Assiniboine Indian Photos by Edward S. Curtis

Tribal Summary

Dress

The northern Assiniboine used the regulation Plains costume of deerskin clothing – shirt and hip-length leggings for men, dress and knee-length leggings for women, moccasins and robes for both sexes.

Dwellings

Conical tipis covered with buffalo-skins and dome-shape sudatories were like those of all Plains tribes.

Foods

The staple food was buffalo flesh. Other important game animals were moose, mule deer, white-tail deer, woodland caribou, elk, and bear. The art of snaring moose with rawhide ropes suspended in their trails was learned from the Shuswap. Fish were caught with bone hooks and in traps, and were shot with arrows. The art of tickling trout was known. Many edible berries and roots were harvested, the vegetal staple being service-berries.