Description
The Syilx people, also known as the Okanagan, Suknaqinx, or Okinagan people, are a First Nations and Native American people whose traditional territory spans the Canada–US boundary in Washington state and unceded British Columbia in the Okanagan Country region. They are part of the Interior Salish ethnological and linguistic grouping. The Okanagan are closely related to the Spokan, Sinixt, Nez Perce, Pend Oreille, Secwepemc and Nlaka'pamux peoples of the same Northwest Plateau region. At the height of Syilx culture, about 3000 years ago, it is estimated that 12,000 people lived in this valley and surrounding areas.
Language
Almost all Okanagan people speak English today, but some Okanagans, especially elders, also speak their native Okanagan language.
Culture
Dome-shaped sweatlodges were used by both sexes for purification, seclusion, and the quest for guardian spirits. The material culture included bark canoes, snowshoes, doublecurved bows, cedar bark and spruce baskets, and goat wool blankets. The traditional religion was animistic, centered around spirits residing in natural objects, animals, plants, and clouds. Like other Plateau groups, the Okanagon relied on salmon as the basis of subsistence; the fish were caught in traps with dip nets and spears, in weirs and traps, and by other methods. Game animals were of Secondary importance as a source of food, with deer, elk, and sometimes bison hunted. Camas bulbs and bitterroot, fruits such as chokecherries, huckleberries, and serviceberries, nuts, and other plant foods were gathered by women.