Spallumcheen Indian Band

The Spallumcheen Indian Band, also called the Splats'in First Nations is a member of the Secwepemc (Shuswap) Nation, located in the Central Interior region of the Canadian province of British Columbia. Its main Indian reserve is located at Enderby, British Columbia. It was created when the government of the then-Colony of British Columbia established an Indian reserve system in the 1860s. It is a member government of the Shuswap Nation Tribal Council.

In the 1960s/1970s, the band had a population of 350, but 100 of their children were removed by child welfare authorities as part of the Sixties Scoop.^[1]

In 1980 members of the Spallumcheen Band travelled to Vancouver to protest the Provincial government. The protest involved a march with hundreds of First Nations people, through downtown Vancouver. The protest was sparked by the high numbers of Indigenous children being removed from the Spallumcheen nation, throughout the previous 20 years, and being adopted out to non-Indigenous families, or non-Indigenous foster homes. The protest brought a positive result for the Spallumcheen community, the Provincial and Federal governments’ allowed the Band to have control over their own child welfare system. The granting of jurisdiction to the band was made possible through an Indian Act by-law. The by-law was passed in 1980, titled Spallumcheen Indian Band By-law #3 – A By-law of the Care of Our Indian Children. The reason they were able to grant the Band this autonomy was due to a provision in The Indian Act by-laws. Spallumcheen Band utilized section 81(1), (a), (c), and (d). The Spallumcheen Band, to date, still have control over their child welfare. Due to a new interpretation of the by-law provisions, by the Department of Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC), no Band or First Nation since the Spallumcheen Band have been afforded the same autonomy.^[2]