From my front yard I watched the pyrocumulus clouds rise from the fires in Canada. From her post at Goat Peak Lookout, Christine Estrada photographed astounding images of the fire glow — these can be seen on her Facebook page, “Where in the Wild is Chris?” I thought about the traditional Sinixt and Okanogan territories burning north of the border, and the instrumental role Methow Valley’s Richard Hart had in a landmark court ruling regarding those ancestral lands. His archival papers related to the case were recently made available online by the Inchelium Cultural Research Center.
The Sinixt traditional territory borders the Okanogan territory to the east, and stretches from Nelson to Revelstoke, B.C. The anglicized name of the Sinixt is “Arrow Lakes,” or, “Lakes.” In 1872, the Sinixt people were forcibly removed from their lands in Canada to the Colville Reservation in Okanogan County, along with 11 other tribes. In 1892, the northern half of the reservation was eliminated, completely cutting off the Sinixt from their homeland. In 1897, British Columbia made it illegal for the Sinixt to cross the border to practice aboriginal rights, and in 1956, the Canadian government declared the Sinixt extinct — despite the nearly 3,000 members existing on the Colville Indian Reservation.
In 1989, construction began on a highway, bulldozing through a known burial site, and unearthing human remains. Residents in British Columbia notified the Sinixt. Richard Desautel and his wife Linda, along with other Sinixt descendants, traveled to Nelson, B.C., to request the return of their families’ bones for proper burial. The request was ignored. The surviving Sinixt realized that in order to protect their ancestors, they needed to abolish the “extinction” declaration.
For 20 years, the Sinixt tried every course to reverse the ruling and gain legal access to protect archeological sites and graves, and conduct ceremonial hunting. Every request was denied. In 2010, after consulting with legal counsel, historians and tribal leaders, Rick Desautel was chosen to harvest an elk within Sinixt traditional territory — a test for the judicial system.
Rick, a retired Fish &Wildlife Officer, is a Sinixt Tribal Member and Ceremonial Hunter. After harvesting the elk, Rick turned himself in to the B.C. conservation officer and was cited for hunting as a non-resident without a proper license. In 2017, a lower court agreed that Sinixt had rights in their aboriginal lands and acquitted Rick. The government appeal was considered of national importance and was presented to the Canadian Supreme Court, titled, “Richard Lee Desautel vs. Her Majesty the Queen” in October, 2020.
Attorneys for British Columbia claimed by moving south of the 49th parallel, the Sinixt gave up their rights in Canada, and stated the Sinixt, “left enthusiastically to embrace farming.” This statement was emphatically disproven beyond a shadow of a doubt by Sinixt Elders and their expert witness, ethnologist Richard Hart. On April 23, 2021, Canada’s highest court ruled in favor of Sinixt and their aboriginal rights in the Lakes territory.
Richard’s role was instrumental in the case. In particular, his article, “Maps Showing Sinixt Territory, 1811-1846” in the Canadian Cartographic Association peer-reviewed academic journal Cartographica was a strong argument for the Sinixt claim to traditional territories.
Richard’s digital archives are free to access and are located online at www.incheliumcrc.org/richard-hart-collection.
Derrick LaMere, a Sinixt descendant and award-winning documentary film director, documented the court case with his production, “Older than the Crown” — a collection of archival footage and personal interviews. His film can be viewed for free on PBS at www.pbs.org/show/older-crown.
To view an interactive map of traditional territories in our region, visit “A Brief History” at www.colvilletribes.com.
