Mount Assiniboine was named in 1885 by George M. Dawson, director of the GSC from 1875 to 1901. The name refers to a branch of the Sioux who migrated westward to the plains and into the foothills. Their migratory territory had been vast, ranging from north of the Missouri and Milk rivers to the Assiniboine and Saskatchewan rivers. The word is said to mean “those who cook by placing hot stones in water,” referring to the cooking method of boiling meat in hide-lined holes in the ground, filled with water and hot stones. The “Stoney” people, or “Assiniboines” as the Algonkian word equivalent translates, hunted in this area. The name for the pass was well established by 1913.