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Abstract

Although unknown until recently by the settler society that finally replaced them, Sinixt have lived in the Slocan Valley for the last 3,000 years, perhaps for much longer. Drawing on recent archaeological investigations, Part 1 of this booklet describes the occupational history of one of their villages, at Slocan Narrows some 10 km south of Slocan Lake. Then, relying on the ethnographic record, Part 2 describes Sinixt life in the valley in the mid-18th century, before the devastating smallpox epidemic of the early 1780s, then follows a changing Sinixt demography until about 1900, when Sinixt seem to have been gone from the Slocan. A third part, dealing with the years from 1900 to the present, treats the return of Sinixt to the valley and the difficulties and opportunities this has created.