These men are more docile,
tractable, and industrious than the Stone Indians and bring greater
supplies of provision and furs to the posts. Their general mode of dress
resembles that of the Stone Indians; but sometimes they wear cloth
leggings, blankets, and other useful articles when they can afford to
purchase them. They also decorate their hair with buttons.
The Crees procure guns from the traders and use them in preference to the
bow and arrow; and from them the Stone Indians often get supplied either
by stealth, gaming, or traffic. Like the rest of their nation these Crees
are remarkably fond of spirits and would make any sacrifice to obtain
them. I regretted to find the demand for this pernicious article had
greatly increased within the last few years. The following notice of
these Indians is extracted from Dr. Richardson's Journal:
The Asseenaboine, termed by the Crees Asseeneepoytuck or Stone Indians,
are a tribe of Sioux who speak a dialect of the Iroquois, one of the
great divisions under which the American philologists have classed the
known dialects of the aborigines of North America. The Stone Indians or,
as they name themselves, Eascab, originally entered this part of the
country under the protection of the Crees and, in concert with them,
attacked and drove to the westward the former inhabitants of the banks of
the Saskatchewan. They are still the allies of the Crees but have now
become more numerous than their former protectors. They exhibit all the
bad qualities ascribed to the Mengwe or Iroquois, the stock whence they
are sprung. Of their actual number I could obtain no precise information
but it is very great. The Crees who inhabit the plains, being fur
hunters, are better known to the traders.
They are divided into two distinct bands, the Ammiskwatchhethinyoowuc or
Beaver Hill Crees, who have about forty tents and the Sackaweethinyoowuc
or Thick Wood Crees who have thirty-five. The tents average nearly ten
inmates each, which gives a population of seven hundred and fifty to the
whole.
The nations who were driven to the westward by the Eascab and Crees are
termed, in general, by the latter, Yatcheethinyoowuc, which has been
translated Slave Indians but more properly signifies Strangers.
They now inhabit the country around Fort Augustus, and towards the foot
of the Rocky Mountains, and have increased in strength until they have
become an object of terror to the Eascab themselves. They rear a great
number of horses, make use of firearms, and are fond of European
articles, in order to purchase which they hunt the beaver and other
furred animals, but they depend principally on the buffalo for
subsistence.
They are divided into five nations:
First, the Pawausticeythinyoowuc, or Fall Indians, so named from their
former residence on the falls of the Saskatchewan.
