In this book by Sinixt storytellers and knowledge-keepers Marilyn James and Taress Alexis, the reality of the living culture of the Sinixt is addressed in the face of Canada’s bureaucratic genocide of their people in 1956. Each chapter illuminates the Sinixt relationship with the upper Columbia River watershed and their quest to reclaim their rights and responsibilities in their x̌aʔx̌aʔ tum xúlaʔxʷ, their sacred homeland.

In addition to lively story and discussions by the authors, various regional settler and Indigenous artists and writers have provided reflections at the end of each chapter, which gives readers further opportunity to engage with the stories. These perspectives represent the interest of increasing numbers of people in developing respectful and decolonizing relationships among Indigenous and settler peoples and to inspire the work of reversing the Sinixt extinction.

Fletcher FitzGibbon was one of the settler artists who contributed a reflection to the book, by contributing a non-fiction essay in response to the story, “Why Mosquitoes Bite”.

Join them all to meet the trickster Snk̓lip and the other Animal Beings who people the stories of the captikʷɬ, the Sinixt oral history.

Read more and purchase a copy of the book at www.maapress.ca/