Sinixt

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The Sinixt[1] (also known as the Sin-Aikst or Sin Aikst,[2] "Arrow Lakes Band"[3] or—most commonly in recent decades—simply as "The Lakes"[4]) are a First Nations People. Historically, they lived primarily in what are today the West Kootenay region of British Columbia in Canada and the adjacent regions of Eastern Washington in the United States. The Sinixt are of Salishan linguistic extraction, and their own dialect was similar to Colville and Okanagan variations.

Today they live primarily on the Colville Indian Reservation in Washington, where they form part of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, which is recognized by the United States government as an American Indian Tribe. A few Sinixt live in their traditional West Kootenay territory, particularly the Slocan Valley. They are not recognized by the Canadian government.

Contents

[edit] History

The history of the Sinixt is long and complex.

[edit] Traditional life

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, as well as along the Kettle River, a tributary of the Columbia.

According to Lawney Reyes, the Sinixt numbered about 3,000 in the early 19th century,[5] divided into several bands of sizes suited to hunting and fishing. He distinguishes the "Upper Sin-Aikst" around the Arrow Lakes, "above Revelstoke and around the Castlegar, Trail, and Slocan Valley area" from the "Lower Sin-Aikst in the Northport, Bossburg, Marcus, and Kettle Falls area in Washington State." The latter constituted "at least eight large bands". Once they obtained horses, they ranged farther east to hunt on the Great Plains.[6]

In prehistoric times, the Sinixt were a semi-sedentary people, living in warm, semi-subterranean houses for the winter months. Summers were spent managing fishing, hunting, and other food resources in their mountain and lake-dominated homeland. Reyes says that they wintered in the more wind-sheltered valleys, but summered by the Columbia.[7] Scholars have classified the Sinixt as "complex collectors" (as opposed, for example, to "hunter-gatherers").

Early white explorers reported the Sinixt to be of average height and size, with hazel eyes, adept in making suspended bridges over the narrow, swift-flowing Columbia, and skillful at fishing.[8]

Their staples included huckleberry, salmon, and roots (camas, bitterroot), but they also ate black moss, other berries (serviceberry, gooseberry, and foam berry), hazelnuts, wild carrots, peppermint, and various game meats (deer, elk, moose, caribou, rabbit, mountain sheep, mountain goat, and bear; after the coming of the horse, they also ventured east after bison). They chewed pine pitch like gum, and had a range of herbal medicines. Starting in June, mature salmon arrived at Kettle Falls, the farthest their territory extended down the river. The Sinixt approach to fishing caught only the salmon that were not strong enough to clear the falls, ensuring that only the strongest went on to spawn. Both bands traveled to Red Mountain near Rossland, B.C. to harvest huckleberries in August. Both of these events figured prominently in their culture. They hunted in late autumn, but still often were short on food in late winter.[9]

The Upper Sin Aikst trained dogs to drive deer toward the Columbia, where hunters in canoes shot them with bow and arrow. Their canoes were somewhat unusual, about 15–17 feet (4.5–5 meters) long with a cedar frame covered by large slabs of pine bark, riding low in the water with downward-sloping tips to reduce wind resistance.[10]

Reyes says that the intermarried with the Swhy-ayl-puh (Colville), who had a very similar language; the territory of the latter was largely in the Colville Valley and intersected Sinaixt territory at Kettle Falls.[11]

Reyes gives an account of various Sinixt customs, especially related to pregnancy, birth, and education, as well as some descriptions of funerary customs. Children were "closely monitored" by elders. Children were sent on "short excursions" to search for protective spirits; they were usually required to bring back an object to prove that they had actually made the journey. As they grew older, until puberty, these journeys became longer. Each person was expected to acquire multiple spirits, because each had different powers.[12]

At about the age of six, they began to be instructed in "the legends of the tribe and family history…, tribal ways and tribal laws." At eight or nine, they learned to swim and to run long distances; boys were taught to make and use weapons and fishing gear, while girls started to learn plant lore and tanning, as well as how to care for young children, maintain dwellings, and prepare meals.[13]

Sinixt religion was mainly "for harnessing power." The sun, the stars, the water, and the different animals (especially the salmon and coyote) each had different powers.[14]

[edit] 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 Métis 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. Reyes says they had ongoing skirmishes with the Blackfoot, from whom, according to him, they stole horses.[15]

[edit] Fur trade, missionaries, 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 U.S. over the what the U.S. 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 under Lower Sinixt chief See-Whel-Ken (d. 1840)[16] 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.

In 1837, Jesuit missionaries arrived in the area. St. Paul's Mission at Kettle Falls was constructed with the help of Colville and Sinixt labor. According to Reyes, it was in the 1840s that the Sinixt experienced a major die-off, shrinking from about 3,000 to about 400 during the period of chief Kin-Ka-Nawha, nephew of See-Whel-Ken. Besides diseases and incursions on their land, the salmon runs began to diminish because to the development of commercial fisheries at Astoria, Oregon near the mouth of the Columbia. Some saw the die-off as a failure of the powers of their traditional religion; Kin-Ka-Nawha was, himself, among the eventual converts to Catholicism.[17]

[edit] One Nation, Two Countries

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.

In the wake of the partition, the Hudson's Bay fur company created Fort Shepherd, just upstream from the confluence of the Pend d'Oreille and Columbia Rivers, which was very near the border, in order to serve their former clients and also maintain a post on British territory 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, for example, it was left in Sinixt hands.

[edit] Gold/Silver Rushes

Prospectors began entering Sinixt territory in British Columbia in the 1850s and 60s. Nevertheless, the Sinixt managed to maintain effective control over their northern traditional territory through the 1850s, '60s, and '70s, despite some conflict. While often accommodating White interests, they continued to claim ownership in British Columbia and resisted the American miners, sometimes by force. The Sinixt blocked all Non-Native access to their Canadian territories on a number of occasions. Virtually no non-Sinixt entered the Slocan Valley until the late 1880s.

However, their reduced numbers resulted in the Sinixt being unable to control development 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.

Kin-Ka-Nawha resigned his role as chief as an old man. He was succeeded by Joseph Cotolegu, with Aorpaghan and James Bernard (c. 1870–1935) as subchiefs. They would succeed him, in turn, as leaders.[18]

[edit] Colville Confederated Tribes

On the U.S. side, the Colville Confederated Tribes—now the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation — were formally established in 1872. They were forced to become wards of the government on the Colville Reservation. It was at this time that the name Sinixt or Sin Aikst was dropped in favor of Lakes, apparently at the behest of the U.S. government.[19]

Initially, the Confederated Tribes were given a reservation east of the Columbia. Three months later, it was taken away (because white settlers wanted it) and they were given a comparably large tract on the west side of the river on inferior land. Initially this reservation extended all the way to the Canadian Border, but the northern half was taken away in 1892, which separated it from Sinixt traditional territory in British Columbia; in addition, as more tribes lost their land, the shrinking reservation had to absorb yet more people.[20] Even then, they had to deal with incusions of miners, homesteaders, and settlers such as the Doukhobors, who arrived from Russia in 1912.[21]

In 1900, Aropaghan, over James Bernard's objection, agreed to have the land divided into individual allotments rather than held in common; he also agreed to include "half breeds" equally in the allocation.[22]

Bernard journeyed three times to Washington, D.C. on behalf of his people: first in 1890 as interpreter for Chief Smitkin of the Colvilles, then in 1900 with Chief Lot and Chief Barnaby to negotiate the reservation boundaries, and finally in 1921 as chair of a delegation of the Confederated Tribes.[23]

[edit] Grand Coulee Dam

Until the construction of Grand Coulee Dam, the Lower Sinixt continued to fish in their traditional manner at Kettle Falls. The Upper Sinixt could no longer get that far south. They continued to elect a Salmon Chief. They fished with baskets on poles that caught the salmon who were not strong enough to clear the falls, and also with spears that had detachable tips, like a harpoon. Reyes sees this as the end of the traditional life of the Colville and Lakes: "After the concrete was poured into the steel framework to form the base of the dam, the great salmon runs ended. … It brought to a close a great tradition that had existed for centuries. From that day on… there was always a shortage of food. The bands dispersed… the great days of the Sin-Aikst were over."[24] A few years later, rising waters from the dam also engulfed the largely Sinixt community of Inchelium, Washington on the banks of the Columbia, which had to be relocated, further disrupting even remnants of their traditional way of life.[25]

[edit] Return to Canada

A permanent Sinixt presence was reestablished in British Columbia during 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 at Vallican resulted in a road being placed very near the large pithouse village. Since then, a permanent Sinixt presence continues in the Slocan Valley, with local members overseeing the repatriation of remains and playing an increasing role in local affairs.

[edit] Archaeology

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 Sinixt descendants from receiving their due recognition in Canada.

[edit] Status today

The Sinixt today live primarily on the Colville Indian Reservation in Washington, where they form part of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, which has governmental recognition as an American Indian Tribe.

A few Sinixt live in their traditional West Kootenay territory, particularly the Slocan Valley. They are not recognized by the Canadian government, and were officially declared "extinct" by that country in the 1950s by the Indian Act. There were several hundred Sinixt in Washington State at the time the Canadians declared the Sinixt extinct, along with other self-identifying Sinixt who had relocated with relatives to the Canadian Okanagan. Today, the Sinixt are taking steps to reclaim their rights in British Columbia, where the vast majority of their ancestral territory lies.

[edit] Sinixt as "Urban Indians"

One particular family of Sinixt have figured quite prominently among recent-day "urban Indians". Bernie Whitebear (1937–2000), a Seattle Indian rights activist and founder of several "urban Indian" organizations, was declared Washington state's "First Citizen of the Decade" in November 1997[26]; his sister Luana Reyes (c.1933—2001) was, at the time of her death, deputy director of the U.S.'s 14,000-person Indian Health Services[27]; and their brother Lawney Reyes (b. c.1931) is a Seattle-based sculptor, designer, curator and author.[28]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ "Sinixt Nation…"
  2. ^ Reyes 2002, passim.
  3. ^ "Sinixt Nation…"
  4. ^ Paula Pryce, Keeping the Lakes' way: reburial and the re-creation of a moral world among an invisible peopleUniversity of Toronto Press, 1999. ISBN: 0802044190. passim.
  5. ^ Reyes 2002, p. 25.
  6. ^ Reyes 2002, p. 8, 45.
  7. ^ Reyes 2002, p. 15.
  8. ^ Reyes 2002, p. 14.
  9. ^ Reyes 2002, p. 15–18.
  10. ^ Reyes 2002, p. 18.
  11. ^ Reyes 2002, p. 8–9.
  12. ^ Reyes 2002, p. 11–12, 25.
  13. ^ Reyes 2002, p. 11–12.
  14. ^ Reyes 2002, p. 13.
  15. ^ Reyes 2002, p. 8.
  16. ^ Reyes 2002, p. 24.
  17. ^ Reyes 2002, p. 25–26.
  18. ^ Reyes 2002, p. 26, 39, 41.
  19. ^ Reyes 2002, p. 28.
  20. ^ Reyes 2002, p. 29.
  21. ^ Reyes 2002, p. 31, 34.
  22. ^ Reyes 2002, p. 38.
  23. ^ Reyes 2002, p. 39.
  24. ^ Reyes 2002, Chapter 4. Quotation is on p. 49.
  25. ^ Reyes 2002, Chapter 5.
  26. ^ Reyes 2002, p. 191, 192.
  27. ^ Reyes 2002, p. 185–186, gives her title as "assistant director," but the July 1999 Final Report of the National Congress of American Indians National Policy Work Group on Contract Support Costs (accessed online 11 March 2007) gives it as Deputy Director, as does Summary Report for the “Mobilizing American Indian and Alaska Native Communities Workshop on Improving Cardiovascular Health”, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute — Indian Health Board Partnership, May 7–8, 2001 (accessed online 11 March 2007) and other similar official documents.
  28. ^ Reyes 2002, passim.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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