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Listen to activist Marilyn James discuss Sinixt/Native storytelling, caribou of the rainforest, and extinction in the Inland Northwest, from June 2019: ‘Marilyn James and Kootenay Co-op Radio have won the 2019 Neskie Manuel Award for Aboriginal Affairs and Cultural Programming for the “In the Shadow of Extinction” episode of Sinixt Stories: Ancestral Roots, Cultural Seeds program. The award is given annually by the National Campus and Community Radio Association (NCRA) for a radio shows or individual radio segment by, for, or about Indigenous people.’ [x]

Excerpts from series producer Catherine Fisher’s summary of this episode:

“In the Shadow of Extinction” was recorded and produced at Kootenay Co-op Radio by Catherine Fisher, a member of the Blood of Life Collective. The Collective has been working on numerous projects from recordings of traditional and contemporary Sinixt stories told by Sinixt knowledge-keepers Marilyn James and Taress Alexis.

“In the Shadow of Extinction” is based on a contemporary story told to Marilyn James by her relative, Ambrose Adolph, about his experiences with caribou in the Sinixt tum'xula7xw (traditional territory) in the 1930s and then after his return from World War 2. The episode also features information about the plight of the caribou herds in the Sinixt tum'xula7xw currently.

1) The endangered southern mountain caribou - a unique ecotype of woodland caribou - which rely on the inland temperate rainforest and live almost exclusively on Sinixt and Kutenai traditional land. Photo by BC provincial government. 2) Cedar-hemlock temperate rainforest on Sinixt land. Photo by Tourism Revelstroke. 3) Sinixt activist and storyteller Marilyn James. Photo by Catherine Fisher.

In the episode Marilyn notes, “As settlers began settling the area, like Ambrose said, open spaces were dissected by fences and fields. It becomes critical for the survival of migratory animals for settlers and people to make way for those travel corridors, but that was never considered… Now, the caribou are like the Sinixt, they’re just a shadow of the landscape - you don’t see them, and when you do see them it’s kind of a vision because they’re so rare. And it was such a natural aspect to this landscape in the past.”

“As many people are aware,” says Blood of Life Collective member K.L. Kivi, “the South Selkirk and South Purcell caribou herds were extirpated this past year and the Central Selkirk herd is down to about 25 individuals. What many people don’t realize is that pre-contact, the caribou lived here in the hundreds of thousands and were a main food source for the Sinixt people.”

Incidental music in the episode by permission of Kathleen Yearwood, Voice of the Turtle Records. kathleenyearwoodordeal.bandcamp.com/

Podcasts of Sinixt Stories: Ancestral Roots, Cultural Seeds are available on the Kootenay Co-op Radio website www.kootenaycoopradio.com/sinixt-stories/.

This episode of the podcast is available here.