sinixt starter story

8/7/2019 Sinixt starter story

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2006 marks the 50th anniversary of the extinction of the

Sinixt, a group of Indians whose territory stretched from

Colville, Washington to beyond Revelstoke and stretched

west to east from the Monashee range to the Purcellmountains.

Despite being declared extinct by the federal government,

the Sinixt are not extinct and never have been. They have

persisted though disease, federal mismanagement and

conflict with settlers of their native land.

So how can a group of people be declared extinct 50

years ago when they are still around to this very day? How

do actual Sinixt people react when they're told by their

government that they don't exist?

Bob Campbell is the appointed headman, the ilmikwhem

of the Sinixt in Canada. He doesn't concern himself withwhat the government tells him he is.

"I don't know what I'm classified as. I don't pay no attention

to those people. If I did, well I would hate them. And I can't

hate those people for their damn ignorance... I can't do

that or I wouldn't be a good human."

Marilyn James, the appointed spokesperson of the Sinixt

in Canada, estimates conservatively that there are 6,800

Sinixt people in the world today with at least half of that

number living in Canada.


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"I know for a fact that the Colville reservation has 3,200

Sinixt or Lakes or Lakes descendants Indians," James

said.

The Colville reservation is in Washington state where the

Sinixt are recognized as one of the 11 Confederated

Tribes of the Colville reservation.

Let's start from the beginning of their so-called extinction.

The federal government keeps a list of all Indians. It'scalled the Indian registry and every registered status

Indian is on this list along with their birth-date, marriage

and death.

Mrs. Annie Joseph was the last official registered member

of the Arrow Lakes band according to the Indian registry.

She passed away on October 1st, 1953.

What's most striking about the government

correspondence is that no one seems concerned that the

nation of people who were now extinct. No what the

government was most worried about after Annie Joseph

died was a couple of thousand dollars left in the bands

accounts and transferring the reserve land to the province.

"It would appear definite that in virtue of the terms of the

transfer of Reserves in British Columbia to the Dominion

of Canada in 1938, the Arrow Lake Reserve should be


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transferred to the Province of British Columbia now that

the band is extinct," said L.L. Brown, the superintendent of

reserves and trusts in a letter to Mr. W.C. Bethune.

Annie Joseph lived on the Oatscott reserve. Set up in

1902the reserve confined the wide ranging Sinixt to an11.9 acre parcel of land on the west shore of Lower Arrow

Lake.

The extinction of the Sinixt was not an unexpected event

for the government according to Nelson resident EileenPearkes. Pearkes wrote a book on the Sinixt called the

Geography of Memory and has invested countless hours

of research into the Sinixt people.

"The Oatscott reserve was set up and at that time in

Canadian history the native people were believed to be

part of a vanishing race. They were not supposed tosurvive. So there wasn't an enormous amount of attention

put to allowing them to sustain their traditional practices,

they were humoured in a sense. It didn't take very long for

the Oatscott reserve to be less and less inhabitied. It was

never in a central meaningful location for them and fewer

and fewer of them came to the reserve," Pearkes said.

Pearkes explains further. "The non-native culture at the

time did not really understand or respect native land use

patterns. So when the Indian Affairs people came through

they were on a rapid trip through the region. There was no


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local indian agent. The closest indian agent was in

Cranbrook. This was quite a remote location in those

days, it still is relatively speaking, and so the Indian agent

who came through to make those decisions didn't knowthe landscape very well and certainly never discussed in

depth with the native people where it made the most

sense for them to be."

The problem was not just the location of the reserve,

thought that was important, it was the reserve system

itself. No small parcel of land is going to adequately housea group of people who were complex hunter gatherers.

The Sinixt are currently in litigation with the federal

government. David M. Aaron is legal counsel for the Sinixt

people and is representing them in court.

"The jury is still out on Canada's human rightsrecord...Canada's human rights record has been the

object of recent criticism by the United Nations. It's up to

the Canadian government to honor its fiduciary duty to

aboriginal peoples in dealing with the Sinixt. This is an

opportunity for Canada to harmonize its existence with

those who preceded us here," Aaron said.

The Sinixt have a few simple requests according to Aaron.

"They assert the right to travel within their land for the

purpose of connecting with historical sites. This cross

border right is critical to the cultural integrity of the Sinixt.


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The first step is to be able to be recognized as an existing

people with a right to move around within their own

domain, because a paralyzed people are a dead people."

Aaron could not comment on the status of the legal

proceedings but did say that, "It doesn't take a rocket

scientist to figure out that the Sinixt people are not extinct.

We have invited the Crown to the negotiating table but

they haven't answered us, yet."

The Department of Indian Affairs has its own take on thesituation, one viewed through the unforgiving bureaucratic

eye of the Indian Act.

"They're extinct... When Annie Joseph passed away she

was the last registered band member. As there was no

registered members of the Sinixt band any more their last

reserve on record was reverted back to the province in1956," said Lisa Barrett, a communications officer with the

Department of Indian Affairs.

The fact that there are Sinixt people still alive doesn't

matter to Indian Affairs. It's like waiting in line at an

exclusive club, if you're not on the list you don't get in.

"It's about the band lists, that's what it's about for Indian

Affairs."

"The band no longer exists according to the Indian Act and


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that's what it comes down to for Indian Affairs."

"It's not a people, it's the band, so there's a difference. It's

not that the people don't exist it's that the band doesn'texist. Part of the existence of the band is having a land

base and if there is no land base there can't be a band."

If the Sinixt wanted to be recognized as a new band they

do have an option.

"There is a process, a very lengthy process, its called theNew Band/Band Amalgamation process and like I said

one of the first things that's necessary is to have a land

base," Barrett said.

But as the Sinixt do not have a land base it would again

appear to be an exercise in circular logic.

But there is more to this story than the paternalistic

mishandling of Sinixt people by the federal government.

The story of the Sinixt touches many bases and uncovers

some uncomfortable truths about the Kootenays; from the

murder of Cultus Jim to the passive aggressive abuse of

the Christian family by Peter Verigin (a Doukhobor) to the

claiming of Sinixt territory by three other aboriginal groups

to the signing of the Columbia River Treaty five short

years after they were declared extinct the story ranges

from far back into Canadian history to harsh present day

realities.


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