‘A legacy of co-operation’: Leaders vow to protect syilx Okanagan waters across jurisdictions

First Nations and local governments sign agreement to collectively advocate for and defend the region’s watersheds

Aaron Hemens, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter. November 19, 2024. Original article.

In a historic first, syilx Okanagan leaders and local government officials have signed a formal agreement vowing to collectively protect and advocate for siwɬkw (water) throughout the region.

On Friday, representatives from 19 groups signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) at the Penticton Golf and Country Club in syilx Okanagan homelands. 

The signatories represent 126 elected local leaders of the recently formed Okanagan Similkameen Collaborative Leadership Table, according to the Okanagan Nation Alliance (ONA). The MOA signals a commitment to protecting the Okanagan and Similkameen watersheds.

y̓ilmixʷm (Chief) ki law na Clarence Louie of Osoyoos Indian Band — who is also xaʔtus (elected leader) of the syilx Okanagan Nation — said he wasn’t surprised it was water that united the wide range of leaders.

“It was water that brought our people here to begin with, thousands of years ago. And it’s water that brought your ancestors here, ever since the incorporation of these towns,” Louie said at the event on Nov. 15. “There’s nothing more spiritual, for most tribal people across the whole world, than water.”

In addition to Osoyoos Indian Band, the agreement was also signed by leaders from Penticton Indian Band, Westbank First Nation, Okanagan Indian Band, and the Upper and Lower Similkameen Indian Bands.

Mayors and dignitaries also signed on behalf of the municipalities of Penticton, Vernon, Oliver, Osoyoos, and Peachland. Representatives from the Okanagan Basin Water Board and Okanagan Collaborative Conservation Program (OCCP) witnessed the event.

The agreement signed last week was described as a starting point for protecting local watersheds, and was the culmination of discussions five years ago between the ONA, OCCP, and the Centre for Indigenous Environmental Resources — aimed at different levels of government supporting the ONA’s efforts to protect kɬúsx̌nítkʷ (Okanagan Lake).

A number of threats to the lakewater quality of kɬúsx̌nítkʷ have emerged in recent years. For instance, small amounts of microplastics were found by researchers in local waters in 2021; and the lake’s natural shoreline is being lost to residential and commercial developments, impacting aquatic habitats.

Water sports — particularly wake boating with its turbulent waves and downward-pointing vertical jets — have also been disturbing contaminated sediments in the lake, according to scientists, as they can release harmful toxins that ultimately impact the water quality and habitat for aquatic beings.

Salmon continue to struggle to return to the lake and the surrounding watershed, due to dams, industrial agriculture and climate change.

And more frequent droughts also impact waterways in the region, especially in summertime. 

“We have drought problems here … and they’re likely to continue,” said y̓ilmixʷm simo Robert Louie, of Westbank First Nation. “We’re going to have to be prepared for that, to preserve what we can and protect these very beautiful lands.”

By 2022, ONA and the Centre for Indigenous Environmental Resources began working to create a water responsibility initiative for leadership that applied to the entire Okanagan and Similkameen watersheds — not just the health of the lake, kɬúsx̌nítkʷ.

Invasive species such as zebra and quagga mussels are also a major concern for lakes’ health in the Okanagan and Similkameen, according to the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen (RDOS).

Meanwhile, in the Similkameen Valley, the Copper Mountain mine has a history of contaminants leaking into the Similkameen River and its tributary Wolfe Creek. 

“We can’t pollute the waters unnecessarily — that’s been done in the past,” Louie said. “But we have now a commitment that I believe says, ‘Why can’t we stop that pollution?’”

As leaders and dignitaries signed on, syilx Elder and knowledge-keeper caylx Richard Armstrong watched. And the signing was followed by drum songs, with signatories receiving honourary plaques and copies of the document.

After all signatories had put pen to paper, Louie said it’s important to continue to strengthen trust within the group, acknowledging there still remain “some concerns, perhaps a little bit of fear” surrounding the initiative.

Signatories agreed to develop terms of reference to chart a path forward, as well as to outline a legal and governance framework.

“If we need to seek support from the provincial government about funding, so we can help clean up the issues [and] protect the lands and environment — collectively, we can lobby for that,” he said. “These are things that we need and will do.”

At the direction of syilx knowledge-keepers and Armstrong, an empty chair was added to the leadership table to “recognize a space not just for our past ancestors, but also for our future generations to come,” explained qʷəqʷim̓cxn Tessa Terbasket, a syilx Nation member and the lead for ONA’s Water Strategy.

“That’s not just syilx — that’s all of us in the room.”

Before the document signings, Armstrong spoke about changes to the land and the water he has seen first-hand in his lifetime, but especially in the last year when snowpack levels in the mountains were unusually low.

“I was raised in the mountains. I know all the things that need the snow,” he said “To me, when I see no snow, what is causing that? Are we causing that as people?”

Growing up spending time in the mountains used to make him feel “so darn good,” he said. But recently, he feels mostly sorrow when he visits the mountains of his homeland.

“Now, when you go up in the mountains, I feel like shedding tears and crying when I look at the land,” he said. “That’s just me, maybe. It’s really sad to see — and it’s only going to get worse.”

He said it’s essential for Western science to acknowledge syilx wisdom, teachings and traditional ecological knowledge — but also to collaborate with those ways of knowing, “to talk to the people that might have the ability to work with us, to protect what little we have left,” he said.

It was his grandmother who Armstrong said raised him to treat water as a fellow living being.

“Many people in this day and age don’t look at it like that, as a living entity,” he said. “But there’s a few of us out there who were brought up to know that the water is a living being. 

“I will always know that. I was brought up to remember that.”

Since he was 14, Armstrong has led salmon ceremonies across his nation, as he was trained and tasked to do. During one such ceremony, he recalled his niece asked him if he spoke a specific language for water.

He explained to her that, according to his grandmother’s teachings, “we all start in water,” which means mothers can speak to their growing children in the womb before they’re born.

“Your mom talked to you while you were in water; no matter what language it is from around the world, the mother can talk to the child in the water,” he said. “It’s the same language that you use when you talk to the salmon and the water. Every one of us have that ability to do it.”

After Armstrong said a prayer, he joined Penticton Indian Band member Whitney Cardenas and students from Outma Sqilx’w Cultural School in the drumming and singing of the Okanagan Song.

“It’s amazing to see the leadership of the districts come together on an issue of common concern, and that’s water,” said y̓ilmixʷm sil-teekin Greg Gabriel of Penticton Indian Band.

“I’m so happy to have our children here, to witness this historic event.”

Penticton Mayor Julius Bloomfield said that the MOA signing marks a change in how local governments — syilx and non-syilx — can manage the region’s environment. It follows decades when conservation efforts “were not co-ordinated,” he said.

“For too long, we walked down separate paths of how we managed our natural environment,” Bloomfield said. “But today marks a day where we say that we want to walk down the same path, side-by-side, in how we manage the natural environment around us.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s special advisor for water, Terry Duguid, appeared in a video expressing his support to the agreement’s signatories.

“It’s a powerful demonstration of what can be achieved when different levels of government — Indigenous and municipal — come together as partners to address shared challenges,” said Duguid. “In formalizing this partnership, you are building a legacy of co-operation [and] resilience that future generations will look to as a model of reconciliation.”

In his closing remarks, Chief Clarence Louie said there is no finish line when it comes to protecting the water. 

He echoed Armstrong’s sentiments that it’s a crucial time for Western science to honour Indigenous knowledge systems.

“Even the scientists are starting to realize those old people — those old-timers on the First Nations side — knew what they were talking about,” he said. “There’s real natural laws involved in many of our stories, that the people that lived here for thousands of years knew about the land — far more than these Western scientists know.”

He again pointed to how significant it was that it was water that brought syilx and non-syilx leaders together — something he said knowledge-keepers and his ancestors spoke about.

“There’s spiritual lessons in all of this,” he explained. “As our people have always said, when you have a movement of any kind, it has to have a spiritual component to it, It has to have that. You can’t just have the papers and the pen.”