Learn about the Sinixt people Tuesday at the Rod and Gun Club
By Contributor
As input sessions into the Columbia River Treaty make their way around the region, a group of people are planning a reminder for the provincial government and Columbia Basin Trust of the importance of indigenous rights of the Sinixt people at the Rod and Gun Club meeting Tuesday night.
The Nelson meeting is scheduled to run from 6-9 p.m.
“Support for the Sinixt is an important bedrock in the process of considering renegotiation of the Columbia River Treaty,” said Nelson author Eileen Delahanty Pearkes.
Pearkes wrote The Geography of Memory, a book that chronicles the history of the Sinixt people in their traditional territory from northern Washington to Revelstoke.
“The red tape involved in reversing the bureaucratic extinction of these people would be significant, but that doesn’t mean that we as residents of the Basin can’t say that we respect and honour Sinixt territorial rights, and we’d like the government and the Trust to do so as well”
Pearkes has been attending and presenting at various Columbia River Treaty consultation meetings and conferences on both sides of the border.
“How we treat and value water is very important to our identity as a region and to the future of our prosperity,” she says. “The media can play a large part in engaging the public on important issues that governments and institutions may wish to shy away from.”
