Sinixt Nation Establishes a Protection Camp on Their Ancestral Land

The Sinixt Nation, declared extinct by the Cana­di­an gov­ern­ment more than 50 years ago, has set up a pro­tec­tion camp on their ances­tral land, halt­ing all com­mer­cial log­ging in the area known to the Sinixt Nation as “Slhu7kin”.

On Octo­ber 26th 2010, the Sinixt Nation assert­ed their sov­er­eign­ty by ini­ti­at­ing the Sinixt Slhu7kin (Per­ry Ridge) Pro­tec­tion Camp on their ances­tral lands. The Sinixt, by dec­la­ra­tion, have estab­lished the “Sinixt Slhu7kin – Per­ry Ridge Wilder­ness Pre­serve to pro­tect the rich bio-diver­si­ty on Per­ry Ridge and the col­lec­tive domes­tic water­shed inter­ests of the Per­ry Ridge com­mu­ni­ty.”

Sinixt Nation mem­bers, local res­i­dents, and sup­port­ers are gath­ered at the begin­ning of the Per­ry Ridge For­est Ser­vice road near the town of Slo­can, BC. The camp has halt­ed all com­mer­cial log­ging in the area.

After a com­plete refusal to con­sult with the Sinixt Nation, BC Tim­ber Sales via BC Min­istry of Forests and Range sold the log­ging rights to 4 con­tro­ver­sial cut-blocks on Per­ry Ridge to Sun­shine Log­ging LTD of Kaslo, BC. Sun­shine Log­ging pur­chased the 2 year con­tract for approx­i­mate­ly $330,000 after BC Tim­ber Sales dropped the auc­tion bid­ding price because no com­pa­nies want­ed to touch the high­ly con­tentious con­tract with a ten foot pole.

This isn’t the first time peo­ple have tak­en a stand to pro­tect the area known as Slhu7kin to the Sinixt. In 1997 local res­i­dents, the Per­ry Ridge Water Users Asso­ci­a­tion, and Sinixt mem­bers took both legal and direct action and suc­cess­ful­ly halt­ed road build­ing on the ridge. Over 300 peo­ple blocked the road demand­ing pro­tec­tion for the area.

Known as the Arrow Lakes Indi­an Band under the Indi­an Act, Cana­da offi­cial­ly declared the Sinixt extinct in 1956. This left Sinixt mem­bers liv­ing on the Colville Reser­va­tion (in the USA) or scat­tered among oth­er nations in BC with­out recog­ni­tion.

Many Sinixt returned to the North­ern part of their ter­ri­to­ry to pro­tect their ances­tral bur­ial sites in Val­li­can, BC in the late 1980’s when a BC Min­istry of Trans­porta­tion road devel­op­ment project des­e­crat­ed their bur­ial sites, removed bones and arti­facts and placed them in muse­ums. After a tremen­dous amount of effort from the Sinixt and sup­port­ers, remains of their ances­tors were returned to them and were reburied at the site. The Sinixt to this day con­tin­ue to live peace­ful­ly and re-occu­py their land in Val­li­can mak­ing it the longest re-occu­pa­tion in Cana­di­an his­to­ry.

Sinixt ter­ri­to­ry spans from the head­wa­ters of the Colum­bia Riv­er north of Nakusp, to Kaslo in the West, Rev­el­stoke in the East, and down into what is now known as Wash­ing­ton State. Over 80% of the ter­ri­to­ry lies on the “Cana­di­an side” of the 49th par­al­lel.

In BC alone, 15 dams were built on Sinixt Ter­ri­to­ry. In 1954, Kaiser Alu­minum pro­posed a dam on Arrow Lake. The Keen­ley­side Dam flood­ed 140 Sinixt cul­tur­al sites. The Com­in­co smelter at Trail built a dam on the Koote­nay Riv­er near the ancient Sinixt vil­lage of kp’itl’els. The zinc and lead smelter has since dumped over 13 mil­lion tonnes of tox­ic slag, includ­ing mer­cury, into the Colum­bia Riv­er.

“A vis­i­tor to the Colum­bia Basin will be unlike­ly to see any indi­ca­tion that there was ever a native cul­ture that thrived for so long in this region. Most of the Sinixt tra­di­tion­al vil­lages and bur­ial grounds were flood­ed with the damming of the Arrow Lakes. We know of only one mon­u­ment to the Sinixt. In the town of Edge­wood, there is a totem pole that was erect­ed in the late 1960’s. It was com­mis­sioned by B.C. Hydro as a com­mem­o­ra­tive to an extinct race.”

But the fact of the mat­ter is that the Sinixt nev­er had totem poles and they aren’t extinct.
What You Can Do

The Sinixt Nation and their sup­port­ers are encour­ag­ing peo­ple to help out any way they can.

Finan­cial dona­tions can be made payable to the Sinixt Nation Soci­ety. Mail well con­cealed cash, mon­ey orders and cheques to: The Sinixt Nation Soci­ety, RRI G‑I6 C‑2, Win­law, BC VOG 2JO.

Con­tact the Sinixt Nation:

Mar­i­lyn James (Offi­cial Appoint­ed Spokesper­son)
Bob Camp­bell (Head­man)
Phone: 250 226 6726
Fax: 886 685 7376

For more infor­ma­tion and back­ground, vis­it: http://sinixtnation.org, http://www.firstnations.eu/invasion/sinixt.htm, http://sinixt.kics.bc.ca, http://www.aaanativearts.com/colville-tribe/lake-indians.htm

More pho­tos and updates can be found on the Sinixt Nation’s Face­book page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sinixt-Nation/255421804460

Note sure how to say “Sinixt”? Want to know why the gov­ern­ment says they don’t exist? Lis­ten to the one-hour radio doc­u­men­tary: Keep­ing the Lakes Way: The Past and Future of the Sinixt