|
The Assiniboin(e)
Mid-April to Late May 1805
Only two days after passing the last of the Hidatsa/Minitaree villages, the Expedition entered the vast hunting territory of the mighty and feared Assiniboin Indians. Once they passed the Great Bend of the Missouri River, which now headed due west, Lewis and Clark did not encounter any tribes until July – but Indians were always on their minds. Although the Corps of Discovery did not encounter any Assiniboin war parties, they found many of their abandoned hunting camps, and for a month-and-a-half, they feared an attack at any moment. Why was the Expedition so "haunted" (in the words of historian James Ronda) by these Indians?
The Mandan had told Lewis and Clark many scary tales of Assiniboin attacks, and the captains considered that tribe to be as "Vicious" and as dangerous as the "bad" Teton Lakota. Although they spoke a related Siouan dialect, the Assiniboin ("Stoney Sioux" or "People Who Cook with Hot Stones") acted independently of the Lakota.
Like the Teton, though, the large Assiniboin force of 900 warriors raided the Upper Missouri River villagers at will and pitched their buffalo-hide tipis across a huge territory – from the Yellowstone River Valley to the Saskatchewan River – on both sides of the U.S.-Canadian border. The Assiniboin harvested fat beavers, speedy antelopes, huge grizzly (or "White") bears, and many buffalo from the huge herds that thundered across the High Plains.
The Assiniboin were very important to British fur trade companies in Canada, which had outposts only 150 miles north of Fort Mandan. The Assiniboin supplied the traders' canoe fleets with pemmican (dried buffalo meat strips imbedded with corn and berries) and protected them on their long voyages across Canada. As payment for such services, the Assiniboin received liquor from the British. Drunkenness was frequent and widespread – a sign of high status among warrior-hunters because only the most successful men could afford to be intoxicated with imported European alcohol.
Lewis and Clark disliked and feared the Assiniboin, not only because they were notorious "Drunkards," but also because they were well-armed British allies who opposed American trade in the West. In addition, United States policy was prejudiced against all nomadic hunting tribes, considering them "wilder" and "less civilized" than farming Indians who lived in permanent villages.
Lewis and Clark disliked any tribe that made war on their neighbors, but they specifically wanted to protect the friendly Mandan and all Indians who wished to trade with American merchants. Economic competition between Great Britain and the United States for control of the western fur trade, therefore, was a key reason why Lewis and Clark favored some tribes while treating others, such as the Assiniboin and Lakota, as outlaws. |
