While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
Sekani ('dwellers on the rocks'). A group of
Athapascan
tribes living in the valleys of upper Peace river and its
tributaries and on the west slope of the Rocky mountains,
British Columbia. Morice says they were formerly united into one
large tribe, but on account of their nomadic habits have
gradnal1v separated into smaller distinct tribes having no
affiliation with one an other. Harmon (Jour., 190, 1820)
said that they came front east of the Rocky mountains, where they
formed a part of the Tsattine. Gallatiin (Trans. Am. Antiq. Soc., ii,
20, 1836) gave their habitat as the headwaters of Peace river. Dunn
(Hist. Oreg., 79, 1844) located them in the mountains near
Nahanni river. Wilkes (U. S. Explor. Exped., iv, 451, 1845)
said they ranged about Ft Simpson, east of the Taeulliand beyond the
Rocky mountains. McLean (Hudson's Bay 1, 235,
1849) found some at McLeod lake in 1849. Richardson
(Arct Voy.,
ii, 31, 1851) placed them between Stikine and Skeena rivers. Taylor
(Cal. Farmer, July 19, 1862) described them as being in the
mountains between McLeod and Connolly lakes. According to Hind
(Labrador Penin., ii, 261, 1863) they
inhabited the foot of the Rocky mountains north west of Peace river and a part of New Caledonia west of
the Rocky mountains., resorting to Fts Dunvegan, Halkett, and Liard.
Pope (MS., B. A. E.) located them west of Tatlah lake, British Columbia. Petitot
(Diet. Dènè-Dindjiè, xx, 1876) said that most of them
were near the trading posts on Fraser river, a small number only
frequenting the Peace and Liard, where they have a reputation
for great savageness. Morice (Proc. Canad. Inst., 112, 1889)
says they roam over the Rocky mountains on both slopes and the
adjacent forests and plains from about 54° to 60° north. They are of
much slighter build and shorter in stature than any of the
neighboring tribes, from whom they otherwise differ but little
except that their hands are numerous and not closely organized
socially. Morice describes them as slender and bony, in stature
below the average, with narrow forehead, prominent cheek-bones,
small, deeply sunk eyes, the upper lip very thin, the lower
protruding, the chin very small, and the nose straight. Fathers
appear like children, and none are corpulent and none bald. Petitot
describes them as built like Hindus, light of color, with fine
black almond eyes, large and of oriental limpidity, firm noses,
the mouth large and voluptuous. Many of the males
are circumcised. The women wear rings in their noses. These
people are very barbarous and licentious. Their complete
isolation in the Rocky mountains and their reputation for
merciless and cold-blooded savagery cause them to be dreaded by
other tribes. Their manner of life is miserable. They do without
tents, sleeping in brush huts open to the weather. Their only
clothing consists of coats and breeches of mountain-goat or
bighorn skins, the hair turned outside or next to the skin
according to the season. They cover themselves at night with
goat-skins sewed together, which communicate to them a strong
odor, though less pungent than the Chipewyan receive from their
smoked elk skins. Petitot (Autour du lac des Lsclaves, 309,
1891) pronounces them the least frank and the most sullen of all
of the Tinneh. They are entirely nomadic, following the moose,
Caribou, hear, lynx, rabbits, marmots, and beaver, on which they
subsist. They eat no fish and look on fishing as an unmanly
occupation. Their society is founded on father-right, They have
no chiefs, but accept the council of the oldest and most
influential in each band as regards hunting, camping, and
traveling (Morice, Notes on W. Dènès, 28, 1893). When a man
dies they pull down his brush but over the remains and proceed
on their journey, if in camp, or in the event of the deceased
being a person of consequence, they make a rough coffin of limbs
and erect a scaffolding for it to rest on, covering it usually
with his birch-bark canoe inverted; or, on the death of an
influential member of the tribe, a spruce log may he hollowed
out for a coffin and the remains suspended therein on the
branches of trees. Sometimes they hide the corpse in an erect
position in a tree hollowed out for the purpose. They keep up
the old practice of burning or casting into a river or leaving
suspended on trees the weapons and clothing of the dead person.
When a member of the band was believed to be stricken with death
they left with him what provisions they could spare and
abandoned him to his fate when the camp broke up. They are
absolutely honest. A trader may go on a trapping expedition,
leaving his store unlocked without fear of anything being
stolen. Natives may enter and help themselves to powder and shot
or any other articles they require out of his stock, but every
time they leave the exact equivalent in furs (Morice).
Morice (Trans. Can. Inst., 28, 1893) divides the Sekani into 9
tribes, each being composed of a number of bands having
traditional hunting grounds the limits of which, unlike those of
their neighbors, are but vaguely defined. It is not uncommon for
them to trespass on the territory of one another without
molestation, an unusual custom among the tribes of the north
west.
The tribes are as follows:
(1) Yutsutkenne,
(2) Tsekehneaz,
(3) Totatkenne,
(4) Tsatkeliie (Tsattine),
(5) Tsetautkenne,
(6) Sarsi,
(7) Saschutkenne,
(8) Otzenne,
(9) Tselone.
Besides these
there is an eastern division, the Thekkane.
Drake (Bk. Inds., xi, 1848) gave their number as 1,000 in 1820.
Dawson (Rep.
Can. Inst., 2008, 1889) said that in 1888 there were 78 near Ft Liard and 73 near Ft Halkett, making 151 in the
Mackenzie river
region. Morice (Proc. Can. Inst., 113, 1889)
said that they numbered 500 in 1887, not more than 250 of them
being in British Columbia. The same authority
(Notes on W. Dènès, 16, 1893)
estimated the total population of the Sekani group at 1,300; the
Sekani proper, on both sides of the Rocky mountains, numbering 500,
the Tsattine 700, and the Sarsi 100. In 1909 the Sarsi alone
were officially reported to number 197.
The books presented are for their historical
value only and are not the opinions of the
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