33

of the skin door, serves as a latch, its projecting end being, when necessary,
fastened with a string to the adjoining part of the lodge covering. The
smoke escapes through the interstices between the converging poles left
uncovered at the top. To guard against snow, rain, or adverse winds, an
additional piece of skin is sewn on the outside from the apex of the conical
covering down to some distance, while its free side is secured to a long
pole planted in the ground close by. This appendage is utilized as a shutter
wherewith the top opening of the lodge is partially or entirely covered,
as the state of the weather may suggest . . . . Summer and winter,

Priate VII

60678

Rude dwelling of poles and spruce bark, Fort McLeod. Between the two Sekani women is
the wife of a Kentucky trapper who spent the winter of 1923-4 on Misinchinka river.

the fire is started right in the centre, and, instead of the wooden tripod
used among the Blackfeet to suspend their kettles, the Tse’kehne prefer
a stick reaching horizontally at the proper distance above the fire to two
opposite poles of the frame to which it is fastened.’’1

This was the typical winter dwelling, though it was used in summer
also. At that season, however, the Sekani often contented themselves
with crude wind-breaks of the same conical shape, but covered with
spruce bark, hides, or boughs to a height of only 4 or 5 feet, leaving the
top quite open. Most, if not all, the Indians now have cloth tents, but
similar shelters may still be seen among the neighbouring Beaver of
Hudson Hope.

1 Morice, Rev. A. G.; Notes on the Western Dénés; Trans. Can. Inst., vol. IV, 1892-93, p. 192f.