The Nakoda (meaning the Generous Ones) split with the Yanktonai Sioux in the 17th century. They migrated from the Minnesota woodlands westward onto the northern plains with their allies, the Plains Cree. The Chippewa called the Nakoda as the Assiniboine people in their language, an Ojibwe word meaning "one who cooks with stones". The Nakoda would heat rocks and put them in rawhide pots to heat water and cook food. The Nakoda peoples live on both the Fort Belknap and Fort Peck Indian Reservations in Montana and on several reserves in Saskatchewan and Alberta, Canada, where they are generally known as Stoney.