Assiniboines

Assiniboines, Canadian aborigines, a large branch of the Dakota nation, from whom they have been separated for an unknown period, and by whom they are called Hoha, i.e. "Rebels." There are two branches, the Mountain or Forest Assiniboines of the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains and about the headwaters of the North Saskatchewan river, who are now nearly extinct, and the Prairie Assiniboines, of the Assiniboine river, to which they give their name, and thence southwards towards the United States frontier. Owing to the rapid settlement of the Canadian Far West, the Assiniboine domain has recently been greatly restricted, and now the only alternative before them is either to disappear or break up the tribal connection and remove to the Government reserves. Some have already accepted plots of land along the banks of the Saskatchewan, where may now be seen their flourishing farmsteads. The Assiniboines are the Stone, or Stony Indians of some writers, so called either from their arid, stony domain, or from the custom of using hot stones for cooking their food. The proper national name is Puatak, whence Assini-Puatak, or "Mountain-Puataks" corrupted by the French Canadians to Assinipoct and Assiniboine.