The Syilx People of the Okanagan Nation are a trans-boundary tribe separated at the 49th parallel by the border between Canada and the United States. Our Nation is comprised of seven member communities in the Southern Interior of British Columbia: Okanagan Indian Band, Osoyoos Indian Band, Penticton Indian Band, Upper Nicola Band, Upper and Lower Similkameen Indian Bands, and Westbank First Nation; and in Northern Washington State, the Colville Confederated Tribes. Our members share the same land, nsyilxcən language, culture, and customs. We are a distinct and sovereign Nation. Today the Syilx Okanagan People continue to assert their jurisdiction and responsibility over the stewarding of their land, resources and quality of life of their citizens. Our nsyilxcən language and our Syilx Okanagan culture respectfully honour the natural laws of the tmixw – that which gives us life. [Native American]
Okanagan Indians
12420 Westside Road
Vernon, BC V1H 2A4
(British Columbia, Canada)
Phone: 250-542-4238
It is understood that Syilx Okanagan People have come from the land and animals themselves. Before humans were created, animal people lived on the land and gave up themselves along with their ways, beliefs, practices, and experiences for the people-to-be. Many of the teachings we have today come from the animal and plant people are portrayed through capt̓ikʷł, oral narrative. These capt̓ikʷł help to bring forward many important Syilx values, teachings, and worldviews. The capt̓ikʷł help to carry Syilx Okanagan natural law. These laws can be understood from the stages of Syilx Okanagan People.
- st̓əlsqílxʷ (torn from the earth) – life form of first people without natural instincts to survive.
- xatmaʔ sqílxʷ (in front of us sqílxʷ ) – first thinking people who learned the natural law to survive.
- sqílxʷ (dreaming ones, bound together, of the land) – original people who learned to live together on the land in peace.
- ʔawtmaʔsqílxʷ (to struggle and/or come after sqílxʷ) – today’s sqílxʷ after the arrival of new comers.
These stages bring light to the worldview of the Syilx Okanagan People.
“We are the unconquered aboriginal people of this land, our mother; The creator has given us our mother, to enjoy, to manage and to protect; we, the first inhabitants, have lived with our mother from time immemorial; our Okanagan governments have allowed us to share equally in the resources of our mother; we have never given up our rights to our mother, our mother’s resources, our governments and our religion; we will survive and continue to govern our mother and her resources for the good of all for all time.”
Okanagan Indian Language (Nselxcin, Colville, Nespelem, Sanpoil)
Okanagan Language
Okanagan language samples and resources.
Okanagan Nation Culture and History
Information and links about the Okanagan-Colville tribe past and present.
Okanagan Indians Fact Sheet
Our answers to common questions about the Okanagans.
Okanagan Indian Legends
Introduction to Okanagan mythology.
Okanagan Legends
Introduction to Okanagan mythology.
For thousands of years, we the Syilx Okanagan people were self-reliant and well provided for through their own ingenuity and use of the land and resources. We lived united as a nation with a whole economy, travelling the breadth and depth of our territory; hunting, fishing, growing, harvesting, and trading created a sustainable economy that met our needs. From first contact the influx of settlers was slow and yet steady, with both the Syilx Okanagans and settlers worked towards a living arrangement. Through colonization we were divided from one another and from our way of life. At the same time we were dispossessed from the resources we relied upon, and our self-sufficient economy collapsed. As settlement of the Okanagan increased, the establishment of an international border, and the colony of British Columbia joining confederation, put considerable pressure on the Provincial government in B.C. to designate reserves for Indians. This would allow for the settlers to formally own the lands they settled on. Reserves were finally established in the early 1900’s. The Syilx Okanagan people opposed the establishment of the reserves without first having negotiated a treaty.
ałi kwu swiwi-numtax | We are beautiful
ałi kwu suknaʔqín̓x | We are Okanagan
ałi axa/ L/tmxwula/xw | Because our land is beautiful
Okanagan Indian Culture and History
Okanagan Language
Encyclopedia articles on the Okanagan Indian language.
Lengua Okanagan
Information about the Okanagan language in Spanish.
The Okanagan Indians
Okanagan links.
Okanagans
Okanagan Tribe
Okanagan Indian books.
Okanagon Indian Tribe
History and genealogy of the Okanagan Indians.
Okanagan Legends
Collection of Okanagan Indian legends and folktales.
Colville Authors
Okanagan and Colville Indian writers, their lives and work.
The Okanagan Song, created by Delphine Derickson (Westbank First Nation) and Herman Edward (Lower Similkameen Indian Band), is shared by all People of Okanagan Nation. It is an anthem sung in honour and acknowledges a profound responsibility to care for the land. Indigenous languages are complex systems designed to preserve the knowledge of and connection to the land. The Syilx People of the Okanagan Valley are not just for the land, they are of the land. They belong to it and honour the waters and mountains that have given all generations life. Grouse Barnes is an Elder and fluent Syilx language speaker from Westbank First Nation, present-day Kelowna, BC. Barnes shares how the Syilx language expresses the knowledge of the land that has been gathered by the Syilx People: “Take the word for land–tmxʷulaxʷ; tmxʷulaxʷ, when you break that down, it means the sphere of living things that turn and rotate.” Barnes goes up the mountain to hear nothing but silence and to learn from the clear thundering creeks that wear deep lines down the mountainside and make their way to the valley below. He offers the teaching that water is so humble that it will seek the lowest place on earth. The beautiful Syilx People honour the life-giving waters and the tmxʷulaxʷ that sustains them with language and song.
Indigenous Peoples Literature 