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of his adopted tribe, their language, customs, and tribal relations, 

 he was consulted by most of the noted Indian investigators of that 

 period — Schoolcraft, Hay den, and others. 



Being a Government scout, Mr. Denig was able to conciliate the 

 Indians during the expedition of Audubon in 1843, making it pos- 

 sible for the great Frenchman to collect his wonderful specimens. 

 A very colorful description of Fort Union was written by Mr. Denig 

 July 30, 1843. This description is found in Volume II, page 180, 

 of "Audubon and His Journals." In it Mr. Denig writes: "Fort 

 Union, the principal and handsomest trading post on the Missouri 

 River, is situated on the north side, about 6y 2 miles above the mouth 

 of the Yellowstone River; the country around it is beautiful and 

 well chosen for an establishment of the kind." Then after describ- 

 ing in detail the structure and furnishings of the fort, he says: 

 " The principal building in the establishment, and that of the gentle- 

 man in charge, or bourgeois, is now occupied by Mr. Culbertson, one 

 of the partners of the company," and farther on, " Next to this 

 is the office, which is devoted exclusively to the business of the com- 

 pany. * * * This department is now under my supervision 

 [viz, E. T. Denig].*' 



During this period Audubon sojourned with him for some time 

 and spoke of him not only as an agreeable companion but also as a 

 friend who gave him valuable information and enthusiastic assist- 

 ance. One of his frequent companions at Fort Union was the Belgian 

 priest, Father De Smet. Their correspondence was continued after 

 De Smet had returned to Belgium. (See Life, Letters and Travels 

 of Father De Smet, Chittenden and Richardson, 4 vols., New York, 

 1905.) 



Several plausible but nevertheless quite unsatisfactory etymologic 

 interpretations of the name, Assiniboin, have been made by a num- 

 ber of writers. Among these interpretations are " Stone Roasters,"' 

 "Stone Warriors," "Stone Eaters," etc. These are unfortunately 

 historically improbable. It appears that difficulty arises from a mis- 

 conception of the real meaning of the limited or qualified noun it 

 contains, namely, "bom. This element appears in literature, dialecti- 

 cally varied, as pour, pouar, poil, poual, hirdn, pwan, pwdt, etc. 

 Evidently, it was the name of a group of people, well known to the 

 Cree and the Chippewa tribes, whom they held in contempt and so 

 applied this noun, bom, limn, pwdt, etc., to them. The signification 

 of its root bwd(n) or pwd{t) is " to be powerless, incapable, weak." 

 So that Pirutak or Bwdnug (animate plurals) is a term of contempt 

 or derision, meaning " The Weaklings, The Incapable Ones." This 

 name was in large measure restricted to the nomadic group of Siouan 

 tribes in contradistinction from the sedentary or eastern group of 



