Sinixt

[ sin-ahykst ]

noun

, plural Sin·ixts, (especially collectively) Sin·ixt

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.

adjective

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of Sinixt¹

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

Meanwhile, many Sinixt people still lived in Washington, separated from much of their traditional territory by an arbitrary border that had existed for a relative blink of an eye in comparison to the thousands of years they had spent on that land.

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

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

From Seattle Times

Desautel said he’s been traveling to the ancestral lands on the Canadian side since the 1980s “when I first realized that the Sinixt people lived in that area and walked into those grounds, feeling my ancestral roots.”

From Seattle Times