The McLeod Lake “Museum”
The Sekani of northern British Columbia have a long contact history with Europeans and Euro-Canadians. Their past is marked with several important events, of which two are addressed here: the fact that diverse Sekani groups emerged from the dynamics of the fur trade, and why the Sekani experimented with a phratric-totemic system in the second half of the 19th century. Surprisingly, these two important historical events are today totally forgotten (while others, some even earlier, are still remembered). The author explores here the reasons for this selective forgetfulness.