Sinixt people pledged long ago to fight despite Colville Business Council hindrance

Autonomous Sinixt recently self-identified as Autonomous, despite functioning as autonomous for over 35 years in British Colombia (BC). Beginning with the occupation at the Vallican Heritage Site, to prevent road construction from destroying one of our ancient burial and village sites, our deceased Elder, Eva Adolph Campbell Orr, led a collective of Sinixt Peoples to occupy this site: The longest, ongoing peaceful occupation of unceded Indigenous lands in Canada.

Our Sinixt ancestors’ spirits, and descendants’ attention towards overcoming the 1956 BC/Crown-colonizer-piracy declaring Sinixt “extinction”, were followed by an oral pledge to fight BC and the Crown independently, without the hindrances of the Colville Business Council.

The Colville Confederated Tribes (CCT) and “Sinixt Confederacy” joint press release on 7/6/22 confirm the wisdom of Autonomous Sinixt’ go-it-alone sensibilities to overcome Crown “extinction”. In the early 2000s during the Robert Watt case, Autonomous Sinixt, were rebuked by the Colville Business Council, who aligned with the BC Court, the Crown and Okanogan Nation Alliance (ONA). ONA has an active claim filed with the Crown for all Sinixt Territory for itself. It is no longer a secret CCT is collaborating with the ONA to: Claim Sinixt Territory; deny Sinixt as a distinct Peoples; erase our own dialect; and support resource extraction in our traditional territory in Canada, including open pit mining. CCT’s “Sinixt Confederacy” is self-colonized label, complete with a “Chairman,” is a cruel hoax upon those mis-led by the Sinixt Confederacy to divide Sinixt Peoples while professing unity with the ONA.

Andy Joseph’s misogynistic-patriarchal colonial assault toward Matriarch Marilyn James may not even be fully understood by Andy himself. Marilyn, not Andy or other jealous connivers, was appointed by Eva Adolph Campbell Orr to carry on her work at the Vallican site.

Lou Stone

Autonomous Sinixt

Inchelium