A text-heavy screenshot of a post by residential school denialist Dallas Brodie, commenting on a Global BC news article about the Sinixt People being granted a role in a legal fight over a Kootenay mine. Brodie states that it's "nonsense" that a "foreign Indian Band has more rights in B.C. than regular British Columbians," when over 80% of the Sinixt People's traditional territory is in the land now claimed by British Columbia and many Sinixt people are also British Columbians. While Brodie says they were declared extinct by Canada in 1956, Brodie also notes they were "re-recognized by the Supreme Court of Canada in 2021," which begs the question of how Brodie came to the conclusion the Sinixt are "foreign."
A screenshot of the Sinixt Wikipedia page that explains what the legal "extinction" means, including a 1995 quote from the Minister of Indian Affairs at the time, Ron Irwin, who Clarke's that "The Arrow Lakes Band ceased to exist as a band for the purpose of the Indian Act... It does not, however, mean that the Sinixt ceased to exist as a tribal group." (August 9, 1995)
The page further states that "about 80% of their ancestral territory lies" in British Columbia.
A screenshot from a page on Sinixt.com of the Desautel Decision (the 2021 re-recognition that Brodie was referring to).
The page states "Declared extinct by the Canadian federal government in 1956, Sinixt people fought for and won the restoration of our rights as an Aboriginal People of Canada, proving that the international boundary cannot divide and change Indigenous identity and culture."
The Desautel Decision means the Sinixt are now federally recognized as a First Nation in Canada and confirms their Aboriginal Rights.
A screenshot of a news article from Tribal Tribune (https://www.tribaltribune.com/news/article_8afb0444-e933-46ef-860d-802a85fcf43a.html) dated April 16, 2026
"Courts Reject Attempt to Exclude the Sinixt from Defending Ancestral Lands
This week courts in British Columbia ('B.C.') rejected an attempt by WHY Resources to exclude the Sinixt, an aboriginal people of Canada, from a court case concerning the company’s proposal to build a mine on Record Ridge near Rossland, B.C.. These decisions affirmed the right of the Sinixt to meaningfully participate in decisions that affect their ancestral homelands.
Record Ridge lies within traditional territory of the Sinixt and includes sensitive ecosystems, old-growth forests, and critical watershed and archaeological values. In August 2025, B.C. allowed the proposed mine to go forward without any study of its potential environmental impacts under B.C.’s Environmental Assessment Act. That ruling was challenged in court by the Sinixt and by the Save Record Ridge Action Committee, a coalition of local residents, businesses, and advocates working to protect the environment in their community. A court hearing will be conducted in May, 2026.
WHY Resources moved to the court to remove the Sinixt from the litigation and ignore the Sinixt perspective. The Supreme Court of B.C. in Rossland ruled against the company on April 14, 2026, recognizing that the Sinixt have a direct and meaningful interest in the outcome of the case and that Sinixt participation would assist judicial review. A judge of the B.C. Court of Appeal, on a different application, on April 15 confirmed the right of the Sinixt to be heard on this important decision involving Sinixt territory.
These rulings come nearly five years after the Supreme Court of Canada’s landmark decision in R. v. Desautel It held that the Sinixt were wrongly declared extinct by Canada and remain an aboriginal people of Canada..."
The #Sinixt are not a "foreign Indian Band."
An invisible border that was only settled 180 years ago doesn't suddenly make a People that are #Indigenous to the land somehow "foreign" & no longer Indigenous.
They didn't stop existing the moment Canada declared them "extinct," either.