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The Sekani had also fishing-nets, which they made of nettle fibres or willow roots and used both summer and winter, setting them in winter under the ice. In recent years they have learned from their Carrier neighbours to make fish-traps, which they did not use in earlier times, although in small streams they were accustomed to set up weirs of brush that intercepted the fish, and constructed also the sluice-box shown diagrammatically in Figure 3.

TRANSPORTATION

Toboggans came into use, apparently, only in modern times; previously the Sekani carried all their possessions on their backs during the winter months. They did, however, possess snow-shoes, which were rare or unknown among their Carrier neighbours. Plate XIII shows a specimen that came from the Long Grass band, though it was obtained at Hazelton; but whether it correctly reproduces the ancient type is not certain, for today snow-shoes are freely traded throughout northern British Columbia and the Indians often imitate foreign models.

For summer travelling the Sekani had canoes of spruce bark which have been described by Mackenzie:

“The bark is taken off the tree the whole length of the intended canoe, which is commonly about eighteen feet, and is sewed with watape at both ends; two laths are then laid, and fixed along the edge of the bark which forms the gunwale; in these are fixed the bars, and against them bear the ribs or timbers, that are cut to the length to which the bark can be stretched; and, to give additional strength, strips of wood are laid between them; to make the whole watertight, gum is abundantly employed. These vessels carry from two to five people. Canoes of a similar construction were used by the Beaver Indians within these few years, but they now very generally employ those made of the bark of the birch tree, which are by far more durable. Their paddles are about six feet long, and about one foot is occupied by the blade, which is in the shape of an heart.’

There is no record of the Sekani substituting birch bark for spruce bark in their canoes, nor any memory of birch-bark boats among the present inhabitants.2 Today they use either Peterborough canoes, or crude dugouts of cottonwood like those of the Carrier and Gitksan. After trimming the log to shape they hollow it out with fire and adzes, then spread the gunwales with wedges of graduated length, first softening the wood by filling the canoe with water. The final wedges become the thwarts, which number from four to six according to the length of the boat (Plate XI). The paddles are crudely shaped, and seldom used on the swiftly flowing rivers, where more progress can be made by poling.

1 Mackenzie: Op. cit., p. 207.

* Fraser speaks of pine canoes on upper Parsnip river, but almost certainly he means spruce (First Journal, June 7, 1806).

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