431-00073 (Indigenous affairs)

We, the undersigned residents of Canada who support the Truth and Reconciliation of Aboriginal Peoples of Canada, draw the attention of the House to the following:

THAT, the Canadian government declared the Sinixt Tribal group extinct in 1956;

THAT, prior to this declaration the Sinixt had existed and were long recognized as an autonomous tribal group;

THAT, the Sinixt Peoples (also known as the Lakes Tribe, Lakes Salish, Arrow Lakes Indians and/or Arrow Lakes(s) Band in Canada and the United States of America) have never in fact ceased to exist as a tribal group;

THAT, the traditional/ancestral territory of the Sinixt in the Columbia Mountains, as surveyed and mapped repeatedly, lies from the peak of the Monashee Range in the west to the peak of the Purcell Range in the east, including the entire Selkirk Range; and from north of Revelstoke, BC., south to Kettle Falls, Washington, USA;

THAT, the Sinixt Territory remains unceded;

THAT, the Sinixt continue to uphold their cultural laws and protect the spiritual integrity of the land, the water and the environment for continued renewal of all life throughout the ancestral territory they have never abandoned;

THAT, the Sinixt Peoples assert that they are an aboriginal people of Canada within the meaning of Section 35 of the Constitutional Act, 1982;

THAT, the Truth and Reconciliation Report acknowledges that the aim of Canadian government policy was to "cause Aboriginal peoples to cease to exist as distinct legal, social, cultural, religious, and racial entities in Canada";

THAT, past wrongs conducted against aboriginal people of Canada, which includes the Sinixt, must be reconciled;

THAT, the government is engaged in a treaty process that recognizes other tribal groups which are claiming Sinixt territory but excludes all the Sinixt Peoples.

THEREFORE, your Petitioners call upon Parliament to reverse the wrongful Declaration of Extinction of Sinixt (Sngaytskstx) Tribal Group and take immediate steps to recognize the Sinixt as an autonomous tribal group within their traditional/ancestral Canadian Territory.