Dozens of canoers and paddleboarders cast off from the Martha Creek Provincial Park boat launch Wednesday morning, June 11, on a days-long passage down the Columbia River that's remained integral to Sinixt tradition for centuries.
For the 10th year this revived journey, organized by the Inchelium Language & Culture Association, brought the Upper Columbia United Tribes and Colville Confederated Tribes to their ancestral waters, the event also marked the second year dozens of paddlers have launched from north of Revelstoke.
The voyage runs roughly 370 kilometres down the Columbia River basin and traverses 14 dams, with an expected arrival at the final destination of Kettle Falls on Friday, June 20. Paddlers break along the way in Nakusp, Slocan, Castlegar, Nelson and possibly also New Denver or Silverton.
Included in their stops is a visit to the Arrow Lakes Indian Reserve, later known as the Oatscott Reserve, which opened in 1902, according to Sinixt Elder Shelly Boyd, a grandmother of 13 and great-grandmother of two.
"From the headwaters near Revelstoke to the salmon fishing grounds of Kettle Falls, this canoe journey travels through the heart of Sinixt territory—a living map of the Nation’s ancestral and ongoing stewardship," a release from Wednesday's canoe launch reads.
Though the Sinixt's first settler-recorded voyage down the Columbia happened in 1811 when British explorer David Thompson made the first European contact with paddlers on the Arrow Lakes, "We believe it's been going on since time immemorial," Boyd said.
"It was a long journey getting our recognition back as Aboriginal people of Canada."
Over the course of almost 200 years, however, colonial influences such as dams have totally changed the conditions of these voyages.
"This would've been a most treacherous canoe journey," Boyd said. "Now it's still water."
Also, unlike today, these waters once sparkled with heaps of Chinook salmon, which Boyd recounted were caught by the Sinixt at up to 100 pounds.
"This was a great salmon," she recalled. "It was so powerful."
The release adds that the Sinixt continue to push for the return of this keystone species to the upper watershed.
"We say, 'save the salmon, save the world,'" Boyd said. "There's this reciprocity between salmon and us as human beings."
She said that the more people who pray for salmon revitalization in the Columbia, the better.
This year's launch was the first time in recent memory where Sinixt paddlers lowered a traditional dugout canoe into the waters north of Revelstoke, Boyd noted.
Artist Shawn Brigman, an enrolled Spokane Tribe of Indians member who descended from the Sinixt, Kalispel and Shuswap Peoples, specializes in crafting bark sturgeon-nose canoes reflective of those historically used for these voyages. Boyd shared that Brigman departs Thursday, June 12, on an exhibition across the Southern Interior to share this centuries-old craft.
For the Sinixt voyageurs and other paddlers passing through Revelstoke (snkx̌ykntn), Wednesday concludes with a public feast at 6:30 p.m. at the Community and Aquatic Centre, prepared by the Neighbourhood Kitchen.
"The dinner honours the Sinixt and their ongoing stewardship of these lands and waters as they journey to the Kettle Falls salmon ceremony," Tourism Revelstoke shared in a release.
All ticket sale proceeds will go toward the Inchelium Language & Culture Association, helping support the remainder of the Sinixt community's voyage.
