Sinixt

Cultural/Linguistic Identity

The Sinixt (also known as the "Arrow Lakes Band" or simply as "The Lakes") are a First Nations People who today primarily live on the Colville Reserve in Washington State. A few Sinixt live in adjacent traditional territory in the West Kootenay region of British Columbia, particularly the Slocan Valley. The majority of their traditional territory is in the West Kootenay region of British Columbia. The Sinixt are of Salishan linguistic extraction, and their own dialect was similar to Colville and Okanagan variations. In prehistoric times, the Sinixt were a semi-sedentary people, living in warm, semi-subterranean houses for the winter months. The summers were spent managing fishing, hunting, and other food resources in their mountain and lake-dominated homeland. Scholars have classified the Sinixt as "complex collectors" (as opposed to, e.g., "hunter-gatherers").

History

The history of the Sinixt is long and complex. They currently are not recognized in Canada, and were officially declared "extinct" by that country in the 1950s by the Indian Act. However, there were several hundred Sinixt still living in Washington State at the time, along with other self-identifying Sinixt who had relocated with relatives to the Okanagan. Today, the Sinixt are taking steps to reclaim their rights in British Columbia, where the vast majority of their ancestral territory lies. Traditional Sinixt territory was centred in the Slocan Valley and the Lower Arrow Lakes, and also included the lower Kootenay River, and the Columbia River from the "Big Bend" north of Revelstoke to just above (and often including) Kettle Falls in the south.

Late Precontact Smallpox/Instability

There is historic evidence suggesting that the Sinixt were heavily depopulated by one or two smallpox epidemics that preceded the arrival of Scottish and Metis fur-traders of the Hudson's Bay Company. The epidemic of 1781 was likely the biggest single outbreak, with accounts of that epidemic describing a mortality rate up to 80%. David Thompson and other early traders noticed the pock-marked faces of older Sinixt and heard oral accounts of the epidemic. There is also evidence that the Sinixt were seriously affected by the major political upheavals that preceded the arrival of the Europeans. The Ktunaxa (Kutenai) people who neighboured the Sinixt to the east were driven further into the mountains by the Blackfoot, who had obtained control of Ktunaxa territory in the foothills and northwestern plains. There is ethnographic evidence suggesting the Ktunaxa and the Sinixt battled each other over the territory along the lower Kootenay River between the present cities of Nelson and Castlegar, British Columbia. The Ktunaxa were considered the intruders, and the dispute was reportedly ended after the Sinixt mounted a large-scale raid into (Lower) Ktunaxa Territory at the South end of Kootenay Lake. The Sinixt later renewed their historic peace with the Ktunaxa, and took common cause with them, the Kalispel, the Flathead, the Coeur d'Alene, the Spokane, the Nez Perce, and others against the Blackfoot. While the Sinixt never directly fought the Blackfoot as a group, it is very likely that individual Sinixt joined their Salishan neighbours (and the Ktunaxa) in war parties and buffalo hunts to the Western Plains.

Fur Trade and Border Dispute

The Sinixt played a major but largely unheralded role in the fur trade, and also in the international dispute between Great Britain and the USA over the what the US called the Oregon Country, which was known to the British Hudson's Bay Company as the Columbia District. The Sinixt and their allies had a very close relationship with the Hudson's Bay Company, and it was to be closer to the major trading post at Colville that led the Sinixt to winter near there for the first time in 1830-31. Indeed, Fort Colville was created to replace Spokane House, specifically to be closer to the Sinixt. The Sinixt supported the company in its efforts to prevent American trappers and settlers from entering and taking over the territory. As fur traders, the Sinixt were among the most prolific of all the First Nations who traded at Fort Colville.

Colville Reservation

When the United States gained formal control of the Oregon Country south of the 49th Parallel in 1846, most Sinixt remained in American territory near Kettle Falls, where Fort Colville continued to operate. Kettle Falls (or just above it) was essentially the Southern boundary of Sinixt Territory, and was shared with the Colville People. They were always extremely close to the Colville People, and the Sinixt's arrival at the falls during fishing season would be celebrated with a three-day dance. Another 3 day dance would be celebrated at their departure.

A large reserve was created in Washington State that extended all the way to the Canadian Border. The adjacent Sinixt territory in British Columbia remained in the hands of the Sinixt. As late as the 1860s, Sinixt leaders still equated British title in their Northern territory as signifying Sinixt sovereignty. When Fort Shepherd was abandoned by the Hudson's Bay Company, it was left in Sinixt hands.

This changed when the Colville Reserve was cut in half, cutting Sinixt traditional Territory in half, separating the Colville Reserve from Sinixt Territory in British Columbia. Soon after, Sinixt authority was further challenged as a result of mineral finds in their Northern lands in the 1850s and 60s.

Gold/Silver Rush

The Sinixt managed to maintain control over their traditional territory in southern British Columbia through the 1850s, 60s, and 70s, despite some conflict. The Sinixt continued to claim ownership and did resist the American miners, sometimes by force.

However, their reduced numbers resulted in the Sinixt being unable to maintain control of the area as it was flooded with miners during a second mineral rush in the 1880s and 90s. Several boomtowns were erected throughout the West Kootenay Region. The majority of Sinixt continued to live in Washington State, among the security of their friends and relatives on the Colville reserve. Nevertheless, a number of Sinixt remained permanently in Canada during the first half of the 20th century. Many others also returned to their ancestral land in B.C. to hunt and fish during the summer months well into the 20th Century.

Return to Canada

The Sinixt reestablished permanent residency in British Columbia in the late 1980s when a number of Sinixt descendents returned to the Slocan Valley to protest road building affecting an important village site. A bridge being built in Vallican resulting in a road being placed very near the large pithouse village. Since then, a permanant Sinixt presence has continued in the Slocan Valley, with local members overseeing the repatriation of remains and playing an increasing role in local affairs.

Archeology

Recent archaeological work has resulted in findings hinting at a complex social society. This is in line with historic, ethnographic, and contemporary Sinixt accounts of a socially and economically advanced society. Pithouses in the Slocan Valley are among the earliest very large houses of this type, with some having diameters of over 20 metres (66 feet). The Slocan Narrows site also included some of the most recent very large pithouses. This and other evidence of a hierarchical and stratified society has lead a leading scholar to state that the Sinixt's society was among the most complex of the entire region. Unfortunately, major hydroelectric projects along the Columbia and Kootenay Rivers have resulted in the flooding of many graveyards and the majority of Sinixt village sites. And Canadian legal paranoia and lack of political will still prevent the Sinixt from receiving their due recognition in Canada.

External links

• Sinixt Nation—The People of the Arrow Lakes
• First Nations Land Rights and Environmentalism in British Columbia