The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that the Sinixt First Nation is not extinct and therefore the Canadian government's 65 year old claim that this BC First Nation was extinct is invalid. The First Nation, which still exists in Washington state, therefore has hunting rights in Canada. The ruling also means that other First Nations that can show that they existed in Canada before the arrival of Europeans, also have rights, even if their claims have been declared extinct. The court case came about when a Washington Sinixt deliberately hunted an elk in Canada, and turned himself in order to bring the case to court. It is sad that he had to do this to create a case to uphold his people's rights.
Canada's highest court has upended the federal government's 65-year-old claim that an Indigenous nation from British Columbia's Interior no longer exists.
In a 7-2 decision, the Supreme Court of Canada said the Sinixt Nation, whose reservation is in Washington state, has constitutionally protected Indigenous rights to hunt in their ancestral territory north of the border. The ruling means that if Indigenous groups outside of modern-day Canada can prove they descended from a pre-contact society in what is now Canada, they can claim Section 35(1) rights under the Constitution, which recognizes and affirms the rights of Indigenous Peoples. "Persons who are not Canadian citizens and who do not reside in Canada can exercise an Aboriginal right," the decision said.
The high court said the Sinixt, part of the Salish people who primarily occupied territory in the B.C. Interior and form the Lakes Tribe in northwestern United States, did not "lose" their identity by moving within their traditional territory south of the Canada-U.S. border. "Accordingly, the Lakes Tribe is an Aboriginal people of Canada," the decision said.
The case began in 2010 when Sinixt leaders sent one of their members, Richard Desautel, to shoot and kill an elk in their traditional territory of the Arrow Lakes region in southeastern British Columbia to reclaim their identity in Canada. Desautel phoned the B.C. Conservation Officer Service after his successful hunt to report himself and was charged. ...
Desautel is a member of the Lakes Tribe of the Colville Confederated Tribes based in Washington state, a successor group of the Sinixt people. He argued his right to hunt for ceremonial purposes in the traditional territory of the Sinixt is protected by Canada's Constitution. The Crown maintained Desautel didn't have rights protected by the Constitution because he wasn't part of any recognized Indigenous group in Canada. Desautel won at every level of the B.C. court system, laying the groundwork for the Sinixt to be formally recognized again on Friday as an Indigenous people by the Supreme Court of Canada. ...
The decision could have broad implications for other Indigenous groups with ties to Canada, butDesautel's counsel Mark Underhill said those groups would have to show they maintained a continuous presence in territory that became part of Canada. "That will open the door for them hopefully to have their rights recognized in Canada," Underhill said.
Now that the Sinixt have reclaimed their identity in Canada, they are planning their next steps, which may include negotiations with Ottawa and the B.C. government. "We can reunite again with Sinixt members in Canada and rebuild a confederacy of all the Sinixts people to address and work with many of the ministries of British Columbia," said Rodney Cawston, chair of the Colville Confederated Tribes.
The federal government told CBC News it is analyzing the impact of the decision. Cawston said there is a lot of work ahead on things such as figuring out border crossings. ....
The Supreme Court of Canada agreed with the trial judge, who held that the Sinixt engaged in hunting, fishing and gathering in their traditional territory in the Arrow Lakes area before and after first contact in 1811. The trial judge said Desautel was exercising his traditional right to hunt for ceremonial purposes guaranteed under the Constitution, and the application of the Wildlife Act unjustifiably infringed on that right. Desautel was acquitted. ...
The Supreme Court of British Columbia also dismissed a summary conviction appeal, as did the B.C. Court of Appeal. The B.C. government appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada on the grounds that it's a case of national significance.
The Sinixt say they lived in the north-south valley stretching from present-day Kettle Falls, Wash., to Revelstoke, B.C., well into the 1700s. Eighty per cent of their pre-contact traditional territory is in Canada. Smallpox and the arrival of missionaries, miners and settlers pushed the Sinixt out of the West Kootenay region of B.C. and off their territory. Some moved south to the U.S., taking up residence on the Colville Confederated Tribes reservation in the late 1800s. ...
In 1902, the federal government set aside a reserve for the Arrow Lakes Band, which included a few Sinixt members who remained in their traditional territory in Canada. In 1956, the last living member of the Arrows Lakes Band died and the federal government declared the Sinixt "extinct" and without the rights of a First Nation in Canada.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/supreme-court-of-canada-desautel-sinixt...