Sinixt

American  

[sin-ahykst] / ˈsɪn aɪkst /

noun

plural

Sinixts,

plural

Sinixt

1. a member of an Indigenous people of the Columbia River Basin in British Columbia and Washington State.

2. the Salishan language of the Sinixt.

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adjective

1. of or relating to the Sinixt or their language.

Etymology

Origin of Sinixt

First recorded in 1820–30; from Okanagan (an Interior Salish language spoken in southern British Columbia and northern Washington State) snʕickstx, sngaytskstx “person of the place of the bull trout,” apparently a reference to a place on the Arrow Lakes, British Columbia

Example Sentences

Two weeks earlier, artist, author and activist Lawney Reyes — an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, Sinixt band — had passed away, at the age of 91.

From Seattle Times

Before Europeans arrived and eventually drew a border along the 49th parallel, the Sinixt lived in what is now southeastern B.C. and northeastern Washington.

From Seattle Times

In a landmark decision in April, Canada’s Supreme Court overturned a 1956 declaration that the Sinixt, one of the 12 Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, were “extinct.”

From Seattle Times

The border’s arrival in the 19th century split that territory in two, leaving some Sinixt people in Canada and the rest in the United States, where they were pushed onto the Colville Reservation.

From Seattle Times

Canada’s government recognized the Sinixt, known there as the Arrow Lakes Band, in the early 1900s.

From Seattle Times