Older Than The Crown

(soft music) -

Native

People from the Lake Tribe. -

Native

The Sinixt. (gentle acoustic music) -

Yvonne Swan

We the Sinixt of the Arrow Lakes are the descendants of the Aboriginal people and occupants of this land. The title to our land is the most ancient, pure and absolute known to man. (gentle acoustic music) (gentle music continues) Its date is beyond the reach of human records, its validity is confirmed by possession, occupation and enjoyment long before any pretense of claim by any portion of the human race. (gentle acoustic music) (gentle music continues) All of these creations given by the creator have never been knowingly relinquished, sold, ceded, traded or lost through defeat in war.

These creations have never been a subject of treaty, nor have they ever been surrendered willingly, by the Sinixt, the Arrow Lakes people, except as taken by fraud. (gentle acoustic music) The one who gave us these gifts that are in dispute in this case is the only one who can change that. That is Klinchutin the creator. We have inherited these gifts and our territory through coparceny, which is by virtue of descent, and what the creator has put together let no man put asunder.

(gentle acoustic music) (gentle music continues) (music fades) This is the tribal big house. We call it the big house. (laughs) Anyway, the tribe bought for the purposes of help as an interpretive center, whatnot, for Lakes people that want to come up here and walk through the area that we're gonna walk through and tell 'em a little bit about their history and their past and stuff, where they came from. (Rick humming) Some of the trees I had cut out a road.

As we're going down through here, you'll see that the pits are bigger,. and that's just because they haven't eroded trough the times and whatnot. When I was very young, I realized that I was a member of The Colville Confederated Tribes who is made up of a number of different tribes. And so I walked up and I asked my grandmother and I says, "Well, what tribe am I from?" And she says, "Well You're from the Lakes." I said, "Okay." So for a great number of years, I thought I was a Twin Lakes Indian.

(chuckles) That was the nearest lake. Yeah, yeah. Now where you're standing there, that's where we had our guard station. We just kinda would interview or talk to people when they came here to camp and stuff.

That there particular highway there was just more or less a little dirt road if you want call it that. It was just a roughed out area where they cut some stuff out of there. (car passes) It's changed through the years. The main issue that brought us here was the fact that the people who were building this highway unearthed some bones of our ancestors, and now they're being held in captivity in a museum in Victoria.

There are six adults and one child. We'd like those remains brought here to us so our elders can direct us on a proper reburial service with respect to our sacred way of life. -

Interviewer

Wasn't that something that... Because we were declared extinct The Canadian government didn't want to talk to us. People from Canada knew more about it than us, so they told us that those remains belong to the Arrow Lakes and the Canadian government knew that, but they didn't want to contact the people down here, because it would involve international jurisdiction. (helicopter whirring) -

Walter Swan

We're gonna stop the equipment. -

Camera Operator

So what's happening here today? We're Blockading. We're stopping everything. -

Camera Operator

Why? We're trying to stop further desecration of our ancestor's graves. -

Coose

No comment. See you in court. (delicate music) To protect what we got now. That's what really the grabbing point is.

Protect what we have now and hold on to that there for the future generations. And put out the word that that's what were here for, is to protect our ancestral remains, our ancestral pictographs, anything that points us to our roots and whatnot, so we can point that to our children and their children, their grandchildren and stuff like that there, and let them know that there was a progression before you. This burial grounds, we want to check it out. And if they don't let us, then..

Because it's our ancestors. They sent us up here to do this. We gotta do it. (crowd chattering) I know the most important thing there was, okay, it's a village site, that's got the most pit house sites in it that far down the interior, that close to the border.

And there was a burial ground in it. That is very important. It should be very important to a non-Indian up there, let alone an Indian. -

Interviewee

I've never had any problem with the residents in that area. People have respected my property. We've all known, for instance, that that heritage site was over there for the last 10 years. No one has ever trespassed on that area.

It has been respected in all this time. Now I feel that the Washington State band has shown less respect and consideration for that park than the residents have this past hundred years or more. If this archeological site that they say what they have, it's just like this bush here. There's nothing been done with it.

That's actually why we brought you out here is to show you the distance from the road that the burial site actually is. The difference of once this gravel pit is finished, the difference this land will be, it'll be usable land. It will not be like that over there or that over there. And I think it's know...

It's very important that we stress that fact. It will be a nice piece or property, of a usable piece of property once he's finished with it. (faint speech) And in the beginning, there was so much adrenaline through the whole thing, really, because you're trying to protect everything and keep keep camp going. And then to have them say, "Well, it doesn't matter.

The road's gonna go through. No matter what you did, we're gonna build this road." Totally disrespectful and stuff. So there was anger with that and all of the hurt and disrespect you feel that they would do that to somebody remains. We had no recourse.

Told the elders, "They're not gonna give them back." So we wrote a letter. It said we're gonna caravan over there and we'll see you. We're gonna camp on your doorstep until you give them back to us. A simple ceremony north of the community of Nelson this weekend brought to an end part of a long fight between the government and a small native band.

Members of the Arrow Lakes Band reburied the remains of six natives on the site of an ancient village near the Slocan River. The band was declared extinct by Ottawa more than 30 years ago and is still involved in a fight to regain recognition. But this weekend, band members celebrated their success in bringing some of their ancestors back to their homeland. -

Reporter

For members of a band once believed extinct, the event was not only a victory for their ancestors; it was also a tribute to their 10,000-year history that went before, and a reaffirmation of their strength today and into the future. Despite the efforts of those people who stood literally on the line in the 1980s and all the people who were trying to move things forward on a political level, the door remained firmly shut. The answer was no across the board, and the government was using that door, if you would, to carry on developing resources and carrying out activities in the Arrow Lakes territory without having to talk to anybody, without having to consult at any First Nations. They would say to the other First Nations, "Well, the Sinixt are extinct.

This was Sinixt territory, but they're gone now, so we don't have to worry about that." And so that door was very, very formidable. (soft music) (soft music continues) As the currents and the flow of time pushes you through life, I ended up here. And for whatever reason it says, you've got a destiny here, you've got something to do here. And so I just go with the flow.

Hopefully whatever the creator has in mind for me here, we can get something accomplished, and somewhere down the road, years and years and years and years later, when somebody asks somebody if they're of Lake's descent, they say "Yes, I am. We have our territory runs all to Revelstoke." (audience applauding) Morning. Historical landmark decision. United States versus Canada.

Invisible people versus Canada. For the longest time we've been up there, but since we've been declared extinct in '56, 1956, we had no say in what was going on up there. And the different things that we've tried, different people have tried, and different avenues we've tried up there to be recognized weren't really working. And it was just like we're spinning our wheels.

Every department, every faction we've tried to work with was glad to meet us and see that we was back, but they couldn't really help us, because we was invisible. That was the factor that we had to overcome. We had big discussions and plans. How we can do this?

And we're strategizing. And so that's the one, that happens to be one plans I liked. So let's do a hunting case, and so we started asking around, "Who wants to be the test case and get throw in jail?" (Michael laughs) (Rick sighs) Okay, recording. It's running.

Take one. No, this would be take two. Canadian hunting trip. Lakes aboriginal rights.

Hunting. Deer, elk, moose. In the usual and accustomed areas of our ancestors. Probably ain't gonna get nothin' but we're gonna hunt like a son of a gun anyhow.

(gentle piano music) In one sense, everything was on the line, right? Because what I know some great leaders worried about is, if we try to open that door and we fail, that door will never get opened ever again. And that was a daunting... I know that weighed heavily on a lot of people's minds.

(gentle music) When the time came to pick Rick, he was the best person for it, you know, 'cause he was genuine. And if he was ever going to be put on the witness stand, this is what I thought in my head, who better to explain who we are we do what we do than Rick Desautel? a ceremonial hunter in some of the religious beliefs that are among the twelve tribes and stuff there, if they have a death in the family, they don't do no hunting for a year, and its usually those families there that would call me up and ask me to provide them meat for that year, and it was pretty easy for me to go out there and provide the meat for 'em for that particular time. It fit right in with my job description.

(chuckles) As they say, job description is whatever is written up that day. (laughs) It's unique in my position that I can be hired on as tribal fish and wildlife, as a game agent, and work law enforcement here, and then, by the same entity, be sent to Canada to break the law. (chuckles) Anyhow. I really didn't think it was that much of a big thing.

I'm just a warrior. I was asked to do something, and I went out and tried my best to do it. (gentle music) It was a big ask to ask of anybody to do that, because even us as tribal leadership at the time, we didn't know what was gonna happen. We said we will back you,

because that's one of things he did ask

"Will you back me if I do this?" "Of course. Of course we will." But we didn't know. (gentle music) What really came across so remarkably in the court is two things that that always jump my mind when I think about Rick. He talked about hunting down in this part of the territory where his dad hunted, and how important that was to him.

But then he talked about what it meant to hunt where his ancestors hunted and where they were buried, and that it sent chills down his spine. And that was a very moving part for anyone who was in the courtroom at the time. I'll certainly never forget it. Yeah, you know, just the culture, the belief and stuff of shooting that first deer when you're a youngster and giving all that meat away to your different relatives and whatnot and showing now that you can partake in the hunt and support the family and community and stuff like that there.

And in doing that there part there, you're becoming a ceremonial hunter. (soft music) What became clear the judge is that Rick going out to hunt for ceremonial meat for the community, and I remember Shelly Boyd talking about what it meant for people to receive that meat the traditional territory. The judge said, well, that's exactly what the evidence told her used to used to be done. The Sinixt were known to be such experienced and skilled hunters.

What she heard from Rick fit so perfectly what she'd heard, and that really brought things together in, again, an unplanned but profoundly true way. (drumming and humming) (group chattering) (group laughing and chattering) -

Friend

because that's one of things he did ask

What's happening today Rick? (group laughing) When it first all started, we had an attorney tell us that, "Boy, you're gonna be an old, old man when the decisions come through." But they were talking like you might not even be here kind of stuff, and to see it happen this quickly, wow, it's crazy. (group chattering) She brought donuts! Yeah, I was so nervous I've eaten two already!

(all laughing) Now he was supposed to call the house phone, right? -

Shelly

because that's one of things he did ask

Yes. Okay, so it's ready. I may have been the lone person standing up in court and stuff like that there, but I know there's a lot of feathers sticking up over that horizon behind me. Yeah.

(gentle music) There are things that that are wrong, and the universe tries to correct them. Our ancestors are working on correcting that, and you're working on correcting that right now. -

Friend

because that's one of things he did ask

The yin yang, yeah. Yeah! Yeah. I don't know if people understand the magnitude of Samson and Goliath that this story is.

We are this small. And in some ways you'd look and say, according to the government, we are this small, we don't even exist, we're less than nothing, and we've come back now, and we're at the second level of this appeal, and I think that it looks really good. (group chattering) (phone rings) Oh my god! -

Friend

because that's one of things he did ask

Put it on speakerphone. British Columbia. (phone ringing) Linda, answer it! (all laughing) Hello, Mark.

-

Mark

because that's one of things he did ask

Hello, is this the residence of Richard Lee Desautel? Yes, it is. This would be his wife. What can I do for you?

Hi, Mark. -

Mark

because that's one of things he did ask

If everybody is ready, I would like to read you some paragraph of a document I have in front of me. You go right ahead. I'm making sure my speaker's up here. -

Mark

because that's one of things he did ask

All right. Good to go. -

Mark

because that's one of things he did ask

All right, I'm gonna read you paragraphs 74 and 75 from the judgment that I just now received from the British Columbia Court of Appeals.

Paragraph 74 provides as follows

"The right claimed by Mr. Desautel falls clearly within the pre-contact practice grounding the right. Hunting in what is now British Columbia was essential and significant part of the Sinixt's distinctive culture pre-contact and remains integral to the Lakes Tribe. The Lakes Tribe is a modern collective descended from the Sinixt, has continued to hunt and maintain this connection to its ancestral land in British Columbia.

Mr. Desautel is a member of the Lakes Tribe. Therefore, he has an aboriginal right to hunt elk in the traditional territory of British Columbia. I would dismiss the appeal." Yes!

(all cheering) We Won! (all cheering and laughing) Oh man! Woo! Thank you!

Lim limt! Right on! Wow! That's just pretty cool.

How do you feel, Mark? I'm overwhelmed actually, to be honest. -

Rick

Paragraph 74 provides as follows

Probably the longest I've ever held my breath. And then to hear that decision, the way it went, and stuff like that there, to breathe that sigh of relief that knows you're still going down the right road. Lim limt. -

Mark

Paragraph 74 provides as follows

Buh-bye. Buh-bye. I'm so excited! The phones are starting to ring!

(all laughing) - He's like, "I gotta go! I gotta get a press release!" - Yeah, yeah. Wow. That's lim limt.

There it is. You know, and it's not the fact they said not guilty. It's what they said, you know? That we had a right.

Three judges. Appeal denied. This solidifies the the precedent set for natives, indigenous people throughout this border who are fighting the same issues, that recognition of where they belong, their territories. And I hope, and I really, I just hope that this helps them.

This has never been done before. That's why it's so landmark. It's done by a tribe that they quoted as extinct, that they say lives on the other side of the border. But we did it.

If it wasn't for the leadership that was in place all those years that helped pass the torch and all the people that sat in Shelly's position, Jim and Virgil and everybody. Everybody played a big part in this. Had that not happened and we didn't have all that same visionary coming into alignment, we wouldn't be sitting where we are today. -

Narrator

Paragraph 74 provides as follows

Sending out its boundless resources to the far corners of the Earth, the Columbia has been a wild and uncontrolled giant. (thrilling music) Only the returning salmon, instinctively fighting their way upward to spawn, could defy the crashing falls and cascades. (gentle acoustic music) I grew up on the water of the old Columbia. Back home on my reservation's shores My grandpa caught the Salmon up on Kettle Falls Till FDR came in and shut the door The dam when up '39 and stopped the salmon's run The people had to move to higher ground They left their town and sacred falls And took what they could take And watched that mighty river flood the ground And blue river blues What have they done to you You used to be a river wild and free all day Oh blue river blues Lord I feel for you If you could talk my friend what would you say I'm a Sinixt member of the Colville Confederated Tribes, and as I said before, we are extinct up in Canada.

And right now, as far as the Columbia River is concerned, so are the salmon. And the Sinixt are starting to come back to Canada. And I think it's time that the salmon do to. (acoustic music) My old blue friend my heart cries our for you My old blue friend my heart cries out For you -

Virgil

Paragraph 74 provides as follows

Right across the river here every year we have a salmon ceremony, and what it is is its prayers and songs that's offered up to the salmon, and it's trying to call the salmon back, which is kind of ironic because there's a dam down below us here that keeps the salmon from coming here. But it don't matter. We're always over there, and we're always trying to call the salmon back. You know, it's hard to explain the feelings or the emotions around being able to see salmon in this part of the river.

It's gonna be 80 years since we lost our salmon. And today and last week, we returned a very small amount of fish loose in the river, but they're home, they're back. and they're one step closer to home. And it's our responsibility to provide them that opportunity.

And there's a lot of good things happening. There's a lot more stories to come of just how resilient these fish are and how, after all we've done to them, they're still here for us, and they're still looking for a way home, just like us. (soft music) (crowd chattering) If I can get your attention for a minute, the attorney's gonna call in like four minutes. But this is just, this news right now, is generations and generations in the making.

For you young folks, probably many of you don't even know. in Canada we were declared extinct in 1956. And yet look at this room. Look at all of us.

(crowd chattering) We're gonna follow Rick right back into here, and we're gonna fit in here a much as we can and hear this phone call, but we're going to be smushed. (crowd chattering) If the province is granted leave, that means that we are going to the Supreme Court. Other tribes for hundreds of years have been trying to almost accomplish the same thing and have gotten to that wall and that wall. We have, at this point, the case has set precedents for native country throughout this world, but it could get bigger.

And what it does is, if we do go Supreme Court, which I'm okay with that, I'm ready. We've been going since 1989, so if we go to Supreme Court, we win a Supreme Court, that opens the door for all those other tribes. We have set a precedent, a legal precedence that allows them better chances to get their claims answered. You know, it's huge, guys, really huge.

Our kids were there... (phone Rings) Oh! Hello, Rick speaking. Mark Underhill from...

Yeah, go ahead Mark. Have I ever been to Ottawa, Ontario? (Linda laughs and claps) No, I never have been to Ottawa, Ontario. We'll be going to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Yes. All righty. Well, that is somewhat great news. I was kinda hoping there would none leave and then we would say wahoo and everything else.

But we'll save our wahoo for when we get our decision from the Supreme Court of Canada, which I believe it'll be another wahoo. Yeah. You guys wanna say goodbye to Mark? (all cheering) Bye, Mark!

- Goodbye, Mark! (Linda hollers) (group speaking in foreign language) All righty, then. All right, talk to you. Bye-bye.

Onward to the Supreme Court of Canada. That's soon. Yeah, that's soon. (crowd clapping) Until that Supreme Court tells you yay or nay, your voice means nothing.

And so for me, it was really like, "Yes! Yes, this is great!" And some people, "Well, now we got to go." And I said, "Yeah, but we get to go. Do know how many tribes and peoples before us never got to go? Never got to the Supreme Court, never got anywhere.

They were shut down. But we're going to the Supreme Court." It's really amazing. (clears throat) No matter what the outcome of this case is, whether they appeal it again, I think we're there. Our people got that taste of being home again.

I don't see us ever leaving that country again. I think that our presence is there, and it'll be continue to be there for many generations to come. (intriguing percussion music) (music continues) (music continues) It's just, I don't know, I guess we just kinda kept hoping COVID was gonna end in July and then, and then, oh, everything was gonna be peachy keen and back to normal, and we were gonna be just like, "Oh, here we go again." And then June, July, August. And now they're telling us not till next year and that kind of stuff, so...

(sighs) Just a little overzealous on that, I guess. (chuckles) (group chattering) Hopefully the decision will be swift. They still have a year, year and a half, two sometimes, to make a decision on the case. So, yes, we may be gettin' heard on the 8th of October, but it might be the 8th of the next October before we hear a decision from the Supreme Court.

And I'm hoping it's gonna be a good decision. With all the different entities here that are standing behind me and stuff like that there, yeah, it's gonna be a good one. Because of COVID and the way it works and my job where I'm at now, it's really difficult. I don't know that I'll be able to get to do that.

So that part for me is kind of sad. I've been at this this, like I said, since 1989, and I really hoped to be there, and I'm kind of hoping there's still a miracle that happens. But if it don't happen, I'm not gonna be woe is me. I'm still gonna be happy about it.

Right now, I'm sad about it. I really am proud of how far it's gotten and where it's at. (soft music) We won a case in March 2017. We won it then.

But what I would hear back from the official capacity in Canada over and over and over again, is, "Well, once you win at the Supreme Court, that'll make a difference." And I don't get that. I never got that. And so, by the time we got there, I try not to be angry. I try not to feel that way.

But for me, there is a part that's like, "The truth is the truth." The truth of who they are I firmly believe will be recognized by the Supreme Court of Canada. And so all those prayers they were sending our way, that belief that one day the declaration of extinction will be reversed, that day has already come. But I think the Supreme Court of Canada is going to put their own stamp on it and that the truth will will be enshrined in Canadian law that the Sinixt are who they say they are and that they are forever connected to their territory in Canada. (anxious music) -

Court Official

Paragraph 74 provides as follows

The court. (speaks in foreign language) -

Justice

Paragraph 74 provides as follows

In the case of Her Majesty the Queen against Richard Desautel... Mr. Desautel is a United States citizen, a United States resident and a member of the Lakes tribe of Washington state. He came to British Columbia on the instructions of the Fish and Wildlife director of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, of which the Lake's tribes is a constituent member, to secure ceremonial meat.

He crossed the border into British Columbia, hunted an elk without a license and without a guide, as required by British Columbia law, and then subsequently surrendered himself to a conservation officer.

And the question that is now before you

is the Lakes tribe an Aboriginal peoples of Canada? Now, we need to be clear that what's going to happen here is the claimant group, as found by the trial judge and confirmed by the appeal courts, is the Lakes tribe of Washington State. The respondent wants to broaden that designation. He wants to broaden the identification of the group to include the Sinixt people generally, and that was not a finding in the courts below.

The only finding in the courts below was a rights holding group called the Lakes Tribe. Their very identity is bound up in being from the Arrow lakes in Canada. So how could they not be of Canada when they have that sense of belonging, when that's who they are is to be from that place, the place of the spotted fish? Isn't it as simple what the B.C.

Court of Appeal said is those communities and nations who were encountered by Europeans at contact had rights, some of which were preserved to a greater or lesser degree, and those who are the successors of the groups who were present in what is now Canada at first contact, in a sense the rights flow through to them, and whether they're on one side of the border or on the other side of the border, they're successors, and by virtue of being successors, they hold the rights? Is it any more complicated than that? And does that not flow from the general statement of the succession of rights that's set out in Vander Pete? I think that was the logic they relied upon.

I'd agree with you, Justice Rowe, that what the courts have done is essentially say just that, that a successor group is entitled to hold the rights. The difficulty is when you apply Vander Pete, Vander Pete doesn't address the question of the location of a successor group in the same way. Their argument, boiled down, was we have to look at Aboriginal peoples of Canada along essentially modern-day residency lines, at least as they said at the last of the day in 1982. What if they were driven away?

I'm not saying... I guess I'm using a hypothetical. Sure, we'll do the hypothetical. If if they were driven away, if there was a collective in Canada, they were driven south of the border, and they say, "We still have that right to hunt, fish, et cetera," our analysis is you still need to look for a collective in Canada that probably still has that right, Justice Brown.

Why? Because in our view, it fits within the proper interpretation of Section 35 in the phrase "peoples of Canada". How is your interpretation of Aboriginals of Canada that it's somehow just people who were resident in 1982, when Section 35 came into force, that are to be considered rights holders in this country? How is that consistent with that purpose that I talked about?

How is it consistent with reconciliation? And so it was gratifying to hear those questions come from the court. Mr. Underhill Chief Justice, Justices, if I might, I want to start with an acknowledgment that, on this very important day in Sinixt history, that many, of course, because of the pandemic, members of the Sinixt cannot be here today.

I want to acknowledge that Chairman Rodney Cawston, and the members of the Council of the Colville Tribes, along with many Sinixt youth and elders who wanted to be here desperately but cannot be. But I did want to acknowledge that Rick Desautel himself is here in Ottawa. He was able to quarantine in Sinixt territory in British Columbia for a couple of weeks to allow him to travel here today. And he, in turn, wanted me to acknowledge the welcome that he has received from the Algonquin people of this territory, and he is grateful for that.

So I don't know if anyone has any questions for us, and I'm not even sure I would know how to work this or know if you do, but you can try, and I can see. But I'm gonna ask Rick some questions about... How was that, stepping on to the Supreme Court this morning? It was cold!

(laughs) Standing on the outside of the Supreme Court building, it's this gigantic concrete structure, knowing that inside our lawyer is hard at work. Dr. Kennedy and, in turn, the Crown at trial were very much in substance advancing an abandonment argument. Dr.

Kennedy's thesis was the Lakes or the Sinixt people left their territory in Canada to quote "enthusiastically embrace farming," end quote. And as you saw from the reasons of the trial judge, that theory did not hold up under cross-examination. And what Dr. Kennedy conceded was the move was the best out of a series of bad choices.

That was the evidence that was the finding of fact at trial. So the move was not voluntary. I felt like there was good signs everywhere, and a personal good sign that I had this morning when I turned on my music, just to take a shower and stuff. And I have, I don't know, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of songs on my iPod, and I had it on random, and lo and behold, the first thing that came on was Jim Boyd's voice saying "We are Arrow lakes and we are not extinct." Where do we come from and where will we go?

In 1956, the Canadian government said that said that our people, the Sinixt, were extinct. (traditional instrumental music) Much ink has spilled in the various attorney general's factom about either what the province calls deleterious consequences or Ontario speaks of unintended consequences of recognition of a Sinixt right to hunt in this case. I say simply that is not a principled basis on which to deny rights. Many of the problems they speak of, which is overlaps or, indeed, just per our discussion, whether there are groups present or not, are problems we experience every day, particularly in British Columbia, and they cannot ground, as I say, denial of a right.

Thank you very much. Mr. Williams? (Paul speaking in foreign language) I am pleased to acknowledge my co-council, my daughter Karenna.

She's urged the old man to do the speaking today. You clearly understand that this is about

how nine non-Indigenous judges interpret four words

"Aboriginal peoples of Canada". Either those words acknowledge the timeless connection between an indigenous people and its land in Canada or the word "of" is a possessive term, a word of control, that enables the trans-governments to distinguish between our Indians and somebody else's Indians. "Reconciling" is a verb, not a noun. The process is never-ending.

It doesn't mean atoning for crimes and everybody getting along. Nor does it mean indigenous peoples need to reconcile themselves to Canadian sovereignty. The key to reconciling, and the first step in every treaty relationship, is respect; respect for the connection between the people and the land, respect for the right of the people to decide who they are and will continue to be. Decolonization is a messy business.

That's why it's a road, not a moment in time. The assertion of Crown sovereignty rooted in the discredited doctrine of discovery puts a heavy burden on reconciliation on the Crown. Let's keep in mind what's happening here. Instead of shouldering this responsibility, the appellant and crown interveners are relying on the ultimate expression of colonization, the international boundary, to lessen the burden of reconciliation.

This court should soundly reject those arguments. -

Justice

how nine non-Indigenous judges interpret four words

Any reply Mr. Thomson? Our position is simply that an aboriginal people had common law rights up until 1982, and then, in 1982, the framers decided to constitutionalize those rights of the Aboriginal peoples of Canada to that particular status. The requirement, then, is that the claimant group must be an Aboriginal peoples of Canada as of 1982.

And the next point I want to make is that nothing about our position, and I want to make this clear, denies the existence of the Lakes tribe or the existence of the Sinixt people from whom the Lakes are descended. The case is not about whether the Sinixt people exist or have rights in Canada. It's about whether the Lakes of Washington State and the United States have constitutional rights despite clear words recognizing and affirming, and I'll leave you with this, the existing Aboriginal and treaty rights of the Aboriginal peoples of Canada. I'd like to thank the council for their submissions.

The court will take this case under advisement. (soft music) When I say everything is on the line, it really was, because a negative answer to this case means that the Sinixt don't have any rights in Canada, and that we'll have the very real effect of really erasing the Sinixt from this landscape up here, because they won't have any rights to come up and practice their culture. And so a negative decision has tremendous implications, not to say that it won't stop Rick from coming up and others from coming up, but that lack of legal recognition, if I can put it that way, will have profound consequences for the Sinixt going forward. (soft music) (soft music continues) (soft music continues) (atmospheric music) (atmospheric music continues) (atmospheric music continues) (atmospheric music continues) Morning.

I just want to thank everybody who worked so hard and tirelessly. This case has been worked on by many people, many of our elders who are not here with us today physically, but I really believe they are all here with us spiritually. You know, our ancestors, they always believed that we never relinquished our rights as native people, those of us here on the Colville Reservation. It severed our families, it severed our culture.

But today we can feel very good in our heart for all that work and all the elders and our ancestors who prayed so hard for us that we can continue our culture and our language and pass that down to our children. And we can't do that without having access to those lands, those homelands where our ancestors fished, where they lived and they hunted and gathered. -

Shelly

how nine non-Indigenous judges interpret four words

What we'll do is is we'll have our prayer, and then kind of like at the Salmon Ceremony, we'll take and we'll offer our own tobacco and each of our own prayers. (soft music) (war hooping) (group chattering and laughing) That's quite something. -

Derrick

how nine non-Indigenous judges interpret four words

Yeah. How many people are there, Derrick? -

Derrick

how nine non-Indigenous judges interpret four words

I'm the worst at counting, but I want to say quite a few. Yeah, pretty awesome. -

Mark

how nine non-Indigenous judges interpret four words

That's really awesome. (crowd chattering) Oh, there's Mark! Morning, Mark. Good morning.

I happen to know something now if you want to put Rick on. -

Derrick

how nine non-Indigenous judges interpret four words

All right, Rick, you want to come over here? Yeah. It's got a nice level floor here we're working on. (Mark laughs) Exactly.

Rick, good morning. Morning! I don't have the document yet, but I have received word, and so I can say, on behalf of Canada, welcome home. We won.

(all cheering) - I can do my happy dance now? (all laughing) I want to see a lot of hollering, Rick. A lot of hollering. You promised.

Yes? Yes? All right! I don't have to go back to the museum and stand by the dinosaur display no more?

-

Mark

how nine non-Indigenous judges interpret four words

No, you do not. (all laughing) I think you said by the wooden Indian at the trading post. You are neither a dinosaur nor a wooden Indian. And neither is anybody else who's assembled there today.

So congratulations everyone. (all cheering and hollering) That is great news. (Rick sighs with relief) Yes. -

Linda

how nine non-Indigenous judges interpret four words

Thank you for everything you did. That is so big. Yes. That is so big.

That is crazy big. Yes. -

Mark

how nine non-Indigenous judges interpret four words

I'm so glad to see both of you there. -

Derrick

how nine non-Indigenous judges interpret four words

Everybody thank Mark. (all cheering and hollering) All right, thank you so much, Mark. We'll talk to you soon. All right, start the smoke signals on the ridge.

(all laughing) What? (Rick laughing) (all chattering) -

Derrick

how nine non-Indigenous judges interpret four words

Without giving away too much, What do you think is the next step for us right now? I think the next step is reconciliation. And I'm not just talking about reconciliation with the Shelly Canadian government or other people or all of our relatives on both sides of the line, both sides of the river. I'm talking about reconciliation with the land.

I think the land has missed us, and this water remembers us. And it starts up there. We know that, and they know that. (traditional instrumental music) As the currents and the flow of time pushes you through life, I ended up here.

And for whatever reason, it says you've got a destiny here, you've got something to do here. And so I just go with the flow. And hopefully whatever the creator has in mind for me here, we can get something accomplished, and somewhere down the road, years and years and years and years later, when somebody asks somebody if they're of Lakes descent, they say, "Yes, I am. We have our territory runs all the way to Revelstoke." (upbeat folk music) I am Sinixt, and I am not extinct.

I am Arrow Lakes, and I am not extinct. I am Arrow Lakes, and I am not extinct. I am Sinixt Lakes, and I am not extinct. I am part of the Arrow Lakes, and we are not extinct.

I am Arrow Lakes, and we are not extinct. I am an Arrow Lakes, and I am not extinct. I am Arrow Lakes, and I'm not extinct. (chuckles) I am Sinixt, and I am not extinct.

I am Sinixt, and I are not extinct. (chuckles) (film crew clapping) (Native speaking in foreign language) (Native speaking in foreign language) And we are still here. I am Sinixt, and we are still here. -

Director

how nine non-Indigenous judges interpret four words

All right! Good job! (Native speaking in foreign language) (Native speaking in foreign language) And we are still here. I am Sinixt, and we are still here.

-

All

how nine non-Indigenous judges interpret four words

We am Sinixt, and we are still here! Boom! Nailed it! We are Sinixt, and we're still here.

I am Sinixt, and we are obviously still here. I am Sinixt, and I'm still here. I am Sinixt, and we are still here. I am Sinixt, and we are still here.

I am Sinixt, and we're still here. I am Sinixt, and we are still here. (Native speaking in foreign language) I am Sinixt. We are still here.

-

Both

how nine non-Indigenous judges interpret four words

We are Arrow Lakes, and we're still here. (Native speaking in foreign language) I am Sinixt, and we are still here. I am Sinixt, and we're still here. I am Sinixt, and we are still here.

(Native speaking in foreign language) (Shelly speaking in foreign language) I am Sinixt, and I am still here. I am Sinixt, and we're still here. I am Sinixt, and I am still here. And I am Sinixt, and we are still here.

I am Sinixt, and we are still here. I am Sinixt, and we are still here. And I am Sinixt, and we are still here. -

Both

how nine non-Indigenous judges interpret four words

I am Sinixt, and we are still here. I am Sinixt, and I am still here. -

Native

how nine non-Indigenous judges interpret four words

And we are still here! We are still here. (all speaking in foreign language) (both speaking in foreign language) (both speaking in foreign language) (Native speaking in foreign language) We are Sinixt, and we are still here. I am Sinixt, and I'm still here.

I am Sinixt, and I'm still here. I am Sinixt, and I am still here. I am Sinixt, and we are still here. -

Native

how nine non-Indigenous judges interpret four words

I am Sinixt, and we are still here. (Native speaking in foreign language) And I am Sinixt, and we are still here. -

Native

how nine non-Indigenous judges interpret four words

I am Sinixt. We are still here. (children speaking in foreign language) (children laughing) (child speaking in foreign language) (all laughing) Are we gonna go on TV?