British Columbia case could decide if some Colville Tribal members have hunting rights in Canada

An upcoming trial will determine whether some members of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation retain hunting rights on ancestral lands in British Columbia.

Rick Desautel, a member of the tribe, was charged by B.C. officials for hunting without a license and hunting as a nonresident during two incidents in 2010 and 2011. Desautel belongs to the tribe’s Arrow Lakes Band, also called the Sinixt, which once occupied land along the Columbia River into British Columbia.

Desautel’s trial begins Monday in provincial court in Nelson, B.C.

The trial will address whether Arrow Lakes members of the tribe, and Arrow Lakes descendants who live in Canada, have constitutionally protected hunting rights in British Columbia.

“Our tribal members have been hunting in the Arrow Lakes area (of British Columbia) since time immemorial and we believe we have a spiritual obligation and right to continue to do so,” Michael Marchand, the tribe’s chairman, said in a news release. “We have to maintain these traditions for our elders and our children.”

Members of the Arrow Lakes Band aren’t formally recognized as a First Nation by the Canadian government, which declared the band extinct in the 1950s.

The trial is expected to last for about a month.