Sinixt Peoples
The Rossland Museum & Discovery Centre is on unceded Sinixt tmxʷúlaʔxʷ.
Tmxʷúlaʔxʷ (pronounced tem-who-lau-h - previously/also spelled “təmxʷúlaʔxʷ”) has a range of definitions including "the land and all things/beings within it" and "the place where the Sinixt belong along with everyone else who belongs there.” The root of these definitions is the same: home.
This webpage is part of the ongoing work we have undertaken with the Autonomous Sinixt to do a better job of integrating Sinixt stories in the Rossland Museum. This is ongoing work, so check back in! Because we live and work on Sinixt tmxʷúlaʔxʷ, the Rossland Museum & Discovery Centre acknowledges that it is our responsibility to continue to expand our knowledge and assist in the efforts to expand local knowledge of the Sinixt peoples.
Swarak'xn Chaptikwl- The Frog Mountain Story as told by Sinixt Elder Eva Adolph Orr in the Sinixt sn-selxcin dialect.
Find an English transcription of the Frog Mountain story on the Sinixt Nation website.
Chaptikwls are Sinixt creation stories.
They teach lessons and offer guidance about how one should live and interact, as well as describe how the landscape came to be.
Sinixt people speak sn-selxcin, a unique dialect of the Salish language. Marilyn James, Sinixt Matriarch, and her cohort in Blood of Life Collective are actively working on dialect revitalization and the museum is excited and honoured to be a site for the traditional names map both within a museum display as well as for sale in the museum shop. This brochure is so full of great historical and traditional-name content! We also look forward to being a future repository of a digital (geolive) copy of the map as this is an ongoing project.
The map was designed by Dayna Fidler (Luna Consulting) with photos from Catherine Fisher, Keith Wiley, and the Valhalla Foundation for Ecology and art contributions from Dayna Fidler, Zoey Fidler, Christine Wilkinson, and Jenna Fidler Hopper.
To hear Marilyn James discuss the importance of dialect and Indigenous language resurgence, click here for the full press release for the recent Our Living Languages travelling exhibition from the Royal BC Museum, or view Marilyn’s blessing below:
On February 18th, 2021, we were honoured to have Marilyn James - Sinixt Matriarch - welcome the Our Living Languages travelling exhibition from the Royal BC Museum to unceded Sinixt tmxʷúlaʔxʷ (territory).
But there is more work to do!
“If you learn our language, you learn the language of the land, you learn the language of all the things on the land.” [...] It’s time everyone came to a good relationship [to Sinixt tmxʷúlaʔxʷ]. Learning these things [Sn-selxcin dialect] is how to take a step in that direction.”
You can hear more of Marilyn James’ and Taress Alexis’ oral stories on your next visit to the museum. We also have their beautifully illustrated companion book - Not Extinct: Keeping the Sinixt Way - available in the gift shop. Below, you can hear a sample of the Chaptikwls included in Not Extinct as Taress Alexis shares the story of How the Huckleberry Came to Kettle Falls.
The People of the Place of the Bull Trout
The West Kootenays, as well as Rossland in particular, is a key part of the Sinixt Nation’s homeland. Sinixt territory stretches north of Revelstoke, BC down south of Kettle Falls, Washington encompassing an area west of the Arrow Lakes and just east of Kootenay Lake. Before it was coveted for the gold which lay within, Red Mountain - on the outskirts of where Rossland now lies - was an important berry picking site for the Sinixt people.
The construction of the dams in the West Kootenays is one of the main reasons for the displacement of the Sinixt peoples, who used to have permanent communities in southern British Columbia and Northern Washington. With the introduction of prospectors, mines, and boomtowns, intolerance for indigenous peoples grew, making settlements near these boom towns less desirable. Moreover, the extensive damming of the Kootenay River among other rivers changed the local environment, notably destroying many Kokanee Salmon runs in use by the Sinixt. Since the early 1900s, the Sinixt peoples have increasingly utilized their southern reaches of territory in Washington State over those in British Columbia, which resulted in fewer and fewer permanent Sinixt settlements existing north of the border for a few generations.
Moreover, the vast majority of important cultural Sinixt sites were destroyed by the flooding caused by dam building, with a notably large impact on gravesites. In Canada, only a few gravesites remain undamaged by the dams, located in the South Slocan. This area in general remains the final small pocket of undisturbed Sinixt territory within BC.
In 1956, due to what it claimed as a lack of tangible heritage sites and physical presence, the Canadian government declared the Sinixt Nation extinct, a completely false statement. The history of the Sinixt First Nation that lived here before the mining camps and continued to live in the area has largely been ignored by the Canadian government and settlers in the area.
A 2019 BC Supreme Court decision upheld an earlier 2017 decision and affirmed Sinixt indigenous hunting rights regardless of their country of birth.
The Sturgeon-Nosed Canoe
The traditional canoe of the Sinixt were crafted of Western White Pine and designed similar to the sturgeon fish with its pointed head and tail. This design was well-adapted to the varied waters throughout the region, including how lightweight it was - making it easy to transport over passes or difficult terrain.
Sturgeon-nosed canoes in collections across the world are often attributed to the Ktunaxa alone.
1977.047.1: Canadian Canoe Museum - Sturgeon-Nose Balsam Bark Canoe attributed to the Ktunaxa alone - Stated: “No other Aboriginal nation in North America builds canoes in the same style as the Kutenai.”
2340.0013: Sturgeon caught on the Kootenay River at Bonnington, April 7, 1925.
Listen to a short radio documentary from CBC Listen: The Doc Project with Acey Rowe
Rumours of Extinction
Shelly Boyd is Sinixt. She's from the Colville Reservation in Washington, just across the British Columbia border. Shelly is proud of her heritage and who she is... But her sense of home, of where her community belongs, is less solid. Over the last century and a half, the Sinixt were pushed off their land in B.C. and into the southern corner of their traditional territory in the U.S. In 1956, the Canadian government declared the Sinixt extinct. But... they weren't. Now, they're fighting to reverse the extinction, and come home.
Aired: Jan. 21, 2020
Full Article Here: Canada Declared the Sinixt Extinct but the Sinixt say they are Alive and Well.
For more information:
Developed and managed by the collective group of Indigenous human-beings who are the sovereign Indigenous caretakers of Sinixt tm-ula7xw.
Sinixt GeoForms Traditional Territory Map
The sinixt.geoforms.ca map project is an interactive and layered, digital map aimed at illuminating traditional Sinixt territory. This counter-mapping project provides new opportunities for learning more about Sinixt locations as well as pronunciations of words in the Sinixt dialect, snslxcin. Words in snslxcin can be heard by clicking on the related map points while context and references can be found alongside this to further highlight the connection to the people of this land.
Kootenay Co-Op Radio Sinixt Stories Collection
Sinixt storytellers and knowledge-keepers Marilyn James and Taress Alexis take us on 22 captivating and informative journeys, each show illuminating different aspects of this ancient culture. Though the Sinixt continue their deep ancestral relationship with their homeland at the headwaters of the Columbia River, they were declared extinct by the Canadian government in 1956. Sinixt Stories: Ancestral Roots, Cultural Seeds is one step on the Sinixt journey to reclaim their rights and responsibilities in their x̌aʔx̌aʔ tm xúlaʔxʷ – their sacred homeland.
This series was produced by Catherine Fisher with the assistance of the Blood of Life collective including Marilyn James, Taress Alexis, Axel McGown, K.L. Kivi, Amber Santos and Alison Christie. The work of the Blood of Life collective has been funded by the Canada Council for the Arts Aboriginal Storytelling Program, the BC Council for the Arts and the Columbia Kootenay Cultural Alliance of the Columbia Basin Trust. Thanks to the vital support of the Nelson and District Women’s Centre and Kootenay Co-op Radio.
Contribute your own experiences/knowledge of the Sinixt tmxʷúlaʔxʷ:
The form below will email us your message. If you prefer to speak to us directly or have other questions or comments about this page, please call (250) 362-7722 or email the archives directly at archives@rosslandmuseum.ca