19 Facts About Sinixt people

The Sinixt people are of Salishan linguistic extraction, and speak their own dialect of the Colville-Okanagan language.

Many Sinixt people continue to live in their traditional territory on the Northern Side of the 49th Parallel, particularly in the Slocan Valley and scattered amongst neighbouring tribes throughout BC, however the Canadian Government declared the Sinixt people extinct in 1956.

Parts of the traditional territory of the Sinixt are being claimed by the Westbank Band of the Okanagan people and as shared use and occupancy by the Ktunaxa.

In prehistoric times, the Sinixt were a semi-sedentary people, living in warm, semi-subterranean houses for the winter months.

The Sinixt people caught only the salmon that were not strong enough to clear the falls, ensuring that the strongest went on to spawn.

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Ethnographic and historical evidence suggests the Ktunaxa and the Sinixt people 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 people mounted a large-scale raid into Ktunaxa Territory at the south end of Kootenay Lake.

The Sinixt people 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.

The Sinixt people supported the company in its efforts to prevent American trappers and settlers from entering and taking over the territory.

Nevertheless, the Sinixt people managed to maintain effective control over their northern traditional territory through the 1850s, 1860s, and 1870s, despite some conflict.

In 1865, Sinixt blocked 200 miners and mining activities at the confluence of the Columbia and Kootenay rivers in an attempt to protect their hunting and fishing rights as promised by the Crown as related by Gold Commissioner J C Haynes in a letter to the then acting colonial government in Victoria.

However, their reduced numbers resulted in the Sinixt people being unable to control development of the area as it was flooded with miners during a second mineral rush in the 1880s and 1890s.

The majority of Sinixt people continued to live in Washington State on the Colville Reservation.

Nevertheless, a number of Sinixt people remained permanently in Canada during the first half of the 20th century.

Until the construction of Grand Coulee Dam, the Lower Sinixt people continued to fish in their traditional manner at Kettle Falls.

Permanent Sinixt people presence was re-established in British Columbia during the late 1980s when, following direction by an Elder, a number of Sinixt people descendants returned to the Slocan Valley to protest road building affecting an important village site, now called the Vallican Heritage Site.

Since 1989, a permanent Sinixt people presence continues in the Slocan Valley, with local members overseeing the repatriation of remains and playing an increasing role in local affairs.

The ruling effectively recognized the Sinixt people as having rights in Canada, despite being declared extinct in 1956.

In Washington, one particular family of Sinixt people have figured prominently among recent-day "urban Indians".