Okanagan Nation Alliance in Canada says governments and industry need to limit the influence of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, a group based in eastern Washington whose claims challenge the nature of the U.S.-Canada border
One of the most powerful Indigenous alliances in Canada is opening a new campaign to sideline a tribal group in the U.S. that has claimed the right to influence development and resources in a large swath of British Columbia.
Last year, the Colville Tribes opened an office in Nelson, B.C., a beachhead to allow the group to pursue its claim to be the only rightful successor to the Lakes people, a group whose Indigenous distinctness was noted by early explorers and cartographers before Canada declared it extinct in 1956. “Sinixt, quite frankly, are peoples within the Okanagan Nation,” said Chief Robert Louie of the Westbank First Nation.
As a result, “the Lakes Tribe is an Aboriginal people of Canada,” the Supreme Court of Canada found in 2021. In that case, itthat a Colville hunter named Richard Desautel had the right to kill an elk in land once occupied by the Lakes in B.C. “They said, ‘We’ll consult with you outside of that process,’” said John Gailus, a Victoria lawyer who has represented several Indigenous groups in the U.S. But that amounts to notification and not proper consultation, he said.
The two groups share similar languages and were close enough to sign a unity declaration in 2010, pledging to jointly pursue economic expansion, cultural rejuvenation and even title claims.
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