This compact book records a quest for understanding, to find the story behind the Sinixt First Nation. Known in the United States as the Arrow Lakes Indians of the Colville Confederated Tribes, the tribe lived along the upper Columbia River and its tributaries for thousands of years. In a story unique to First Nations in Canada, the Canadian federal government declared them “extinct” in 1956, eliminating with the stroke of a pen this tribe’s ability to access legally 80% of their trans-boundary traditional territory.
Part travelogue, part cultural history, the book details the culture, place names, practices and landscape features of the lost tribe of British Columbia, through a contemporary lens that presents all readers with an opportunity to participate in reconciliation.