ntytyix Chief Salmon

ntytyix (Chief Salmon) is a primary food mainstay of the Syilx Okanagan peoples and central to our culture and trade traditions. A myriad of Syilx Okanagan cultural practices demonstrate snxa?l’iwlem (honouring the sacredness of the river) while reinforcing strong cultural-spiritual ties between Syilx Okanagan communities and the salmon. 

ntytyix (Chief Salmon) is a primary food mainstay of the Syilx Okanagan peoples and central to our culture and trade traditions. A myriad of Syilx Okanagan cultural practices demonstrate snxa?l’iwlem (honouring the sacredness of the river) while reinforcing strong cultural-spiritual ties between Syilx Okanagan communities and the salmon. As one of our Four Food Chiefs, and central to many of our captikʷł, salmon are not only a form of sustenance, they are our relative, and an essential part of the continued resilience of the tmixʷ. As such, these salmon are central to a wide range of connections between generations, communities, humans & non-humans, terrestrial and aquatic species and transboundary watersheds within Canadian and American sovereigns including Indigenous Tribes along the Columbia River systems.