Tschantoga (‘people of the woods’, from than, ‘tree’). A division of the Assiniboin, which Dobbs (Hudson’s Bay, 35, map, 1744) placed a considerable distance north west of Lake Winnipeg, Canada. Smet (Oregon Miss., 150, 1847) said that they did not number more than 50 lodges, divided into several bands, and were seldom seen on the plains, but “travel over the mountains and through the woods, over the different forks and branches of the sources of the Sascatshawin. and Athabaska.” Jefferys in 1741 placed them north west of Lake Winnipeg, and in 1776 in lat. 55°. Their usual habitat at that time was not far from Saskatchewan river. They are probably the same as the Strongwood Assiniboin, who in 1808 were on Battle river and between it and the south branch of the Saskatchewan, according to Henry (Coues, Henry-Thompson Jour., ii, 522, 1897). They ranged as far south as Little Missouri river, if identical with the Oseegah of Lewis and Clark (Discov., 43, 1806) and the, Waziah that Hayden found in United States territory, though they traded at the Hudson’s Bay Co.’s posts on Assiniboin river. Denig said that the Waziah whom he met in Dakota, 60 lodges under chief Le Robe de Vent, came from the north in 1839. According to Hayden they numbered 120 to 200 persons in 1862. Lewis (Statist. View, 1817) said there were between Little Missouri and Assiniboin rivers 100 lodges, 200 warriors, and a total population of 880. Under the official designation “Stonies” they now occupy a reserve of 69,720 acres, divided by Bow river, in the foothills of the Rocky mountains, about 40 miles west of Calgary, Alberta. They are described as of pleasant visage, active and fleet of foot, and the most energetic of all the tribes of the Canadian north west. They gain a livelihood by stock raising, by selling timber, furs, and beadwork, and by laboring for ranchmen. A mission was established among them in 1873, and in 1904 the McDougall boarding school at Morley accommodated 48 children. Pop. 667 in 1910.
The books presented are for their historical value only and are not the opinions of the Webmasters of the site. Handbook of American Indians, 1906