1054 WILD RICE GATHERERS OF UPPER LAKES [ETH, ANN, 19 
were south of Green bay in 1736 with 80 warriors, and in 1764 Hutchins 
reports them still there, but with 500 people. A map of the middle of 
the eighteenth century locates them south of Wisconsin river.’ They 
then vanished from history. It issometimes maintained that they allied 
themselves with the Kickapoo and disappeared among them. School- 
craft says that the Ojibwa and Ottawa drove them southward as they 
invaded Wisconsin,’ and that among the traditions of the Algonquian 
tribes which inhabit the shores of the upper lakes is one that they 
drove to the south, into the present area of Wisconsin and Illinois, 
two unknown tribes whose names are ** Miscotins” and *‘ Assigunaigs.””* 
In 1671 Father Allouez quotes a ‘‘master of a Maskotin feast” as 
saying ‘they [the Dakota] have eaten me to the bones, and have not 
left me a single one of my family in life.” In Allouez’ words, ‘‘il 
sembloit que ce fust un festin pour combattre, et non pas pour 
manger... Vous avez entendu parler des peuples qwon appelle 
Nadoiiessi; ils m’ont mangé jusqu’aux os, et ne m’ont pas laissé un 
seul de ma famille en yie.”* Thus at that early date the Maskotin were 
sorely pressed by a fierce and powerful enemy, but it can scarcely be 
doubted that these Indians, in considerable numbers, occupied the 
wild-rice region of Wisconsin prior to its occupancy by the Sauk, 
Fox, and Dakota Indians, as these latter are known to have occupied 
it before they were driven out by the Menomini and Ojibwa.° 
THe ASSINIBOIN 
The **Assinipoualaks” (Assiniboin) or ‘** Warriors of the rocks,” are 
a Siouan tribe which, perhaps in the sixteenth century, after quarrel- 
ing with their kinsmen, the Dakota, sought refuge among the ass7v 
or rocks of the Lake of the Woods. Prof. W J McGee says they 
separated from the Yanktonai Sioux." It will be remembered that 
the division of the Ojibwa which went westward along the northern 
shore of Lake Superior found the Assiniboin and formed a lasting 
peace with them. According to Warren this would have been in the 
latter part of the fifteenth century; and a letter which appears to have 
been written at Fort Bourbon on Hudson bay about 1695 says that 
the Assiniboin separated from the Dakota a long time ago. It reads: 
“On prétend méme que ces Assiniboéls sont une Nation Sciouse, qui 
s’en est séparée il y a long-temps.”' It is therefore believed that the 
1Map of America, John Bowles & Son, London [1740-1750]. 
*Schooleraft, Indian Tribes, vol. v1, p. 203. 
‘Thid., vol. 1, p. 305 
1 Relations des Jésuites, 1671, p. 46. 
Mr James Mooney, ina recent conversation, advanced the plausible theory, that this tribe was a 
Potawatomi people, called by the recognized Potawatomi bands Mishkoden’stk or (Little) Prairie 
people. They are now on a reservation in Kansas. 
©MeGee, The Siouan Indians, Fifteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, p. 190. 
7 Lettres Edifiantes, Paris, 1781, vol. v1, p. 30. 
