Sinixt Nation has worked diligently over the past three decades to correct the 1956 Canadian government’s extinction status of Sinixt people.
The Crown has recognized Sinixt people as indigenous peoples of Canada (as a tribal group) but not as the Indian Act’s defined term of “Aboriginal peoples of Canada” as presented in a document dated August 9, 1995 and signed by then Indian Affairs Minister Ron Irwin which stated: “The Arrow Lakes Band ceased to exist as a band for the purpose of the Indian Act when its last [registered] member died on October 1, 1953... It does not, of course, mean that the Sinixt people ceased to exist as a tribal group.”
Sinixt Nation has acted in good faith to address the issue of our people being wrongfully termed extinct, whereas the Crown has not. Our most recent legal challenge against the Crown to protect Sinixt interests to cultural sites was struck down and resulted in the B.C. Supreme Court forcing the Sinixt people involved to pay for the court costs. We feel this is contrary to the obligations held by the Crown.
“The Crown holds legally binding obligations under international law to recognize and promote the fundamental rights of all human-beings, including the economic, social, cultural, civil, political and religious rights of all Sinixt peoples regardless of the Canadian laws that exist such as the Indian Act,” said Sinixt Nation Headman Vance Robert ‘Bob’ Campbell Sr.
Campbell went on to further state, “The United Nations Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide reads under Article 2(b) that ‘causing mental harm to members of a group’ constitutes genocide and clearly the Canadian government is causing mental harm to myself and the other members of the Sinixt Nation by continuing to strip us of our inherent rights as indigenous human beings.”
Members and representatives of the Sinixt Nation filed a land claim in 2008 by writ of summons in the B.C. Supreme Courts (file No. 14324) and has notified the Canadian government (and both Provincial and Federal treaty commissions) that our unceeded territory is not to be a negotiation tool with any other tribal groups who are not historically documented as anything but visitors to Sinixt lands.
The treaty negotiations are being put forward to the public by the government as an act of reconciliation with first nations peoples.
When asked her opinion about the BC Truth and Reconciliation Process and the recent allotment of “Crown Land” near Nakusp BC to the Ktunaxa Nation Council through treaty negotiations, Spokesperson for Sinixt Nation Marilyn James said, “The current process lacks conscience and reason and is sadly, a blatant violation of domestic and international law, and is seen as a continuation of the genocidal policies against Sinixt people who are in the pursuit of our fundamental cultural rights as indigenous peoples in Canada.”
“The recent settlement of land granted to the Ktunaxa around the Nakusp area and the planned settlement of lands in the Castlegar area is just another example of the Canadian government acting against the rights of Sinixt people and is taking an act of genocide to a new level by not only committing the act of genocide against the Sinixt peoples in their territory but by embroiling the Ktunaxa and the public in a collusion of that act,” James said.
Modern day colonial government actions are but a continuation of the derogation of Sinixt people’s basic rights and are to benefit the interests of the Ktunaxa Nation Council, who as the archeological record verifies, never occupied the lands around the Arrow Lakes.
The traditional winter shelter of the indigenous people of the headwaters of the Columbia River and that of all interior Salish peoples was the pit-house. Hundreds of house-pit depressions are found throughout the region. The archaeological reports confirm that Sinixt people lived in pit-houses while the Ktunaxa people did not.
Obviously the indigenous people of the Arrow Lakes region were Salish in origin as can be determined by the place names in region having their roots in Salish culture. The name for Nakusp itself is named after a sn-selxcin word (Lakes-Okanagan language), “nkwusp.” The town of Slocan is named after the sn-selxcin word, “slhu7kin,” translated as “speared in the head” in reference to the Sinixt tradition of spear-fishing in the region.
The Nakusp Museum holds an impressive collection of local Sinixt artifacts from the region some of which were donated by Sinixt Nation Headman Vance Robert (Bob) Campbell Sr.
Sinixt Nation hereby informs everyone of their obligations to indigenous and international laws and also that they have a duty to respect and recognize Sinixt Nation members inherent and entitled rights to our traditional territory. A map of Sinixt territory can be found online on our website.
Dennis Zarelli
Sinixt Nation