Sinixt Nation is the collective group of indigenous human-beings who are the sovereign indigenous caretakers of Sinixt tum-ula7xw (mother-earth), located in the area now known as "the interior plateau of BC, Canada". Sinixt territory extends North of "Revelstoke, BC", crosses a international boundaries to "Kettle Falls, Washington" in the south, to the Monashee Ridge in the West, and in the east and is traditionally all the way from the Rocky Mountain Ridge encompassing the entirety of the headwaters of the "shwan-etk-qwa" (Columbia River) . Sinixt Nation are the traditional gatekeepers to the lands which lead to the grease trails to Blackfoot territory to the east. Sinixt Nation puts our land, our water, our ancestors and our ways before economics.
In 1956, the government of Canada declared us extinct and has refused ever since to allow Sinixt people to our inherent right to Sinixt interests, including land title, in our territory. For over 25 years, the appointed Sinixt Nation indigenous-government members have actively protected and stood up for Sinixt lands, aboriginal rights and interests and indigenous rights and interests, and the interests of the settler communities in regards to watershed protection in within our territory north of the 49th parallel.
To date, Sinixt Nation has repatriated 64 ancestral remains and have continued to follow our cultural laws and responsibilities and to protected our ancestral remains and cultural sites.
Sinixt Nation Headman, Llmixm Ki-x'u-x'us-kit (Vance Robert Campbell Sr.), was appointed by Sinixt Headman Francis Romero and a Council of Sinixt/Arrow Lakes Band elders and Clan Mothers at our ancient nkweio-xten (village) and burial grounds along the banks of "slhu7kin-etk-qwa" (Slocan River) near "Vallican, BC".
On one of his (Sinixt Chief James Bernard) trips to Washington, D.C., where he attended a senate hearing of the Colville Delegation, a senate committee-man was reported to have said, “You Indians are never satisfied. Before the white men came, you Indians were naked; you had nothing; your dwelling place was under the trees. When you prepared for bed, you crawled behind a log and covered your breech-clout with a piece of bark. You were dying off with starvation. Now you sit there big and fat; you have a house to live in; you are better off now than you were before. Now go and don’t come back.”
