Section IL, 1892. [ 69 ] Trans. Roy. Soc. Canada. 



IV. — The Assiniboine River and its Forts. 

 By George Bryce, LL.D. 



(Communicated by Dr. Bourinot, June 1, 1892.) 



The City of Winnipeg stands at the point of junction of the Assiniboine with the Eed 

 River. The former river runs through a district of marvellous fertility, and though not 

 more than one hundred and twenty yards wide at its mouth, is found winding its way 

 through the prairies for four hundred miles. No less than twenty forts have been 

 erected on its banks, and the history of the earliest of these goes back to more than one 

 hundred and fifty years ago. We shall endeavour to bring together the more interesting 

 features of this history. 



The Name Assiniboine. 



The name of the river seems to have been taken from the designation of a tribe of 

 Indians living on the banks. The word is probably Crée or Ojibway, and was applied to 

 the people called the " Assiniboines " or " Stouies." The tribe bearing the name was 

 of Sioux origin, and had broken olFou account of a social dispute from the Dakota nation 

 and lived on friendly terms with the Crées. That this breach was of ancient date is 

 shown by a letter written from Fort Bourbon in 1695, which says : " It is said that the 

 Assiniboines are a nation of the Sioux, which separated from them a long time ago." Dr. 

 Neill, the historian of Minnesota, states that the Dakota tradition is that a quarrel over 

 an affair of love took place between two Sioux families near Big Stone Lake, at the head 

 of the Eed River, which resulted in the separation of the Assiniboines, who hence bore 

 the name "Stone Indians," though called by the Dakotas " Hohays." Whether from 

 this derivation, or from the stones, gravel or rock exposures found at the rapids of the 

 river on which this tribe of the Sioux have since been found, it is certain that in 1798, 

 David Thompson, surveyor of the North- West Company, called the river " Stone 

 Indian River." 



Derivation of "Assiniboine." 



The best philologists derive the name from the Crée " Assiniy " or Ojibway " Assin," 

 a stone ; and the Crée " Pwat " (Ojibway " Bwan ") a Sioux Indian. Hence the English 

 Hudson's Bay Company (1744) meeting the Muskegan or Swamp Crées used their word 

 "Assinapoets," but as the Ojibway country was reached by the French on their way to the 

 North-West, the form "Assiniboine" came into general use. Another derivation has been 

 suggested. This is from the Ojibway " Assin," a stone, and the French "bouillir," to boil. 

 The reference is to a custom of this tribe of heating stones and casting them into water to 

 make it boil. The custom was a real one but was not confined to this tribe, and tho 

 derivation is more specious than probable. In connection with the use of the word in 



