Stoney

By John Beierle

Nakoda

The Stoney, who call themselves Nakoda, are often confused in the literature with the Assiniboine from whom they evolved, but became an independent people during the eighteenth century. They are Siouan-speaking and are located in the northwestern portion of the Great Plains region, on five reserves, within the provincial boundaries of Alberta, Canada.

Near the end of the eighteenth century fur trade literature recognized two specific groups of Stoney -- the Mountain Stoney and the Wood Stoney, names by which they are still known in the early twenty-first century. Before the end of the eighteenth century, however, they were not distinguished in the literature from the Assiniboine. The Mountain Stoney consist of three bands -- the Bearspaw, Chiniki, and Wesley -- who share the largest of the Stoney reserves located at Morley, Alberta, as well as two satellite reserves at Big Horn and Eden Valley. The Wood Stoney are composed of the two northernmost bands, living on the Alexis Reserve and Paul's Reserve, located respectively at Lac Sainte Anne, and on Lake Wabamun.

Disease, after first contact with the Europeans, decimated the Stoney population, as it did with the Assiniboine, but there is no reliable population statistics prior to the reserve period. Between 1877 and 1895 the population varied from 556 to 570, with a slight increase in 1885 to 647. By 1970 the population had increased to 2,734 (Larner, 1976, p. 85), and in 1987 it was estimated to be 3,200 (Ethnologue, 1988, p. 14). In 1997 the total population of the main reserves in Alberta totaled 6,040.

The Stoney are a Siouan-speaking people related linguistically to the Sioux and Assiniboine. The linguistic relationship between Stoney and Assiniboine, however, presents some confusion in the literature. Many linguists tend to lump them together as one and the same. Parks and DeMallie, however, believe that even though they share a common origin they are linguistically distinct and even mutually unintelligible (Parks and DeMallie, 1994, 248-250). This conclusion is probably due in large part to a number of phonological changes within the dialect itself and the addition of borrowed elements from Cree. Ethnologue considers Assiniboine and Stoney to be separate languages. In 1987 there were 1,000 to 1,500 Stoney speakers out of a population of 3,200 (Ethnologue, 14th ed., web version 1/16/2002).

Little is known of the Stoney in the early contact period (late seventeenth to early eighteenth centuries), except for brief references in the accounts of early traders and explorers to "Mountain Poets" (an early designation used for the Stoney living in the Rocky Mountain area) and "Assiniboine" who, because of the locations of the contacts were believed to be Stoney. Regular contact with European traders actually began after the 1770s with the establishment of trading posts by the Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company. The trade of furs and meat for imported European-Canadian goods brought about profound changes in Stoney as well as in all Plains Indian societies with the depletion of the herds of bison in the mid-nineteenth century on which the Indian tribes were heavily dependent. In addition to these economic changes, Christian missionaries, primarily of the Methodist faith began arriving in western Canada as early as 1840 to establish mission posts.

In the 1870s the Stoney were participants in two modern treaties with the government in Canada. Treaty No. 6 established the location of the Wolf Creek Stoney or Sharphead people on the reserve land, while Treaty No. 7 did the same for the Bearspaw, Chiniki, and Wesley groups. From the 1880s to 1970, under resource development pressure from outside the tribe, the Stoney began to expand their reserve land base either as the result of purchase from loans by the federal government or as the result of treaty land entitlements.

The four decades from the 1960s to the 1990s involved a period of economic development and expansion for the Stoney. Tribal income, obtained as royalties from the exploitation of vast deposits of natural gas under the Stoney reserve at Morley, has formed the basis for new housing construction, employment opportunities, educational scholarships, and other community services, such as health, recreation, tourism, business development, and treatment centers.

Traditionally the Stoney lived in local bands consisting of patrilineally extended families. These family groups camped together during periods in which they were engaged in large-scale hunts or for religious ceremonies. The northern bands, which were primarily nomadic, would gather together at lakes to fish during the warmer part of the year, but in the winter months would disperse into protected areas in the river valleys.

Stoney subsistence patterns reflect their adaptation to their natural environment. Those Stoney bands occupying the forest and lake regions relied heavily on hunting, fishing, and trapping, while those in the foothills and headwaters regions along the front range of the Rocky Mountains, depended on big game such as moose, deer, elk, bighorn sheep, and buffalo. Their diet was further supplemented by the gathering of wild plants and fruits, and on occasion, the foods obtained from the trading posts. In general, their subsistence patterns closely resembled the horse and buffalo culture of the Plains. Unlike the majority of Plains tribes, however, fish were an important part of the Stoney diet.

As noted previously, contact with European traders did not begin to any extent until after the 1770s when the two rival trading companies -- the Hudson's Bay Company and the North West company -- established trading posts at Fort Edmonton and in the Rocky Mountain House area of Alberta. Trade with the Stoneys involved the exchange of furs and meat for imported European goods.

Stoney kin terms were very similar to the Assiniboine (see the Assiniboine culture summary in eHRAF), but with the addition of special terms for father's brother and mother's sister. A man's brother's children were classified by the term "stepchild", indicating the presence of the levirate in the society, which functioned to maintain a relationship between families even after a man has died.

If the groom's family wanted their son to marry a particular woman, they generally gave horses to the woman's family, and if the marriage was approved, her relatives escorted the bride to the man's dwelling. Cross-cousin marriage was frequently practiced, as was polygyny.

The patrilineally extended families which comprised the Stoney band, lived in dwellings called tepees (tipis) which were of two types -- the three-pole Plains-style hide tepee (prior to the early 1700s), and the spruce bark-covered tepees used in semi-permanent encampments after that period. Other shelters included permanent tepee shaped moss and pole dwellings, and temporary structures made from pine, fir, and spruce branches.

Band organization formed the basis of Stoney society. The core of the band, as previously noted, was composed of patrilineally extended family groups. In addition to the band organization, the Stoney had a single men's society, the Soldiers (AKIEITA), composed of unmarried men noted for their bravery, who were always ready to mediate disturbances and guard the camp against enemies. Members of this society were believed to have special spiritual power, which they lost if they married. Marriage terminated their membership in the society.

The band was the largest political unit in Stoney society, there being no other overarching structure as a tribe. A chief who was chosen for his merit and inherited influence headed each Stoney band.

Social control was maintained by the Soldier society who served the function of a police force in mediating intracamp disturbances and as a paramilitary force in defending the camp against outside enemies.

Every aspect of Stoney life was infused with spirituality. Spiritual power and guidance was sought by individuals through the vision quest, which was obtained generally at various sacred areas in the mountains. As the result of missionary influence, Christian elements were introduced into the traditional religious beliefs and ceremonies of the Stoney. This influence was maximized when reserves were established near mission stations.

Although the Sun Dance was one of the major ceremonies observed by the Stoney, others were also practiced especially in regard to the naming of children, spiritual vision quests, rites of passage, and various communal celebrations. These ceremonies represented one of the few occasions in which the various Stoney bands gathered together for their observance. Other gatherings of the bands were for communal large-scale hunts or warfare.

Documents referred to in this section are included in the eHRAF collection, and are referenced by author, date of publication, and eHRAF document number.

The Stoney file consists of eight documents, all in English, covering a time span from the eighteenth century to the 1970s. Although most of these works deal with specific bands of Stoney, the studies by Larner (1976, no. 15), and Snow (1977, no. 27) will probably provide the best overview of these people. Larner presents a brief general ethnography of the Alberta Stoney, while Snow's work centering on the Morley Reserve, located west of Calgary in Alberta, is an in-depth ethno-historical study of the Stoney over a period of 100 years (1876-1976). This work describes the traditional life of the Stoney prior to white contact, and the period following Treaty No. 7, with the emphasis on relations with the federal/provincial government in Canada. Snow, a Stony chief, is also an ordained minister of the United Church of Canada, and a great-great grandson of one of the signatories of Treaty No. 7. Andersen's works (1968, 1972, 1970, nos. 2-4), all deal with the Alexis band located at Lac Ste. Anne in Alberta, and are primarily historical in content with some inter-mixture of ethnography. The studies by MacEwan (1971, nos. 20-22), are biographical sketches of three prominent Stoney men -- Hector Crawler, Walking Buffalo, and Bearspaw. MacEwan was a former Lieutenant-Governor of Alberta.

Because of the confusion in ethnic identification between the Assiniboin and Stoney in the literature, where cultural data may overlap in some of the documents in the file, the reader is advised to consult also the Assiniboine file in the eHRAF collection. This is of particular importance in for two works in the Assiniboine file, Lowie (1909, no. 17), and Parks and DeMallie (1994, no. 30), where there are distinct data on both Stoney and Assiniboine.

This culture summary, including the synopsis and indexing notes, were written by John Beierle in January 2002.

• AKIEITA -- soldiers or camp guards -- categories 625, 701; as a military society -- categories 575, 701

• counting coup -- category 555

• medicine bundle -- category 778

• soldier's lodge -- category 344

• Sun Dance -- category 796

Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 14th edition. Barbara F. Grimes, editor, Dallas, Texas: Summer Institute of Linguistics, Inc. Web version used 1/16/2002.

Getty, Ian A.L. and Erik D. Gooding. "Stoney". In Raymond J. DeMallie, ed. Plains. Vol. 13, part 1 of 2. Handbook of North American Indians: 596-603. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 2001.

Larner, John W., Jr. The Kootenay Plains land question and Canadian Indian policy, 1799-1949: a synopsis. The Western Canadian journal of anthropology, vol. 6, no. 2: 83-91. Edmonton, Alberta: Anthropology Club, University of Alberta, 1976.

Parks, Douglas and Raymond DeMallie. Sioux, Assiniboine, and Stoney dialects: a classification. Anthropological Linguistics, vol. 34, nos. 1-4: 233-255. Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University, 1992 (Published July 1994).