316 
a prayer on behalf of the entire tribe. The ceremonies proper lasted 
three days. On the first the people danced ; on the second the medi- 
cine-men displayed their conjuring tricks; and on the last the whole 
camp banciueted, Jt'iving dog’s flesh a prominent place among the 
meats. 
When the Blackfoot and some other plains’ tribes celebrated the 
sun-dance the most sensational incident, though actually an unessen- 
tial one, was the voluntary torture endured by a few young warriors 
to excite the compassion and favour of the Great Spirit. These 
misguided devotees allowed their breasts or shoulders to be pierced 
with sharp skewers and attached by stout thongs to the sacred pole 
or to a heavy buffalo skull ; and they strained at the pole, or dragged 
the skull, until they either broke loose or friends and relatives took 
pity on their sufferings and in some way or other secured their 
release. 1 The Assiniboine, however, seem not to have associated self- 
torture with the sun-dance, but only with }>reparations for war. Men 
who aspired to lead a war party lay out in the rain or snow for three 
or four nights fasting and praying to the Great Spirit for favourable 
visions; and some of them gashed their arms and breasts with knives 
the more to excite his pity. 
We have no reliable estimate of the numbers of the Assiniboine 
before the first quarter of the nineteenth century. At that period the 
population seems to have fluctuated between 8,000 and 10,000, dis- 
tributed among sixteen or seventeen bands. Four thousand or more 
perished in the terrible smallpox epidemic of 1836, and the tribe 
declined steadily thenceforward until it was confined to reserves. 
To-day it numbers roughly 2,500, half of whom live in Alberta and 
Saskatchewan, the remainder in the United States. 
plains’ ckee 
In i)re-European times the Plains’ Cree probably comprised only 
those few small bands in northern Saskatchewan and Manitoba that 
periodically moved out from their home on the edge of the forest to 
hunt the buffalo herds on the prairies. There they jostled against 
older plains’ tribes, and allied themselves with the Assiniboine against 
1 A full description of the festival among any one of the plains' tribes \vould require a wliole 
cliapter, whicli is more space tlian can be allotted in this book. For an eye-witness' account of a 
Blackfoot sun-dance half a century ago the reader may consult McLean, J.: “The Blackfoot Sun- 
Dance” ; Proc. Can. Inst., 3rd ser., vol. vi, 1887-18S8, pp, 231-237 (Toronto, 1881)). 
