19

sented to a Long Grass family a little girl eleven years of age. The girl
married a Long Grass chief, with whom she lived about thirty years;
after his death his relatives conducted her to Bear lake and delivered
her back to her people.

The Sekani remember no conflicts with the Tahltan or Kaska Indians
to the north, or with the Carrier of Babine lake; but they speak of
many feuds with the Carrier of Stuart lake, claiming that the latter
avoided them and fought from ambush only. There is a tradition, probably
fanciful, that a Stuart Lake war party, travelling in seven canoes down
Parsnip and Peace rivers, ran into the Rocky Mountain canyon, from
which nothing emerged except fragments of their canoes.

John Tod, who was factor at Fort McLeod from 1823 to 1832, wit-
nessed the ill feeling that existed between the Sekani and the Carrier in
his day. He writes:

“ At Fort McLeod, where Mr. Tod had lived nine years, feuds among
the tribes were rife, and consequently hostilities often broke out among
them. The Indians used to tell him that the bow and arrow was a good
deal more effective in war than the musket. And in case of hunting
buffalo, deer, etc., the arrow by penetrating, stuck fast, so that should the
animals enter the woods or bush it was found they were unable to proceed
far before they fell. Ere the gun, a great many more Indians also were
killed by the use of the bow, now almost wholly out of date,

“On one oceasion a tribe came into the fort. The Indians were called
Sycanees and came from the Rocky Mountains. They went in to trade,
smoke, ete. I went outside and counted another band of canoes coming
up with Indians. They also had tobacco given them for a smoke. These
were the Suckalies (Carrier) and were at enmity with the other tribe.
They met and there was a row. On each side of the big mess hall, they
were drawn up ready to use bows and arrows, guns, etc., on one another.
Hearing of this I rushed in bare-armed, commencing to abuse them at an
awful rate; swore and kicked; rushed one side, then at the other, seized
their arms and banged them about generally. One fellow was about
driving a dagger into another. Seizing this I took it from him, and the
mark of it remains in my hand to this day. At last I completely cowed
them.’’?

The Tlokotenne or Meadow Indians, of Pine and upper Smoky rivers,
were always on friendly terms with the Sekani, whom they met frequently
along the eastern foothills of the Rocky mountains. Both bands tradec
at Hudson Hope during the first years of the nineteenth century
and both were attacked by the Tsatene lower down the river, so that by
1826, when Sir George Simpson passed through on his way to the coast.
the Meadow Indians had apparently disappeared from this region as a
separate band, and the Sekani of Finlay river were avoiding Peace River

1 See Preface.

* History of New Caledonia and North-West Coast, by John Tod; Mss. Series C, No. 27, Bancroft Collection
(from copy in Geological Survey Library, Ottawa).