These notes supplement the Teacher Background info found at the back of each lesson binder. The Sinixt perspective has been added to the Lesson Plans concerning Columbia Basin First Nations.
The Sinixt, also known as the Arrow Lakes Indians, were a dominant people in the West Kootenays. Their name means ‘People from the Place of the Bull Trout’, which gives some indication of their strong ties to the cold, mountain waterways of the Columbia and Lower Kootenay Rivers. Related to, and speakers of a dialect of, Interior Salish, their traditional territory (though it varied) ranged roughly from Revelstoke in the north, the height of the Monashee Mountains in the west, south into the Colville, Washington area and east to Kaslo.
Like the Ktunaxa to the east, they travelled extensively by ‘sturgeon-nose’ canoe and along overland routes known as grease trails. Hunter-fisher-gatherers, they relied on berries, roots, bark, a variety of fish (including Pacific salmon and trout) and a range of game from rabbits, to caribou to bear for their needs. They moved seasonally to the best locations for the above, but had more established winter villages consisting of pit/wood/mat structures. Cultural artefacts in their territory date back over 10,000 years.
Their exposure to white explorers and traders brought devastating waves of deadly diseases. The reduced population was pushed out of many traditional village locations by increasing numbers of immigrant homesteaders and miners. The enforcement of the US border and the creation of a reserve in Washington kept many in that state. When they did return to traditional locations in the West Kootenay, they were viewed as ‘American Indians’ and were certainly not welcomed. Their claim to West Kootenay land was further weakened by their being confused with other First Nations and due to the area being administered by an Indian Agent based in Fort Steele, far to the east.
A small reserve was finally established in 1902 at Oatscott (just north of Needles), but this location did not allow them to live by the diverse means they were accustomed to. The damming of the Columbia River (Grande Coulee) acted as further nail in the coffin of their culture, cutting off the runs of salmon from the Pacific. Their numbers dwindled and in 1956 the government declared them officially extinct. The dams within Canada have resulted in the submersion of dozens of ancient and sacred burial, village and other cultural sites. Today, a few tenacious descendants in the West Kootenays are fighting to keep their culture and history alive.
Reference: The Geography of Memory by Eileen Delehanty Pearkes (Sono Nis Press, Winlaw, 2002)
also visit: http://sinixt.kics.bc.ca/index.html