First Nations clash over salmon, territory in transboundary dispute in Southern BC – Penticton News

Dispute is brewing among First Nations groups along the Canada-U.S. border in the Okanagan over cooperation on sockeye salmon recovery projects and other land claims.

The Okanagan Nation Alliance Fisheries is concerned about that progress made in recent years Returning sockeye salmon to the Okanagan River could be in jeopardy due to funding decisions south of the border.

According to an ONA press release issued this week, they believe a choice by the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation – located in Washington state – has failed them.

Colville Tribes’ joint project funding of approximately $400,000 CA per year that had historically been allocated to the ONA salmon efforts was canceled this summer. The ONA calls this ‘short-sighted’.

“This last-minute cancellation has left our project staff in disarray, delaying projects (and threatening jobs),” said Chief Robert Louie of the Westbank First Nation, a community of Syilx Okanagan Nation.

“The salmon are too important to play politics with, and we will take care of them, but it is important to note that this cancellation was deeply disruptive and sharply at odds with Chairman Jarred Erickson’s recent media comments that his tribes ‘want to live in unity and partnership’ with our nation.”

The Syilx Okanagan Nation accused Colville of pursuing a “unilateral agenda to reach across the border into Canada, demanding and acting to gain ownership over the Syilx Okanagan Nation Territory.” The Syilx Okanagan Nation has never tried to do the same in the US and in fact has done so. willing to meet and discuss issues, with an outstretched hand that remains open to Colville.”

“In retrospect, the cancellation was not simply an escalation of Colville’s move away from our Syilx Unity Declaration,” Chief Louie said in the press release.

“But it also appears to be a direct push for full control of fish passage in Upper Columbia, salmon reintroduction and research – work we have successfully led in all parts of our territory. Our salmon recovery partnership was a testament to the success we achieve when we work together, as our people have done for thousands of years. Our door has always been open and will always remain open to work together again with our American relatives, as we have always had one language, one country, one culture and one people.”

Colville Chairman Jarred Erickson disagreed with some of the characterizations in the press release.

He asserted that while the $400,000 in funding is indeed not flowing north this year, that doesn’t mean tribes in Colville aren’t working on salmon recovery.

“The work is still getting done, just not through ONA. It’s a shame they haven’t budgeted properly, I think, to rely on funding for positions, that’s not my job for them,” Erickson said.

“We all have our unique histories, and we know who we are as people. And it’s just a shame that it has become politicized. And I don’t want to see that. I want to work together.”

Another source of contention its land claims around the Arrow Lakes area of ​​B.C Erickson calls it the “Sinixt Confederacy”, and the ONA claims it as part of the Eastern Territory of the Syilx Okanagan Nation.

The Sinixt people were wrongly declared extinct by the colonial Canadian government in the 20th century, a decision that was overturned by the highest courts in 2021 and granted hunting and harvesting rights to Sinixt people now settled in Washington State in the BC area.

The ONA claims that “the Syilx Okanagan Nation is the successor group to Sinixt descendants because many members of our communities are of Sinixt descent, the Sinixt have always been part of the Syilx Okanagan Nation, and we have continued to hunt, gather, our ceremonies travel and perform throughout our area, including the Arrow Lakes region, to this day.”

Erickson said he is both Okanagan and Sinixt, and called it “disappointing” that what he considers politics has become involved.

The ONA press release emphasizes the commitment to caring for the country in partnership.

Erickson agreed, adding that he hopes “we can find a solution in the future.”