29

ae

This description probably applies to the summer costume only.
Mackenzie’s robe was perhaps the sleeveless shirt (gassue’), laced together
at the shoulder and fastened around the waist with a belt. Sleeves were
added later, and some of the natives attached two strings to the bottom
which they passed between the legs and tied around the waist; but at an

PLATE V

75944

A Sekani robe of groundhog skins.

early date they adopted the moose-skin breechclout (tson or entsat) of
the eastern tribes. The women seem to have lengthened the shirt, first to
the knees, then to the ankles; and they replaced the short skirt (chaka)
with a European petticoat. The commonest material for shirts was moose
or caribou hide, though other skins were employed on occasion, such as