First Nations

Hi! I am Aryan Mathur. Today I am going to give you some information about the First Nations people. The First Nations are a group of people who were the original inhabitants of the U.S. and Canadian territories for centuries before the Europeans came here. Some believe that they came here 30,000-40,000 years ago after crossing the Bering land bridge that once connected Asia to Alaska and settled in areas from The Rockies all the way to Texas.

This group of people were divided into many tribes and lived in different places. A set of these tribes living in Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan were called First Nations of the Plains. Each tribe had their own names and were quite different from each other in their customs, traditions, languages and way of life. These tribes evolved a sign language to communicate with each other. Signs were used by hunting parties and for surprise attacks on their enemies. Explorers and fur traders also used sign language. Names of some of these tribes who lived on the Plains are Sarcee, Plains Cree, Saulteaux, Blackfoot, Sioux and Assiniboine. The Plains people believed in Manitou, the Great Spirit. They also believed that the land had been created by the Great Spirit for all to use and everything on earth was sacred. They believed that each animal had a spirit that would give them luck and strength and success in a war or a hunt. Plains Indian culture was based mainly on the large herds of bison or buffalo which roamed over and fed upon these grasslands until the early 1880s.

The tribe I am going to talk to you about today, among these, are the Assiniboines. The name Assiniboine comes from the Ojibwe word asinii-bwaan, meaning “Stone Sioux”. The Assiniboine have many similarities to the Lakota people and are considered to be a from the Sioux tribe. They moved around from one place to the other. Their life changed a lot after they came in contact with the Europeans who introduced them to horses. They liked the horses because they helped them in hunting the bisons and they would follow the herds of bison during the warmer months. They did a lot of trading too with European traders. These people were very smart and used many smart ideas to fulfill their everyday needs such as food, clothing, transportation etc.