipoual, Assinibouel, Asnibboil, Assinipoil, Assiniboil, 18 Osinipoil. 17 Asniboin, 18 Asseenaboine, Assineboin, Essinaboin, Assinaboin, 18- Assin(n)iboin(e). Pl. unchanged or with -s. [< Canad. Fr. Assiniboine < Ojibwa assini:-pwa:n lit. 'stone Sioux' < Proto-Algonquian *a?seny-i 'stone' + *pwa:Ta 'enemy, Sioux'. The 'stone' reference may be to the Rocky Mountains (Ojibway assini:waciw,Cree asini:waciy lit. 'stone mountains'); and see quots. 1691 and 1805. Forms a. (in -r) and c. (in -l) show varying Old Ojibway reflexes of PA *-T, while forms b. (in -t) show the Cree reflex, and forms d. (in -n) have the modern Ojibway reflex. Forms in -k or -c have the Algonquian animate plural ending. Cf. *STONE {new sense}; stone-boiler s.v. STONE n. 20a; *STONEY {new entry} n.2]

a. (A member of) an originally nomadic Native American people residing at first Euro-American contact in Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan, and now principally in northeastern Montana and southern Saskatchewan, where they subsisted primarily on buffalo and engaged in almost constant conflict with other Sioux groups. b. A language of the Dakotan group of the Siouan family. Also attrib. or as adj.

a. [1669-70 Jesuit Relations (1896-1901) LIV. 192 Les Assinipoüars qui ont quasi la mesme langue que les Nadoüessi, sont vers l'Oüest de la Mission du S. Esprit.] 1684 P. E. RADISSON Voyages (1943) 246 The names of the Nations that live in the North...Asinipour [et al.]

b.1684 P. E. RADISSON Voyages (1943) 347 The chief of the Asenipoetes disposed himself to march against the English. 1690 Hudson's Bay Company Letter Book in A. G. Doughty & C. Martin Kelsey Papers (1929) xxv, This summer I sent up Henry Kelsey..up into the Country of the ASSINAEPOETS with the Captain of this Nation. [1691 in E. Rich Fur Trade (1967) 70-5 Mountain Poets.] 1716 in A. RAY Indians in the Fur Trade (1974) 19 There has been all those Indians as they call them Sinnepoets Destroyed. 1729 Ibid. 14 The..Poetts [Sioux] had Destroyed most of our Senipoetts by the Instigation of the french. 1730 in Letters from Hudson's Bay (Publ. Hudson's Bay Record Soc. XXV, 1965) 149 I..design to order two tribes of the Port Nelson Indians to go down to Churchill next summer, likewise some Seni-Poits. 1743 J. ISHAM Obs. Hudson's Bay 36 Stone Indian or sine poet Language. Ibid. 44 1758 in A. RAY Indians in the Fur Trade (1974) 42 Want wbn and camt to twenty teantes of the Sineapoits and there was a pound as the[y] maed to kill the boffles in. 1774 S. HEARNE Jrnl. (1934) 99 Met 4 Cannoes of Assinney Poets going to the Fort with Trade. 1776 in J. B. Tyrrell Jrnls. Hearne & Turnor (1934) 39 Several of the Assinnee Poet Indians from Sacketakow Wachy [i.e.] Thick woody Mountain..have been here this winter. 1790 E. UMFREVILLE Present State of Hudson's Bay 178 Those Indians from whom the Peltries are obtained are known to us by the following names, viz. The Ne-heth-a-wa Indians. The Assinne-poetuc Indians. The Fall Indians. The Sussee Indians. The Black-feet Indians. The Paegan Indians. The Blood Indians. 1798 in A. M. Johnson ed. Saskatchewan Jrnls. (Edmonton House & Chesterfield House) (Hudson's Bay Record Soc. Publ. XXVI, 1967) 151 Two Assinipoiet Indians arrived with a few furs to trade. c1850 D. THOMPSON Narr. (1962) 40 The Indians who traded at these houses were of the tribes of Nahathaways and Stone Indians called Assine poetwak, or people of stony lands. 1974 A. RAY Indians in the Fur Trade 53 The Stone Indians were Assiniboine, and were also identified as the Northern Sinepoetts (Woodland Assiniboine) and Southern Sinepoetts (Parkland-Grassland Assiniboine).

g. [c1658 R. G. Thwaites Jesuit Relations (1896-1901) XLIV. 248 Assinipoualak.] 1698 L. HENNEPIN New Discovery (1903) I. 267 The Nation of the Assenipoulaks..who lie North-East of the Issati. c1720 H. MOLL Map N. Amer. in A. L. Humphreys Antique Maps (1989) 174 The Bogs Morasses & Lakes of the Assinipovals. [1736 in Bull. Recherches HistoriquesXXXIV. (1928) 545 Les Assenipoëls ou Pouans.] 1742 J. LA FRANCE New Map N. Amer. Assinibouels of the Meadows. 1767 J. CARVER Jrnls. (1976) 100 These bands of the Naudowessee...hold continual wars with..the Asnibboils. c1768 J. CARVER Travels N. Amer. (1781) 80 The Naudowessie nation, when united, consists of more than two thousand warriors. The Assinipoils, who revolted from them, amount to about three hundred. c1797 J. MCDONNELLRed River in W. R. Wood & T. D. Thiessen Early Fur Trade (1985) 90 This ridiculous custom [a hair-style] is not peculiar to the Assiniboils, or Assiniboit, as the Crees call them. 1809 A. HENRY Travels (1901) 277 The Indians..immediately to the southward, are called Osinipoilles, or Assiniboins. Ibid. 305 By language, the Osinipoilles are allied to the Nadowessies; but, they are always at war with them.

d. [1722 in F. Hodge Hdbk. Indians North of Mexico I. (1907) 104 Assinibouane.] 1766 J. CARVER Jrnls. (1976) 72 To the norwest even as far as Lake Winipeek in the country of the Christenous and Asniboines. 1804-5 W. CLARK Jrnls. Lewis & Clark Exped. III. (1987) 426 A Defensive War with the Sioux & Assinniboins. 1805 J. WHITEHOUSE Jrnls. Lewis & Clark Exped. XI. (1997) 119 The osnaboins... This nation live near the rockey mountains. 1809 see c quot. 1823 J. FRANKLIN Journey Polar Sea 107 The Asseenaboine, termed by the Crees Asseeneepoytuck, or Stone Indians, are a tribe of Sioux. 1830 E. James Narr. John Tanner (1956) 132 I had been at home but a short time when I heard that the Assinneboins had boasted of taking my horse. 1853 H. R. SCHOOLCRAFTIndian Tribes III. 539 The Assinaboins separated from the Dacotahs at a time unknown. 1855 Repts. Railroad to the Pacific (33rd Cong., 2d sess., Senate Exec. Doc. 78) I. 148 The Assiniboins, east of the Blackfoot nation, have been steadily improving in character since the treaty of Laramie. Ibid. I met the Assiniboins in council at a large camp about one hundred and fifteen miles east of Fort Union...They complained of their hunting-ground being restricted by the Red river half-breeds. 1860 E. DOMENECH Deserts N. Amer. II. 9 The name of Assinniboins, or boilers of stones, was given to them on account of the extraordinary mode of boiling meat. They dig a hole in the ground, and place in it a piece of buffalo-leather, which they fill with water and meat; they then heat stones, which they throw into the water to make it boil. 1891 J. W. POWELL Indian ling. Families 115 Assinaboin (Hohe, Dakota name); most in British North America; some on Fort Peck Reservation, Montana. 1907 F. Hodge Hdbk. Indians North of Mexico I. (1907) 104 The only Assiniboin village mentioned in print is Pasquayah. 1973 Curr. Trends Ling. X. 1179 Edward Umfreville, an 18th century fur trader, provided a short wordlist of Assiniboine. 1996 Hdbk. N. Amer. Indians XVII. 276 Also generally proficient and avid sign users were the Assiniboines, Northern Arapahoes, and Crees. Ibid. 441 Speakers of the Assiniboine and Stoney dialects call their language Nakoda. 2000 Federal RegisterLXV. no. 49, 13299 Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, Montana.


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Revised February 10, 2001