NAME AND GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION.—The name of the Assiniboin among themselves is Da-co-tah, same as the Sioux, which means “our people.” By the Sioux they are called Ho´-hai or “Fish-eaters,” perhaps from the fact that they lived principally on fish while on the British grounds, as most of those Indians do. By the Cree and Chippewa they are called As-see-nee-poi-tuc or Stone Indians; hence the English name of Assiniboin arises. As has been stated, at the earliest date known they roved about the head of St. Peters, Des Moines, Lac du Diable, and Lac qui Parle; and they were then joined with the Sioux Indians, who inhabited and claimed all the lands between the Mississippi and the Missouri as low down as Big Sioux River and as high up as the head of Rivier à Jacques, thence northward toward Lac du Diable, other bands of Sioux (Teton) residing west of the Missouri. The number of Assiniboin when they separated must have been at least 1,500 lodges, averaging six souls to a lodge [or about 9,000 persons]. Their migration has been referred to and the extent of land they occupied in the British territory on the Saskatchewan, etc., was very large, but at present their habitat is entirely different, and it may be as well to state it here. The northern Assiniboin, 250 or 300 lodges, rove the country from the west banks of the Saskatchewan, Assiniboin, and Red Rivers in a westward direction to the Woody Mountains north and west among small spurs of the Rocky Mountains east of the Missouri, and among chains of small lakes through this immense region. Occasionally making peace with some of the northern bands of Blackfeet enables them to come a little farther west and deal with those Indians, but, these “peaces” being of short duration, they are for the most part limited to the prairies east and north of the Blackfeet range. The rest of the Assiniboin, say 500 to 520 lodges [who may be called the Southern Assiniboin], occupy the following district, viz., commencing at the mouth of the White Earth River on the east, extending up that river to its head, thence northwest along the Couteau de Prairie, or Divide, as far as the Cyprus Mountains on the North Fork of the Milk River, thence down Milk River to its junction with the Missouri River, thence down the Missouri River to the mouth of White Earth River, or the starting point. Formerly they inhabited a portion of country on the south side of the Missouri River along the Yellowstone River, but of late years, having met with great losses by Blackfeet, Sioux, and Crow war parties, they have been obliged to abandon this region and now they never go there. As before remarked, the Assiniboin still numbered 1,000 to 1,200 lodges, trading on the Missouri until the year 1838, when the smallpox reduced their numbers to less than 400 lodges. Also, being surrounded by large and hostile tribes, war has had its share in their destruction, though now they are increasing slowly.