Sinixt expansion ‘risks opening a Pandora’s box of transborder claims,’ says Okanagan chief

By Aaron Hemens, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter IndigiNews Leaders from the syilx Okanagan Nation are raising concerns about the “ever-expanding transborder claims” of a related tribe in the “U.S.” that has begun asserting land rights north of the border. An email obtained by IndigiNews last week from the province’s tourism ministry confirmed the Sinixt Confederacy has extended what it considers its area of consultation to include the Big White Ski Resort near “Kelowna.” The resort 80 kilometres north of the border sits on the ancestral territory of the syilx Okanagan Nation. For years, responsibility for the area has fallen under the Westbank First Nation’s (WFN) jurisdiction. “What is happening at Big White, and in the eastern part of our territory, goes far beyond anything prescribed by the courts to date,…

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