Over a dozen crafts paddled from Martha Creek boat launch to 5 Mile Boat Launch on a sunny summer day Thursday, June 13. A mix of local paddlers, some from as far as Golden, came to join in with the Sinixt paddlers for the journey down the Columbia. At the front, a large dugout cedar canoe carried Sinixt Youth and Sinixt Confederacy’s Shelly Boyd. The annual event celebrates Sinixt connection to sn̓x̌ʷn̓tkʷítkʷ (currently called the Columbia River) and the harvesting of salmon at Kettle Falls. For weeks leading up to the event, Sx̌ʷnítkʷ Canoe Journey organizers encouraged locals from in and around Revelstoke to join in for the initial leg of the journey and a series of events taking place in town.
“We feel welcomed with everyone who comes out to join us,” Boyd told the group of attendees that circled around before the launch.
Fixing a false narrative
Considering Revelstoke’s early role in distorting the truth around habitation of the region, Boyd’s words might come as a surprise. Yet recent efforts have been made to retell the stories rooted in the lands around Revelstoke. From Revelstoke Museum & Archives’ permanent exhibit, Sinixt: People of the place of the Bull Trout that greets visitors to the main gallery, to Revelstoke Railway Museum’s panels that openly remind guests how the expansion of rail lines across Canada was key in the government’s genocidal strategies. Acknowledging the long history of efforts to break Sinixt connection to the land is a new narrative coming to terms with the fable founding industries parroted for years.
“That narrative of people not living here, it kind of fits the industry’s purpose,” Herb Alex, senior policy analyst with Sinixt Confederacy told Revelstoke Mountaineer, referencing the way the railroad industry and other extraction industries tried to explain away established populations. “It was a self-serving narrative, and it really got into the town’s idea of what the relationships were with First Nations. That’s why I’m happy that the town is looking to educate themselves on what was actually the truth.”
Sinixt Confederacy’s homeland relations
Sinixt homeland reaches from north of Mica creek, around Kinbasket Lake to south of Kettle Falls in Washington, USA. It stretches as far east as the Kettle River drainage and west to the edge of Kootenay Lake. The Columbia river anchors the region and is a key relation to the area for Sinixt members.
“This is our core territory,” Alex explained. “That is how we approach our responsibilities to the area, to the ecosystem of this whole region and to everything that lives within it. That’s including the people of Revelstoke.”
Alex is working to reestablish relations throughout the region, operating partially out of the Sinixt Confederacy office in Nelson, B.C. Opened Aug. 1, 2023, the office and staff have provided resources for those reconnecting with their Sinixt relations after years of Canada blocking efforts with claims of extinction.
“No matter where Sinixt people have found refuge and community over the past century or more, we want to bring everyone back together, in a manner consistent with our laws and traditions,” the Sinixt Confederacy website states.
The office is also a resource hub Alex hopes those in Revelstoke explore in a step he said is key to rebuilding relationships.
How Revelstoke can build connections
“I just want them to understand that story,” Alex stressed, referring to the frustration and grief of the Sinixt Peoples being declared extinct and having to spend resources over and over again reasserting the Sinixt Confederacy within their homelands north of the Canadian/US border. “I ask that the people of Revelstoke educate themselves, reach out to the Sinixt Confederacy office, invite us to your events and keep us in your hearts and understand that [how can Revelstoke reconnect] is a difficult question.”
Reaching out isn’t just a call for Revelstoke’s residents and guests, Alex said. He invites businesses and industries to also make an effort to work with the Sinixt Confederacy in creating plans that will create long term sustainability throughout the region. He’s aware a core part of Revelstoke’s identity lies in the various natural resources in the region, particularly forestry. Alex doesn’t think Sinixt responsibilities are entirely at odds with the industries in Revelstoke and that stewardship can come with jobs.
“We want to work with [industries] and make sure that is sustainable. By sustainable I mean 10, 20, 100 years, seven generations down the line. And that can be done.”
Sinixt Confederacy has worked tirelessly to reestablish themselves within their homeland and reconnect with the communities that now also call the region home. From Sinixt elder Charlie Quintasket traveling to the B.C. Provincial Museum in Victoria, B.C. and inquiring why there was no mention of Sinixt’s presence in B.C., to the landmark Desautel case and pushing the Government of Canada to reaffirm Sinixt’s existence in the region. There remains countless spaces Sinixt Confederacy has not been invited to, with decisions happening that will impact their homelands. Still, Alex sees growth in the work that’s been done by communities, organizations and residents to reconnect with the Sinixt Confederacy, including efforts in Revelstoke.
“I feel confident that the Sinixt will thrive not only in Revelstoke, but throughout our territory.”
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