INDIAN TRIBES OF THE MISSOURI VALLEY, 387 
The first calamity which cast a gloom over this nation occurred when the small-pox 
visited them in 1838. ‘This disease made its appearance at Fort Union when the steam- 
boat arrived in the month of June with the annual supplies for the post. No Indians 
were then in the vicinity, except the wives of the employés of the Fur Company in the 
fort, every one of whom caught the infection, and in a short time thirty persons were 
attacked. When the first band of Assiniboins came, they were met a mile or more from 
the fort by good interpreters, who represented to them the danger of going near, and 
goods were taken out to them with the intention of trading with them at a distance; but 
all efforts of that kind were disregarded, and they passed on to the fort, and two hundred 
and fifty lodges, or upwards of one thousand persons, contracted the disease at the same 
time, and in a short period they were reduced to about thirty lodges, or one hundred and 
fifty ‘persons, old and young. Other bands coming in from time to time caught the dis- 
ease, some of which remained at the fort, where the dead bodies were daily thrown into 
the river by scores. Others attempted to escape by running away, and the different roads 
leading from the fort were dotted with dead bodies, and occasionally lodges were standing 
in which whole families lay dead. The Indians in vain tried their own remedies, and the 
disease continued until midwinter, when it seemed to have spent its power and ceased. 
Out of one thousand lodges of Assiniboins only four hundred remained, and of these two 
hundred were saved by having been vaccinated in former years by the Hudson’s Bay 
Company. 
At the present time the Assiniboin tribe is separated into the following bands : 
1. wal-to’-pali-an-da-to, Gens du Gauché, 100 lodges, averaging four persons. 
2. min’-i-shi-nak’-a-to, Gens du Lac, 60 « a6 
3. i-ay-to’-an, Gens des Roches, RD  & a 
4. wi-i¢/-ap-i-nal, Gens des Filles, GO & G6 
5. wali-to’-pap-inah, Gens des Canots, BA) “ 
6. wali-zi-ah, or to-kum/-pi, Gens du Nord, 30to50 “ as 
Several smaller bands are also found near the Montagne du Bois, but these, for the most 
part, belong to and reside in the English territory. ‘The Gens du Gauché, above named, 
inhabit that part of the district described, along the Woody Mountains on the west side 
in summer, often moving westward to the sources of the Quaking Asp River, and toward 
autumn locate their camp at or above Big Muddy River, or along the first-named stream. 
In this direction, along the east shore of the Missouri, wintering-houses are built by the 
Fur Company for the convenience of the Indians, and also for collecting the buffalo-robes 
and other skins they obtain by hunting. 
The Gens des Canots are commonly found along White Earth River, and extend their 
travels, in the summer season, as far north as the sources of La Riviere aux Souris, Grand 
