48

The last twenty-five years have seen their revival, for now many of
the Finlay River Sekani are wandering westward again and visiting both
the Carrier and the Gitksan Indians around Babine lake and river. They
recognize today three phratries, which they call laksel, lachsibu, and
lachsamshu. Laksel is in Gitksan! lakse’l, the name of the Raven phratry ;
laksamshu (shu or yu means “ people”) is the Gitksan lachsamillich
(“on beaver’), the name of a clan in the Eagle phratry. Their phratric
system, therefore, comes from the Gitksan, but owing to Carrier influence
is not identical with it; for they have only three phratries against the
Gitksan four. But neither is it identical with the Carrier system (itself
derived mainly from the Gitksan), for the Carrier have, or had until
recently, five phratries. To reconcile these different systems when celebrat-
ing a potlatch together the three peoples adopted the following equation:

Sekani Babine Carrier Gitksan
laksel = gilserhyu — lachsel: the Raven phratry
and
kwanpahotenne
lachsibu = Gitamtanyu = lachgibu: the Wolf phratry
lachsamshu = lachsamshu = giskahast: the Fireweed phratry

and and
tsayu lachskik: the Eagle phratry

lI

These equations, of course, are not arbitrary, but correlate with the
principal crests in each phratry. The most important crest in the lachsel
phratry of the Gitksan is the raven, which is a crest in the laksilyu (called
kwanpahotenne at Babine) phratry of a Carrier group at the eastern end
of Fraser lake, but appears nowhere else, apparently, in Carrier territory
and was not adopted by the Sekani. However, the next ranking crest in
the lachsel phratry is the frog or toad, which appears in both the gilserhyu
and laksilyw phratries in many Carrier districts, and is the principal crest
of the Sekani laksel. Similarly the principal crests of the Gitksan lachgibu
or Wolf phratry are the wolf and the grizzly bear, and one or other (some-
times both) of these animals is the crest of the Gitamtanyu phratry of the
Carrier and of the lachsibu phratry of the Sekani. The laksamshu phratry
of the Sekani recognizes as its principal crest the beaver, which is a leading
crest in the Carrier tsayw and in the Gitksan lachskik or Eagle phratries.
But when the tsayw phratry of the western Carriers was decimated by an
epidemic about fifty years ago its survivors were absorbed into the
laksamshu phratry, whose principal crests, sun and moon, are the same as
those of the Gitksan giskahast or Fireweed phratry. Hence the Sekani
lachsamshu phratry equates with two phratries of the Carrier that are now
amalgamated, and with two phratries of the Gitksan that still remain
distinct.

Among the Finlay River Sekani the laksel phratry, which surpasses
the other two in numbers, has adopted the following crests (nattsi, which
is also the Carrier word for crest): frog or toad, marten, caribou, and
beads. At a potlatch any member of the phratry has the right to use one
or all of these crests, if he wishes. The crests of the lachsibu phratry are

1 Hazelton dialect.