382 PREFACE 



Siouan peoples who were called Nadowesiwiig, a term appearing in 

 literature in many variant spellings. The name Dakota in its re- 

 stricted use is the appellation of the group of tribes to which the 

 name Bwdnug, etc., was applied. This fact indicates that the Assini- 

 boin, or Assinibiodnvg, were recognized as a kind of Dakota or Na- 

 kota peoples. Nakota is their own name for themselves. The rup- 

 ture of the Dakota tribal hegemony thrust some of these peoples 

 northward to the rocky regions about Lake Winnipeg and the 

 Saskachewan and Assiniboin rivers. So it was these who were 

 called Kock or Stone Dakota (i. e., Bwdnug). It would thus appear 

 that the rupture occurred after there were recognized the two groups 

 of Siouan tribes in the past, namely, the nomadic or western, the 

 Dakota, and the sedentary or eastern, the Nadowesimug of literature. 



Traditionally, the Assiniboin people are an offshoot of the Wazi- 

 kute gens of the Yanktonai (Ihankto n wa n na) Dakota. 



Dr. F. V. Hayden in his " Contributions to the Ethnography and 

 Philology of the Indian Tribes of the Missouri Valley " says that 

 Mr. Denig was " an intelligent trader, who resided for many years at 

 the junction of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers as superintend- 

 ent of Fort Union, the trading post for the Assiniboins." Of the 

 vocabulary of the Assiniboin language, recorded by Mr. Denig, Doc- 

 tor Hayden wrote that it is " the most important " one theretofore 

 collected. From the citation from Mr. Denig's description of Fort 

 Union in a preceding paragraph it appears that Doctor Hayden is in 

 error in making Mr. Denig superintendent of the fort rather than of 

 the office of the American Fur Co. at that point. 



In one of his letters Reverend Father Terwecoren wrote that Mr. 

 Denig, of the St. Louis Fur Co., is " a man of tried probity and 

 veracity." 



From references in Audubon, Kurtz, De Smet, Hayden, and School- 

 craft, and as well from a perusal of this manuscript, it is evident 

 that Mr. Denig was an exceptional man, and for more than 20 years 

 was a prominent figure in the fur trade of the upper Missouri River. 



In this summary report to Governor Stevens Mr. Denig has suc- 

 cinctly embodied in large measure the culture, the activities, the 

 customs, and the beliefs of the native tribes who occupied the upper 

 Missouri River 75 years ago, more than 75 per cent of which has been 

 lost beyond recovery by contact with the white man. For more 

 than 40 years the native life with which Mr. Denig was in contact has 

 been largely a thing of the past, so that it is futile to attempt to 

 recover it from the remnants of the tribes who formerly traded with 

 Mr. Denig at Fort Union. 



In addition to preparing this report to Governor Stevens Mr. 

 Denig also recorded a Blackfoot Algonquian vocabulary of about 70 

 words, a Gros Ventres Siouan vocabulary, and an Assiniboin Siouan 



