Stoney people

The Nakoda (also known as Stoney or Îyârhe Nakoda) are an indigenous people in Western Canada and, originally, the United States.

They used to inhabit large parts of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Montana, but their reserves are now located in Alberta and in Saskatchewan, where they are scarcely differentiated from the Assiniboine. Through their language they are related to the Dakota and Lakota nations of the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains, part of the large Sioux Nation.

They refer to themselves in their own language as "Nakoda", meaning friend, ally. The name "Stoney" was given them by white explorers, because of their technique of using fire-heated rocks to boil broth in rawhide bowls. They are very closely related to the Assiniboine, who are also known as Stone Sioux (from the Ojibwe asinii-bwaan).

Alberta's Nakoda First Nation comprises three bands: Bearspaw, Chiniki and Wesley.

The Stoney were "excluded" from Banff National Park between 1890 and 1920. In 2010 they were officially "welcomed back".

The Stoney are descendants of individual bands of Dakota, Lakota and Nakota, in particular of western groups of Assiniboine, from which they spun out as an independent group at about 1744. The Stoney were divided geographically and culturally into two tribal groups or divisions with different dialects, which in turn were further divided into several bands:

...
Wikipedia