A rally was held Tuesday night by Indigenous community members who say they’re standing up for their right to have safe fishing access in the South Okanagan.
And now, the provincial government has stepped in to try and dissolve a dispute between the Indigenous community and an Okanagan Falls family.
“Fishing is our inherent right, we’ve worked on getting the salmon back here for decades, now we got them back,” Osoyoos Indian Band Chief Clarence Louie said of a land dispute at Okanagan Falls.
“We just can’t believe we have to hassle with a landowner.”
The dispute is over access to a section of the Okanagan River near the dam in Okanagan Falls.
The dispute has led to the removal of a section of fence that was erected by the private landowner.
The disagreement has been ongoing for years — the property owners claim they own the land up to the water’s edge and built a fence to keep fishermen out.
The fishermen had been climbing over the fence.
“This has been our fishing spot for thousands of years, it means to me I’m grateful,” said Jonathan Kruger, a former Penticton Indian Band Chief.
“I want to thank the Okanagan Nation, the province and the regional district for helping create safe passage for our fishers to our fishing grounds safely.”
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Indigenous community members say their ancestors have been fishing here long before any settler decided to live in the area.
“We do have fishing rights there, we will continue to practice those rights,” said Louie. “Our families depend on the salmon.”
Lately, the dispute was elevated when someone allegedly covered the old fence in a sticky substance and cacti, which Kruger claimed was a pesticide.
Kruger also claimed that roofing nails were left on the ground in the parking lot, cacti were littered throughout the fishing area and that chicken wire wrapped around rocks was thrown in the water.
The Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development was on site for the fence removal.
The property owner’s daughter, Melody Walker, told Global News in an email that her mother made the decision to restrict access to the property.
Part of their reasons in restricting access, Walker wrote, was due to human excrement, unlawful fires and garbage left behind by fishermen.
“I don’t believe there are any dogs that use and leave toilet paper behind,” wrote Walker.
The family also claimed they had an agreement with the ministry for the fence.
“With no warning to us, they severed their agreement and removed the fence,” wrote Eleanor Walker, the property owner.
“There are a number of negative ramifications, the most alarming being that our dogs are now endangered 24/7.”
The ministry issued a statement on the dispute, stating “we recognize the value of the Okanagan fishery to the Sylix people. On July 21, the ministry oversaw the removal of a section of fence, on Crown Land, adjacent to the eastern bank of the Okanagan River, to allow for safe pedestrian passage to a fishing site.”
The province says it’s committed to working with the Walkers and the office of the Surveyor General to resolve an ongoing boundary dispute about where the Walkers’ property ends.
Kruger says there is an estimate of around 300,000 salmon returning to the Okanagan this summer.
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