Sekani

Sekani is the name of an Athabaskan First Nations people and language in the northern interior of British Columbia. Their territory includes the Finlay and Parsnip River drainages of the Rocky Mountain Trench. The neighbors of the Sekani are the Babine to the west, Dakelh to the south, Dunneza (Beaver) to the east, and Kaska and Tahltan, to the north, all Athabaskan peoples. In addition, due to the westward spread of the Plains Cree in recent centuries, their neighbors to the east now include Cree communities.

Culture

The traditional Sekani way of life was based on hunting and gathering. Although fish formed part of the diet, the Sekani relied more heavily on game, in contrast to their Carrier and Babine neighbors. Plant food consisted largely of berries, especially of blueberries.

Language

Sounds

Consonants

Sekani has 33 consonants:

• *Sekani, like other Athabaskan languages, does not contrast fricatives with approximants.

Vowels

Synonymy

Sekani people call themselves [tsek'ene] or [tθek'ene] depending on dialect, both meaning "people on the rocks". "Sekani" is an anglicization of this term. Other forms occasionally found, especially in older sources, are Secunnie, Siccanie, Sikani, and the French Sékanais.

Ethnologue/ISO/DIS 639-3 Code

SEK

External links

• Sekani entry on First Nations Languages of British Columbia site
• Bibliography of Sekani Linguistics
• Map of Northwest Coast First Nations (including Sekani)
• Ethnologue entry

Bibliography

• Hargus, Sharon. (1988). The lexical phonology of Sekani. (Outstanding dissertations in linguistics). New York: Garland Publishers. ISBN 0-8240-5187-4
• Mithun, Marianne. (1999). The languages of Native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-23228-7 (hbk); ISBN 0-521-29875-X.
• Lanoue, Guy. (1992). Brothers: the politics of violence among the Sekani of Northern British Columbia. Oxford & New York: Berg Publishers. ISBN 0-85496-746-X

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