CHAPTER. E

Earliest Historical Times.
1660-1765.

A’KWCEL is the first really historical aborigine
N mentioned by the Carrier Indians of Stuart
Lake. His name has come down to the present
generation as that of one who was the personification of
old age, and after a careful computation based on the
various data forming our original chapter and many
others not furnished here, the date of his birth cannot be
set later than the year 1660. He grew up to attain, in
course of time, the honored position of teneza, or heredi-
tary nobleman, of the Stuart Lake sept, and he is like-
wise famous as having been the first Déné who could boast
the acquisition of an iron axe or adze.

This came to him about 1730, probably by way of
Tsechah, an Indian village close to what is now Hazelton,
on the Skeena. Whatever may have been the origin of
the wonderful implement, it is said that, on acquiring it,
Na’kwoel convoked his fellow-tribesmen to a great banquet
or ceremonial feast, where all the guests could admire it
hanging above them from one of the rafters of the large
lodge where they were assembled.

That implement was, of course, considered exceedingly

1. From Chapters III., IV. and V. will be seen how comparatively
common were iron wares in New Caledonia at the time of its discovery by
Mackenzie and Fraser; and the fact that the latter found, near the 49th
parallel, some of them which seemed of Russian manufacture, goes to show
the ease with which such goods travelled in pre-European times. (See
Appendix B.)

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