First Nations at odds over who gives input on Big White expansion [Video]

A dispute over Indigenous consultation on expanding the Big White Ski Resort near Kelowna, B.C., is testing the relationship between two cross-border First Nations governments.

The resort lies on the traditional territory of the Syilx Okanagan Nation, and has fallen under the Westbank First Nation’s jurisdiction for years. 

“We cannot have another group in the United States now saying that they represent the lands that we have been caretaking for thousands of years,” Westbank First Nation Chief Robert Louie said. 

But the leaders of the Colville Confederated Tribes, whose reserve is in Washington state, say the expansion also falls on the homelands of the Sinixt, an Indigenous people with members and territory on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border. 

Both groups say they represent the Sinixt people, and both want a say in development on their traditional territory. 

The dispute comes three years after a landmark Supreme Court of Canada …