Ассинибойн: история и культура народа Великих равнин.

First Nations people native to the northern Great Plains of North America

Other tribes associated "stone" with the Assiniboine because they primarily cooked with heated stones. They dropped hot stones into water to heat it to boiling for cooking meat. Some writers believed that the name was derived from the Ojibway term assin, stone, and the French bouillir, to boil, but such an etymology is very unlikely.

Assiniboine is a Mississippi Valley Siouan language, in the Western Siouan language family. As of the early 21st century, about 150 people speak the language

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 together form a group coordinate with that of the Santee, Lakota, and Yankon Yanktonai, and that they are no more related to one of these subdivisions than another. The separation of the Assiniboine from the Sioux must have occurred at some time prior to 1640, as Paul Le Jeune names them along with the "Naduessi" (Sioux) in his Jesuit Relations of that year. The Assiniboine and Sioux were both gradually pushed westward onto the plains from the woodlands of Minnesota by the Ojibwe, who had acquired firearms from their French allies. Later, the Assiniboine acquired horses via raiding and trading with neighboring tribes of Plains Indians such as the Crow and the Sioux on their south. The Assiniboine eventually developed into a large and powerful people with a horse and warrior culture; they used the horse to hunt the vast numbers of bison that lived within and outside their territory. At the height of their power, the Assiniboine dominated territory ranging from the North Saskatchewan River in the north to the Missouri River in the south, and including portions of modern day Saskatchewan, Alberta, and Manitoba, Canada; and North Dakota and Montana, United States of America.

The first person of European descent to describe the Assiniboine was an employee of the Hudson's Bay Company named Henry Kelsey in the 1690s. Later explorers and traders Jean Baptiste de La Vérendrye and his sons (1730s), Anthony Henday (1754–55), and Alexander Henry the younger (1800s) confirmed that the Assiniboine held a vast territory across the northern plains, including into the United States (which achieved independence in 1776 but did not acquire the plains until 1803 in the Louisiana Purchase from France.) The Assiniboine became reliable and important trading partners and middlemen for fur traders and other Indians, particularly the British Hudson's Bay Company and North West Company, operating in western Canada in a vast area known then as Rupert's Land. During the later 18th century and early 19th century, south of the border in what became Montana and the Dakota territories, the Assiniboine traded with the American Fur Company and the competing Rocky Mountain Fur Company. The Assiniboine obtained guns, ammunition, metal tomahawks, metal pots, wool blankets, wool coats, wool leggings, and glass beads, as well as other goods from the fur traders in exchange for furs. Beaver furs and bison hides were the most commonly traded furs. Increased contact with Europeans resulted in Native Americans contracting Eurasian infectious diseases that were endemic among the Europeans. They suffered epidemics with high mortality, most notably smallpox among the Assiniboine. The Assiniboine population crashed from around 10,000 people in the late 18th century to around 2600 by 1890. The Lewis and Clark Expedition was mounted by the United States in 1804–1806 to explore the Louisiana Territory, newly acquired from France. The expedition's journals mention the Assiniboine, whom the party heard about while returning from Fort Clatsop down the Missouri River. These explorers did not encounter or come in direct contact with the tribe. Noted European and American painters traveled with traders, explorers, and expeditions for the opportunity to paint the West and its Native American peoples. Among those who encountered and painted the Assiniboine from life were painters Karl Bodmer, Paul Kane, and George Catlin. The Assiniboine signed the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1851). In 1885, some Assiniboine scouts aided the Canadian North West Field Force track down Cree renegades who were participating in the Second Riel Rebellion of Métis.

The Assiniboine were a major part of an alliance of northern Plains Indian nations known as the Iron Confederacy, or Nēhiyaw Pwat, as it is known in Plains Cree, beginning prior to 1692 until the late nineteenth century. The Iron Confederacy were allies in the fur trade, particularly with the Hudson's Bay Company. The Assiniboine and the Cree (šahíya) being important intermediaries in the Great Plains trading networks. Members included the Assiniboine, Stoney (téhą nakóda or į́yąȟe wįcášta), the Plains and Woodland Cree, Saulteaux (called iʾášijabina), as well as Métis (sakná), and individual Iroquois people who traveled west as employees for the fur traders. Loosely associated for military shelter against the Blackfoot and to ensure safe access to the prairies for the bison hunt were Plateau tribes such as Bitterroot Salish (Flathead) (pámnaska), Kutenai, Sekani, Secwepemc, and Nez Perce (pasú oȟnóga). Other Indian peoples on the northern plains, such as the Gros Ventre (ȟaȟátųwą), were occasionally part of the confederacy. The confederacy became the dominant force on the northern plains. It posed a major threat to Indian nations not associated with it, such as the Shoshone (snohéna wįcášta) and Crow (kąǧí tóga or tógabi = "enemies") further south. Their most mighty and most dangerous enemy, however, were their former trading partner the Blackfoot Confederacy (sihásaba = Blackfeet or tógabi = "enemies"). The kindred Sioux peoples (įhą́ktuwą) and their allies, the Arapaho (maȟpíyato) and Cheyenne (šahíyena), were also enemies. The Iron Confederacy also attacked European American settlements on the Plains. The eventual decline of the fur trade and overhunting of the bison herds by Canadian and American hunters, which destroyed the Confederacy nations' most important food source, led to the defeat and breaking up of the confederacy. It engaged in military action with Canada during the North West Rebellion.

Traditionally the Assiniboine were semi nomadic people. During the warmer months, they followed and hunted the herds of plains bison. Women, as life givers, have had primary responsibility for the survival and welfare of the families (and future of the tribe). Women usually gathered and cultivated plants, used plants and herbs to treat illnesses, cared for the young and the elderly, made all the clothing and instruments, and processed and cured meat and skins from the game. The women processed and preserved the meat for winter, and used hides, tendons, and horns for clothing, bedding, tools, cord and other items. Every part of the animal was used by the people. The men hunted, traded and made war on horseback using bow and arrows. The tribe is known for its excellent horsemanship. They first obtained horses by trading with the Blackfeet and the Gros Ventre tribes. Assiniboine, Stoney (as well as Lakota and Dakota) girls were encouraged to learn to ride, hunt and fight. Though fighting in war has mostly been left to the boys and men, occasionally women have fought as well – both in battles and in defense of the home – especially if the tribe was severely threatened. They worked with the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara tribes. The Sun god and Thunder god were considered the most important manifestations of the Great Spirit. The Assiniboine people participated in the sun dance like other Plains Native peoples. They also took guidance from personal visions in vision quests.