Sinixt - Colville Confederated Tribes

Colville Confederated Tribes

On the U.S. side, the Colville Confederated Tribes—now the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation — were formally established in 1872. They were forced to become wards of the government on the Colville Reservation. It was at this time that the name Sinixt or Sin Aikst was dropped in favor of Lakes, apparently at the behest of the U.S. government.

Initially, the Confederated Tribes were given a reservation east of the Columbia River. Three months later, it was taken away (because white settlers wanted it) and they were given a comparably large tract on the west side of the river on inferior land. Initially this reservation extended all the way to the Canadian Border, but the northern half was taken away in 1892, which separated it from Sinixt traditional territory in British Columbia; in addition, as more tribes lost their land, the shrinking reservation had to absorb yet more people. Even then, they had to deal with incursions of miners, homesteaders, and settlers such as the Doukhobors, who arrived from Russia in 1912.

In 1900, Aropaghan, over James Bernard's objection, agreed to have the land divided into individual allotments rather than held in common; he also agreed to include "half breeds" equally in the allocation.

Bernard journeyed three times to Washington, D.C. on behalf of his people: first in 1890 as interpreter for Chief Smitkin of the Colvilles, then in 1900 with Chief Lot and Chief Barnaby to negotiate the reservation boundaries, and finally in 1921 as chair of a delegation of the Confederated Tribes.