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the Beaver of Hudson Hope; the Dodachenne (Fort McLeod term), or
Dodachanne (Fort Grahame term) “ people of the dead water below the
canyon,” i.e. the Beaver of Moberly lake; the t’lokotenne (Fort McLeod)
or tlokochanne (Fort Grahame), ‘the grass or meadow people,” i.e. the
Beaver of the Grande Prairie region; and the t’satene (Fort McLeod) or
t’satow (Fort Grahame), “beaver people,” i.e. the Beaver of Fort St.
John and along Peace river to the eastward. A semi-mythical people
called Dishinni was commonly identified with the Cree.

The Gitksan encountered only the Sasuchan and Long Grass bands
of Sekani, whose territories bordered their own at Bear lake. The Hud-
son’s Bay Company’s post established at this lake in 1826 served not only
the Sekani, but the Gitksan villages of Kispiox, Kiskargas, and Kuldo.
Naturally conflicts arose over hunting rights in the vicinity, and the Sekani
finally retreated northward and eastward. Nevertheless, in their own
versions of the struggle, they invariably claim the superiority. The Hud-
son’s Bay Company’s post, they say, was built on an island. Five Gitksan
Indians from Kiskargas once tried to reach it on a raft, but were seen
by a Sasuchan Indian on the island, who summoned his two sons by send-
ing up a smoke signal. Before his sons arrived the Gitksan drew near,
and he shot four of them with his arrows; the fifth he allowed to return,
bidding him warn his people that the Sekani would treat in the same way
every other party of Gitksan that ventured near Bear lake.

On another occasion a party from Kispiox fought with the Sasuchan
Sekani near the shore of Bear lake. The Sekani wore on their left arms
oblong shields of wood (askwani) coated on the outside with pitch and
sand. One man whose dream-guardian was wind tripped over a stick, and
a Kispiox Indian struck at him three times with an ax, but each time
the blow was foiled by his dream-guardian. Then a brother-in-law came
to the rescue and killed the Kispiox man. The Sekani slew ten of their
enemies in this fight. The Gitksan of Kispiox and Kiskargas then
requested a Stuart Lake Carrier, Ishal, who had married a Kiskargas
woman, to negotiate a peace with the Sasuchan Sekani. The two bands
held a great potlatch at Bear lake, and the two leaders of the Sekani ex-
changed clothes with the two leaders of the Gitksan. Thereafter they
lived at peace, and the Kispiox Indians continued to visit Bear lake to
exchange for the furs of the Sekani trade goods that had come up Skeena
river from the coast.

It was several years before the conclusion of this peace, around 1840,
apparently, that a few families of the Sasuchan Sekani broke away from
the main band and established themselves as the T’lotona or Long Grass
Indians in the Groundhog country. Although they married frequently
with the Gitksan, from whom they were separated by Klappan moun-
tains, any member of one tribe who hunted in the territory of the other
was killed without pity. Five Long Grass Indians and several Gitksan
were killed in a fight about 1865. Then a joint potlatch was held at the
headwaters of Nass river, and the Gitksan as a mark of good will pre-