Sinixt First Nation not extinct after all, BC court rules

 

Richard Desautel (middle) stands outside Nelson courthouse on Monday with members of the Colville Confederated Tribes after his acquittal. (Bob Keating/CBC).

Judge rules the Sinixt have not lost their connection to a huge swath of southern B.C.

 

By Adrian Nieoczym, CBC News, March 27, 2017

A First Nation declared extinct by the federal government 60 years ago has won a court battle to have its existence recognized.

A provincial court judge in Nelson, B.C., acquitted a Sinixt man from Washington state on Monday of hunting without a licence and hunting without being a resident. Richard Desautel had been charged after killing an elk near Castlegar in 2010.