Talk:Sinixt

message: This article is poorly written--what the heck are "Sinixt"? Are they Indians, rabbits, tumbleweeds, or what? All the article states is that they were "inhabitants" who were declared "extinct". Very confusingly written. Matt Yeager ♫ (Talk?) 23:13, 12 April 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Who were the Sinixt? 

message: According to this film: 'The Sinix't , Bringing Home the Bones' the Sinix't were not, nor never were 'extinct' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Nm0_EX97rU
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More info on their website here http://sinixtnation.org/content/sinixt-nation-launch-massive-land-claim (not that the film and the website are related, they're not)
Veryscarymary (talk) 14:57, 1 February 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Extinct? Not! 

message: Thanks for expanding this; I wrote the stub but knew little more about the Sinixt than what's here and there in BC history and historical journalism articles.  A few questions, though:
:- Teit describes a war between, I think, the Okanagan or Nicolas (Sce'emx-Siylx alliance in the Nicola valley) and the Sinixt; I have much of Teit in digi-form here but I remember he comments it resulted in a major depopulation of the Sinixt or, as he calls them, "the Lake".
:- A separate article or at least a stub on the Sinixt language will be needed, if you or someone you know could write one; see Wikipedia:WikiProject Indigenous peoples of North America; I'll find the precise item on that page later and revise that link so you can find the relevant discussion about this.  There's something of a standard format emerging for First Nation/Native American language articles, also.
:- hmm had some other questions while I was wikifying the article, but I guess I haven't had enough coffee yet ;-) .... I'll be back.Skookum1 16:44, 29 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Questions 

message: As you can see, I've been making extensive additions based on Lawney Reyes' memoir, and citing them rather specifically. Could someone possibly improve the citation on the rest of the material? - Jmabel | Talk 06:02, 13 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Citation 

message: Even if only as a stub, as with Okanagan language, plus any refs that might google up for it; there's passages from Teit about them, and I've seen recent mainstream journalistic-history articles on them here in BC, though nothing on their language directly.  That article would then get the Salishan languages category instead of this one; there are other hierarchies to be had here too, like the indigenous languages of the Plateau category and some others; whatever's on Syilx and Secwepemc, I guess.  Anyway, separate language articles also infer that hopefully there's material on the Sinixt language (Sinixt'stn?) somewhere out there to form the stub with; other than that vague refs that it's closely related to Colville and [[[Okanagan language|Syilx'tsn]] (Okaganan) and such is fine; just to establish the stub.  The modern Colville language/dialect, which I understand to be a creole of many Salishan languages from the area (and others?), also deserves its own article; again even if only a stub.  But I wouldn't know what to call it; unless it has a self-description/name, e.g. Syilx'tsn vs Okanagan language; as the indigenous name is preferable.Skookum1 08:02, 14 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  [[Sinixt language]] needed 

message: Just curious, if there's someone from Colville or the ONA who could explain, and maybe amend the article appropriately - because the Sinixt are part of the Colville, and Colville is part of the ONA, does the ONA represent the Sinixt's interests in BC/Canada?  Because I know there's some talking going on, even though no movement (I think) to treaty process; but I do know Sinixt rights/claims have been advanced up here, at last in print/web somewhere if not in process.  I know there's something to do with archaeological digs with Sinixt involvement, and with Sinixt political implications, and I think some court proceedings as well as local orgs in support of them (nice thing about the West Kootenay as to the broad-mindedness of the neighbours...).  I think they may also be somehow connected to Fort Shepherd Provincial Pari (if that links, I'm not sure), or Fort Shepherd anyway, which was established to serve them as customers when the border cut Colville, then the biggest fur trade centre, in the area, off from British territory; it's been restored and I think there's Sinixt involvement somehow, or permissions or something; something in the news up here, within the last five years anyway; don't know where to dig but it's out there....Skookum1 08:02, 14 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Colville re [[Okanagan Nation Alliance]] 

message: :There is historic evidence suggesting that the Sinixt were heavily depopulated by one or two smallpox epidemics that preceded the arrival of Scottish and Métis fur-traders of the North West Company.  The epidemic of 1781 was likely the biggest single outbreak, with accounts of that epidemic describing a mortality rate up to 80%.  David Thompson and other early traders noticed the pock-marked faces of older Sinixt and heard oral accounts of the epidemic.  There is also evidence that the Sinixt were seriously affected by the major political upheavals that preceded the arrival of the Europeans.
Might be worth adding that the earlier smallpox epidemics are believed to have spread overland from New Spain, via inter-indigenous contact, and did not come overland from the East; and re the last sentence although the next paragraph explores some of that instablity, the drift ot htis sentence has a subtext that this political upheaval is to be blamed on the Indian Wars farther east, resulting in Blackfoot raids and the Ktunaxa push into the Kootenays; the theory is POV in and of itself and while not stated here, it seems implied.  There's no proof that the period of instability did not go back a lot farther; the story of Nicola's lineage goes back to at least 1670 and speaks ofwars throughtout the Plateau and adjoining areas.  Unless that's to be blamed on butterfly-effects frmo the Indian Wars on the Atlantic Seaboard and the Southeast...again, not written POV-ly here, but implied/hinted and recognizable to those who have heard the other story.  Political upheaval doesn't adequately describe slave raids or the Blackfoot presence in the Big Bend and upper Arrow......Skookum1 (talk) 05:22, 5 August 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: A good book on this is Pox Americana: The Great Smallpox Epidemic of 1775-82, by Elizabeth Fenn. She gives plenty of good source material documenting the existence and spread of smallpox in the Pacific Northwest and beyond, while noting it is not possible to exactly by what routes it spread. One scenario she finds reasonable is that smallpox was introduced along the coast by the many ships plying the PNW coast at the time. Via the extensive trade networks the disease could have spread up the Columbia River and throughout a vast interior region. There are various other possible sources of the epidemic in the PNW, which she outlines in detail, but she says "the great preponderance of evidence points up the Columbia River toward the Shoshones... who infected  Saukamappee's Piegan Blackfoot band in the summer of 1781." From the Blackfeet there is decent documentation that smallpox spread toward Hudson Bay. Whether it spread from the Blackfeet west over the mountains is not so certain, she thinks. She notes that some theories point to a spread from the south through the Great Plains, then over the Rockies from the Blackfeet to the Flatheads and others. But after analyzing in detail, she still finds the Columbia River theory the most plausible, at least for the epidemic of circa 1780. She notes that this goes against the normally accepted theory, but does a good job of showing the plausibility of a spread up the Columbia River and, via unknown routes, widely throughout the northwest. Of course it is possible that the great epidemic of 1775-82, which truly spanned the entire continent, reached the Pacific Northwest by multiple routes. Pfly (talk) 06:29, 5 August 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Smallpox/instability section

message: There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:Chipewyan people which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you.  —RMCD bot 09:14, 12 March 2014 (UTC)
thread_title: Move discussion in progress

message: Substituted at 06:16, 30 April 2016 (UTC)
thread_title: Assessment comment

message: Why does the infobox say "Total population: 250 in the US," then the article text goes on to mention that a bunch of Sinixt people also live in British Columbia, Canada? Please fix. 173.88.246.138 (talk) 03:20, 10 April 2022 (UTC)
replies: text: Both of those things can be true at the same time. What needs to be fixed? 2604:3D09:BA7F:AB40:9906:873B:2AFD:4750 (talk) 23:07, 15 June 2023 (UTC)
thread_title: Please fix