309 
foreio'ii diseases, particularly smallpox,^ thimied their ranks; and 
when Kuropeans pushed foi'ward their settlements into the prairies, 
and the herds of buffalo disappeared, the Assiniboine, unable to 
continue their old free life, submitted to confinement on various 
reserves. The southern })ranch found a retreat at Fort Belknap, 
in Montana; the northern, commordy known to-flay as Stonies, settled 
on several small reserves in Saskatchewan and Alberta, the larger 
number going to Morley, between Calgary and Banff. Several 
generations of separation have developed slight differences in dialect 
and customs between the two branches, owing mainly to the closer 
contact between the Stonies and the Cree; but they still remember 
their common origin, and, though enrolled under different flags, 
consider themselves a single people. 
In historical times, then, the Assiniboine were a typical plains’ 
tribe living in large conical tents or tipis made of buffalo hide. They 
moved their camps from place to t)lace even more frequently than 
1 <1 Prairie all around is a \ast fieltl of death, covered witli uiiluiried corpses, and spread- 
ing, for miles, pestilence anti infection. . . . The Assiniboines, 9, 0(H) in ninnlu'r, roaming over a hunting 
territory to the north of tlie Missouri, a,s far as the trading posts of tlie Ihid.son’s Ray Company, 
are, in the literal sense of the expression, nearly exterminated. They, i>.s well as tlie Crows anti the 
Blackfeet, endeavoured to flee in all directions, but the disease (smallpojt) every wliere pursued them.” 
Maximilian, Prince of Wied’s, Travels in Ihe Interior of Xorth America, 1832-1834, in Tlnvaites, R. G.; 
"Early Western Travels”; vol, 22, p. 35 (Clwelantl, 1906). 
