Drafted by Alan H. Hartley
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.
. [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.]
.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).
.
[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.
.
[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
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