Description
The Assiniboine or Assiniboin people, also known as the Hohe and known by the endonym Nakota (or Nakoda or Nakona), are a First Nations/Native American people originally from the Northern Great Plains of North America. Today, they are centred in present-day Saskatchewan. They have also populated parts of Alberta and southwestern Manitoba in Canada, and northern Montana and western North Dakota in the United States. They were well known throughout much of the late 18th and early 19th century, and were members of the Iron Confederacy with the Cree.The Assiniboine, along with the Stoney of Alberta, share a common ancestry with the Sioux nation. While it was formerly believed that the Assiniboine originated among the Yanktonai division of the Dakota Sioux, linguistic analysis indicates that the Assiniboine and Stoney.
Language
The Assiniboine speak a Siouan dialect and were once part of the Yanktonai Sioux, living as one people with them in the Lake Superior region of present-day Minnesota and southwestern Ontario.
Culture
They adopted the plains culture, becoming nomadic hunter-gatherers who moved their villages when necessary to find food. Assiniboine dress, shelters, tents, and customs are similar to those of the Plains Cree of the trans-border region of North Dakota, Montana, and Canada. The Assiniboin were great buffalo hunters known for exchanging pemmican (preserved buffalo meat) for firearms and other European goods brought in by traders on the Hudson Bay and the upper Missouri. Assiniboin social life was organized through independent bands, each with its own chief and council. The bands moved their camps frequently in pursuit of buffalo; before the introduction of horses in the 18th century, bands moved on foot and used dog-drawn travois. Women were responsible for all work related to the lodges (tepees), food preparation, and the production of clothing and other necessities from the buffalo.