The Sinixt (also known as the Sin-Aikst or Sin Aikst, “Senjextee”, “Arrow Lakes Band”, or — less commonly in recent decades — simply as “The Lakes”) are a First Nations People. The Sinixt are descended from Indigenous peoples who have lived primarily in what are today known as the West Kootenay region of British Columbia in Canada and the adjacent regions of Eastern Washington in the United States for at least 10,000 years. The Sinixt are of Salishan linguistic extraction, and speak their own dialect (snsəlxcín) of the Colville-Okanagan language. Today they live primarily on the Colville Indian Reservation in Washington, where they form part of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, which is recognized by the United States government as an American Indian Tribe. Many Sinixt continue to live in their traditional territory on the Northern Side of the 49th Parallel, particularly in the Slocan Valley and scattered amongst neighbouring tribes throughout BC, however the Canadian Government declared the Sinixt extinct in 1956.
Sinixt Nation is the collective group of indigenous human-beings who are the sovereign indigenous caretakers of Sinixt tum-ula7xw (mother-earth), located in the area now known as “the interior plateau of BC, Canada”. Sinixt territory extends North of “Revelstoke, BC”, crosses a international boundaries to “Kettle Falls, Washington“ in the south, to the Monashee Ridge in the West, and in the east and is traditionally all the way from the Rocky Mountain Ridge encompassing the entirety of the headwaters of the “shwan-etk-qwa” (Columbia River) . Sinixt Nation are the traditional gatekeepers to the lands which lead to the grease trails to Blackfoot territory to the east. Sinixt Nation puts our land, our water, our ancestors and our ways before economics. In 1956, the government of Canada declared us extinct and has refused ever since to allow Sinixt people to our inherent right to Sinixt interests, including land title, in our territory. For over 25 years, the appointed Sinixt Nation indigenous-government members have actively protected and stood up for Sinixt lands, aboriginal rights and interests and indigenous rights and interests, and the interests of the settler communities in regards to watershed protection in within our territory north of the 49th parallel. To date, Sinixt Nation has repatriated 64 ancestral remains and have continued to follow our cultural laws and responsibilities and to protected our ancestral remains and cultural sites.
After Canada denied their existence for over half a century, the Sinixt mark their Supreme Court of Canada victory with a gathering and a canoe journey — as they embark on a much bigger journey of reclaiming their Indigenous Rights. ‘Our people are coming home’: Sinixt finally gather to celebrate their Supreme Court win. Today the Sinixt, or Lake Indians, as they are also known, live primarily on the Colville Indian Reservation in Washington State, where they form part of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, which is recognized by the United States government as an American Indian Tribe. A few Sinixt live in their traditional West Kootenay territory, particularly the Slocan Valley. They are no longer legally recognized by the Canadian government. The Sinixt, which means ‘people of the place of the bull trout,’ have territory that spans from Revelstoke, B.C., to Kettle Falls in Washington. Due to the violent colonization carried out by the Canadian and U.S. governments, many Sinixt were displaced and confined to a reserve in Washington and called the Arrow Lakes Tribe. For a long time, they were treated as a U.S. tribe. In 1956, the federal government declared them ‘extinct’ in Canada. They fought for recognition in B.C. for decades, but were denied each time by the Crown. When the case finally made it to court, the Crown argued the Sinixt were ‘foreign’ and that their ancestors voluntarily left.
Sinixt Indigenous nation not ‘extinct’ in Canada, Supreme Court rules
Canada’s highest court has upended the federal government’s 65-year-old claim that an Indigenous nation from British Columbia’s Interior no longer exists. In a 7-2 decision, the Supreme Court of Canada said the Sinixt Nation, whose reservation is in Washington state, has constitutionally protected Indigenous rights to hunt in their ancestral territory north of the border. The ruling means that if Indigenous groups outside of modern-day Canada can prove they descended from a pre-contact society in what is now Canada, they can claim Section 35(1) rights under the Constitution, which recognizes and affirms the rights of Indigenous Peoples. “Persons who are not Canadian citizens and who do not reside in Canada can exercise an Aboriginal right,” the decision said.
The people of the Sinixt Nation have traditionally lived in an area that encompasses the West Kootenay region of southeastern British Columbia and extends from the headwaters of the Columbia River into present-day Washington State. About 80 percent of their traditional territory lies in Canada and 20 percent in Washington. Like many neighboring First Nations tribes, their existence precedes recorded history, and carbon-dated remains indicate people have lived in the area for as much as 5,000 years. The aboriginal people who inhabited the Upper Columbia Basin for centuries, known as the Arrow Lakes People, include the Sinixt Nation and other local tribes such as the Okanagan, the Shushwap and Spokane peoples. Considered the mother tribe of the region, the Sinixt played a role in settling disputes between other tribes. The name “Sinixt” translates as “Place of the Bull Trout,” a fish that has also inhabited the Upper Columbia Basin for thousands of years. When Europeans began exploring the region, they found a thriving culture that had developed extensive land and water trade routes. Fishing salmon, hunting caribou and gathering wild plants and medicines, the Sinixt moved through the land seasonally and their territory was centered on the lakes and rivers of the region. The landscape was an important part of their oral history and sacred stories. For example, Frog Mountain, which overlooks Vallican, embodies the story of a frog who saved a Sinixt village from starvation and death during a time of terrible drought.
The law of whuplak’n is the highest law which dictates that Sinixt are responsible for everything in our təmxʷúlaʔxʷ. As Sinixt Peoples we must conduct ourselves in a way that honours that responsibility. The law of smum iem falls under the law of whuplk’n and further clarifies that the women are tasked with ensuring that our responsibilities to the land, the peoples, and all other beings are met. Simply put, responsibility belongs to the women. This is reflective of the traditions of matriarchy. Even though men were most often chiefs, they were accountable to the matriarchs who held ultimate authority. Sinixt are governed by the laws of whuplak’n and smum iem. Unlike colonial laws, which are imposed on the land, our laws come from the land itself. Under our laws we cannot sit idly by and watch anyone harm our təmxʷúlaʔx and siwɬkʷ whether a colonially-imposed system of governance or from other First Nations. Autonomous Sinixt are those Sinixt who reject the authority of the governments of Canada, British Columbia, The United States of America, Washington State, Colville Confederated Tribes, Okanagan Nation Alliance, or any other governing body who claims the authority to represent our interests and by proxy, exert authority over our təmxʷúlaʔx and siwɬkʷ, culture, customs and traditional governance. Sinixt governed ourselves for thousands of years, dictated the path of our own culture and customs for thousands of years, and it will be so again. Sinixt have never signed a Treaty in Canada nor ceded their lands.
Sinixt oral tradition is from time immemorial. The chaptikwls (animal stories) are handed down by way of oral tradition and cover a broad range of subjects including; history, cosmology, ecology, and morality. Chaptikwls contain subtle messages as to how we are supposed to live as human beings. The names of plants, animals, rivers and land were all here before skiluxw (humans) as told through the chaptikwls. Many stories are also known as coyote stories as they are from the magical time when sin-ka-lip (coyote) was helping kwelkuten (creation) to transform and create all what we now know to be. Approx. 12,5000 B.C.E. – 1700 AD (gregorian) – Sinixt use and occupy sinixt tum’xula7xw (the area now commonly referred to as ‘The Kootenays’). Over the course of thousands of years hunting, fishing, weaving, pottery and tool technologies evolve and improve. Vacant pithouse sites from previous generations are continually utilized by the continuing generations of Sinixt. Sinixt people thrived in a harmonious and sustainable way with the land, water, air, birds, fish and animals.
Indigenous Peoples Literature 